Steve Sarkisian isn't buying the early Texas love over Michigan 'We’re gonna be in for a dogfight'

Trent Knoop | Sep 3, 2024

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian runs warm-ups ahead of the game against Colorado State at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. / Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

It's the game Michigan fans have been craving for since last season ended. The Wolverines will host Texas on Saturday in what some think might be the game of the year. Texas is coming off of a huge win over Colorado State in which it won 52-0 while its offense was electric. Michigan, on the other hand, struggled offensively but still won 30-10 over a good Fresno State team.

It will be the first regular season game between Texas and Michigan on Saturday and both Steve Sarkisian and Sherrone Moore get the opportunitiy to coach in this game. The Longhorns are entering the game as a touchdown favorite, but Coach Sark isn't buying into the Wolverines' early struggles week one. Sarkisian reminded the media on Monday about what exactly Michigan has accomplished in recent years.

"Three straight College Football Playoffs, national champs, 41-3 in their last 44 games, have won 16 games in a row," Sarkisian said. "They’ve won 23 straight at home. So we’re gonna be in for a dogfight."

Here's everything the Texas coach said about Michigan.

Opening statement

Moving forward to Michigan, a ton of respect for this program, for this team. You don’t go to three straight College Football Playoffs if you don’t have a great program, and they’ve got a great program — obviously, capping it off last year being national champs. I think about some things about this team: they’re 41-3 in their last 44 games. They’ve won 16 games in a row. They’ve won 23 straight home games. So these guys know how to win. You can see it in their style of play. They play with a great deal of confidence. They believe in one another, so it’s a heck of a challenge for our team. But this is why you come to Texas, is to play in games like this, and to think this is the first time in the history of college football that Texas is going to play Michigan in the regular season is pretty awesome and pretty humbling to be part of that. And so we’re definitely looking forward to the forward to the opportunity.

On Michigan's defense:

First of all, I have a great deal of respect for Wink Martindale, their defensive coordinator. You know, he and I worked together way back in 2004 with the Oakland Raiders. And he’s a great defensive mind. He’s very creative and I think a lot of times people think, ‘Oh, they just blitz and they’re reckless,’ or something. They’re not. There’s a method to all of the madness that they do. They’re very sound from a coverage standpoint. They’re a really good defensive front with some elite players on the defensive front, but also some elite players in the back end, too. And so when you put together scheme with great players, and then they play with a great deal of confidence because of who they’ve been over the years, that’s the challenge.

And so you just start thinking about all the great defenses that have ever come along the way. Again, they’ve got good schemes, got good coaches. You got pride in that defensive style, but yet, they’ve got some elite players, they got first-round draft picks on that defense, too, so it’s a heck of a challenge for us.

Preparing for Alex Orji, similairites to Alabama QB Jalen Milroe:

I think I’m going to be Alex Orji this week [on the scout team]. Ok, I don’t — dude, I’m not going to tell you how we prepare. Ok, so, very similar [to Jalen Milroe]. This guy is a problem because you have to treat him like a runner. He’s got size, he’s got speed, he can change the math on you quickly when you start adding into the quarterback runs. But yet the arm talent is there to where he can affect you, especially down the field. And if you remember, in that game last year at Bama, Milroe made a couple big-time throws down the field to create explosive plays, and that’s something in this game for us that’s going to be critical.

Yeah, I mean, clearly we’ve got to do great stopping the run, and we need to be better at stopping the run than we were a week ago. But we surely don’t want to do that at the expense of giving up explosive plays in the pass game. And I think that’s that fine line that we have to walk going into Saturday,

On slowing down Michigan's run game:

I think a couple guys that stood out for me. I think Alfred [Collins] and Vernon [Broughton] played well, like they do, you know? And that was a good sign. I think Jermaine Lole was a guy that definitely showed us some things. And a young guy that kind of was a pleasant surprise, was Alex January did some things for us in there as well. So, but we’re going to need all these guys in this type of a game.

I don’t know how many snaps this game will be, generally a Michigan team, and game averages right around 60 or so snaps. And so it’s got a little bit more of an NFL feel. And so it’s maximizing those snaps when those guys are on the field as much as it is rotating just for depth purposes. When you’re playing a team that you think might go 85-90 snaps, you need that rotation just to stay in shape. In this instance when you’re on that field, you got to maximize that rep. And if you get eight reps in the game, you got to make those eight count, and whatever that looks like. And so that part’s probably more important to us than anything, is just making sure that men, we exhaust all that we have for that one play, knowing that we have the rotation we have.

Sherrone Moore as a first-year head coach:

I would say one, man, he got great experience a year ago with the situation that they were in. And to think as that season was going on, at the tail end of that season, every game he was coaching in mattered. And there were some big games — it wasn’t like he was just — they weren’t cupcake games. He had to get to go into Penn State and win that game. He had to coach against Ohio State and that game. And so he’s got great exposure.

And, he worked for a really good coach in Coach Harbaugh, and so I don’t think it probably for him that it feels new to him just because of the experience that he got a year ago.

Well, I felt [in Sarkisian’s first head coaching job] like I was drinking out of a fire hose at that time. We were trying to build a program that was 0-12 the year before. We were just trying to find a way to get another first down at that point. So probably a little different, little different format than when you take over for a team that they’ve got such experience. They’ve got a really good developmental program that they have, and they’re not really having to change schemes and coaches. That’s probably a different transition for him than it was for me when I went to Washington, and it was a brand new staff, and we were really trying to change a culture at that time.

Feelings of playing in the Big House:

Yeah, I’m super pumped, like, I am, you guys — again, I say this maybe for reporters or people watching that don’t know me. I love college football, and even as a kid or watching Michigan play, them taking the field and all jumping up and hitting the ‘Go Blue’ sign, like I love that. There’s all these little things along college football, at different teams, different stadiums, that are the pageantry of the game. And so The Big House is one of those things. The Michigan helmets, them taking the field is one of those things. And to think like these two iconic programs with those iconic uniforms and those iconic helmets meeting for the first time in The Big House, man, it’s awesome. I mean, I’m getting goosebumps right now, you know? And we got, we got five days to go. So it’s pretty special, definitely.

- Enjoy more Michigan Wolverines coverage on Michigan Wolverines On SI -