The eyes of Texas are smarting
Longhorns have lost five games in a row
AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian’s first season as Texas coach is very much going from bad to worse.
A five-game losing streak is the worst at Texas in 65 years. And the latest defeat to Kansas — which ended a 56-game road losing streak in the Big 12 for the Jayhawks — came with a season-ending elbow injury for star running back Bijan Robinson.
That means Texas (4-6, 2-6 Big 12) will try to win its final two games against West Virginia and Kansas State just to get bowl eligible without its best player, who had rushed for more than 1,000 yards and had scored 16 touchdowns this season.
Sarkisian on Monday tried to spin some positives out of the losing skid as the season that began as a bid for the program’s first Big 12 title since 2009 has turned into yet another rebuild.
Losing now, Sarkisian suggested, will help him identify problems within the program he needs to fix later.
“If we had found a way to win some of these fourth quarter games, if we had found a way to win this game in overtime, sometimes those issues kind of get masked over with winning. Sometimes winning can kind of cure it all,” Sarkisian said. “One of the mentors of mine always told me, ‘Playing bad and winning is sometimes the worst thing that can happen because you don’t address the issues that you have on your team.’ ”
Sarkisian is 50-41 overall in eight years as a head coach at Texas, Washington and Southern California, and has never won more than nine games in a season.
Sarkisian wasn’t specific about what needs to be fixed, but hinted that everything will be evaluated from the roster to the coaching schemes.
The current losing skid includes three blown double-digit leads in the second half. Texas has only two wins over Power Five conference opponents that fired their coaches midseason (Texas Tech and TCU).
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL: Butch Davis will not be back as FIU’s coach in 2022, and the search for a new coach will not begin until the school’s hiring of a new athletic director is completed.
FIU announced the decision on Monday night. The Panthers have two games left in Davis’ fifth and final season at the school.
The move was expected, given that Davis was in the last year of his contract and that the person who hired him — athletic director Pete Garcia — stepped down last week. FIU stunned Miami 30-24 on Nov. 23, 2019, and has gone 1-16 since. The lone win was against lower-division Long Island University to open this season.
TCU: The door hasn’t completely closed on Deion Sanders becoming the Horned Frogs’ next football coach, but the focus has shifted to other candidates, a source told the Fort Worth StarTelegram on Monday.
Sanders interviewed with TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati last week, multiple sources confirmed, and he impressed. The Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Dallas Cowboys cornerback has made a name for himself as a promising coach since taking over at Jackson State.
Sanders garnered support from a few TCU players, notably star running back Zach Evans, publicly campaigning for him last week. But TCU is zeroing in on candidates with more college coaching experience.
For now, Louisiana’s Billy Napier and SMU’s Sonny Dykes appear to be the front-runners. Iowa State’s Matt Campbell and Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott are still in the mix, too, along with Sanders.