Stephen A. Smith puts blame for Texas loss at feet of Steve Sarkisian: ‘We expected more from him’
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Stephen A. Smith had plenty to react to from Week 1 of the college football season during Monday’s edition of “First Take” on ESPN.
From Texas losing at Ohio State, to the Alabama disaster at Florida State, to other surprising results, Smith waxed poetic about a number of topics from around the college football world.
Some of his strongest criticism was of Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian. In a segment with Paul Finebaum and Cam Newton, Smith said Sarkisian was the biggest reason Texas lost in Columbus on Saturday:
“The man’s a damn good coach,” Smith says in this video. “I’m happy he’s at Texas. I like him genuinely as a person. I’m just talking about this 1 game. ‘Yo, you were in the College Football Playoff the last 2 years, (and) you came up short. You had some issues back then when some people were looking at some of your play calling, but the 1 thing we never said about you was that you lacked aggression, that you seemed passive and relatively pedestrian. That’s what we’re seeing. And then you go up against Ohio State. You knew that was your opener. You knew what the confines were. You knew they were the reigning, defending national champions. You knew what was coming and they got their own cat in (Julian) Sayin that’s got something to say about the outcome as well, and you show up and you’re not ready and now we’ve got Cam Newton sitting here talking about how we were overreacting.’ With Arch Manning? Fine. But you can’t say that about Steve Sarkisian. The man’s been around. This ain’t his first rodeo now. We expected more from him.”
The Longhorns have now lost 2 games in a row dating back to the Playoff last season, both against the Buckeyes. Can Sarkisian and Manning turn things around? They’ll get to work on getting their confidence back this weekend in their home opener against San Jose State.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
