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Texas coach Steve Sarkisian opened Monday’s press conference after the Longhorns’ 41-34 loss to Oklahoma State by apologizing for not singing “The Eyes of Texas,” the school song, before leaving the field.
“As you know, I owe the Longhorn Nation an apology,” Sarkisian said. “I made a mistake at the end of the game not singing ‘Texas Eyes’ when the game was over. It was nothing intentional. It was nothing to do with our players. I think our players were just following. I went up to the locker room, obviously upset about the way the game ended.”
The song has been the subject of controversy in recent years, as the school reckons its origins may have been linked to a show with minstrel shows sung by performers in blackface. Former head coach Tom Herman was criticized for allowing the players to choose whether they wanted to sing it.
At Sarkiyan’s introductory press conference in January 2021, he made a strong statement that this would no longer be an issue in the future.
“I know this much, ‘The Eyes of Texas’ is our school song,” he said. “We’re going to sing that song. We’re going to sing it proudly.”
But on Saturday, after the defeat, only a few players stayed on the field in Stillwater for a song.
Sarkisian said. “I apologize to everyone for that. It will never happen again. But again, it wasn’t intentional. It was not premeditated in any way. It was just my fault. Never mind the players. They followed them. my clue about it. So it won’t happen again.”
Sarkisian addressed the Cowboys in a loss to the Longhorns, in which they had 14 penalties, their most since 2015, and gave up a 14-point second-quarter lead. It was Sarkian’s fifth loss in which the Longhorns blew a double-digit lead since he was hired in 2021, the most in the FBS over that span. It was also the Longhorns’ fifth straight road loss, their second-longest road losing streak in 80 years.
Sarkisian said he continues to see progress and is not concerned about the trend.
“It’s easy to look at the record,” said Sarkisian, who is 10-10 with Texas. “We’ve come a long way as a program. I feel really good about where we’ve come. I love our style of play. I think we play hard, we play hard. Like a lot of other programs, I think we’re” a work in progress. You know, a few balls bounce a certain way and our record is different. I wouldn’t change how I feel about our program and the direction we’re going.”
And he addressed the Saturday struggles of quarterback Quinn Evers, who went 19 of 49 for 319 yards, with two touchdowns to three interceptions. His 15 sacks were the most in the FBS over the past three seasons.
“Would I like more accuracy in the passing game, does some of that responsibility fall on him? Yes,” Sarkisian said. “Some of that responsibility falls on me. Some of that falls on the receivers, some on the O-line, the running back, everybody has to take their own responsibility on that. There’s definitely room to grow.”
Sarkisian said he never seriously considered benching Evers for the Hudson Card.
“I think Quinn is on the right track,” Sarkisian said. “I think he will be the first to tell you that he would like to play better than him.”
Texas has a bye week before traveling to Kansas State on Nov. 5.
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