Sarkisian: Rankings are 'irrelevant to the way we're going to play'

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas is ranked No. 1 in both the preseason Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today coaches polls, and Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian couldn't care less.

"It really doesn't matter," he said after practice Monday. "I tell the guys exactly that. It's irrelevant to the way the season is going to go. It's irrelevant to the way we're going to play and how our opponents are going to play us. Maybe it puts a little bit bigger of a target on our back."

Arch Manning said it best during the SEC media days when responding to questions about being the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman Trophy with just two career starts under his belt.

"Talk is cheap. I've gotta go prove it," he said.

That's exactly how Sarkisian feels about the rankings.

"The reality is that we have to go do it, right? We have to perform at a high level time and time again," he said. "That shouldn't change if we're No. 1, 8, 12, 30; it shouldn't matter, right? We're going to have to perform in critical moments. The key to the drill is to have the No. 1 next to you at the end of the season."

Sarkisian realizes the rankings aren't necessarily made for him or his team. It starts the conversation between fans, reporters, media personalities and others who are outside of the locker room walls. He often borrows a phrase from one of his previous bosses, legendary coach Nick Saban, that describes being told how good you are all of the time as "rat poison."

Sarkisian said the players "practiced their asses off" Monday, and he said since the team scrimmaged on Saturday, any practice following a scrimmage is "concerning."

"It was awesome," he said about Monday's practice. "That told me right there that they weren't really concerned about what hit their Twitter feed at noon."

Fans will be pleased to hear that while the defense kept the offense out of the end zone on the first three drives of the scrimmage, when it was time for the "red zone lockout" drill he loves to run, the offense won that period. That's encouraging since red zone woes were a big reason the Longhorns didn't advance past the College Football Playoff semifinals the past two seasons.

Tackling was good Saturday, he said. There weren't any "egregious" missed tackles, just some near the line of scrimmage. He was happy with how physical the team played, and he liked their competitiveness.

From a special teams standpoint, he said things "started slow" but transfer kicker Mason Shipley made two "really big" kicks. He also thought that transfer Jack Bouwmeester punted well.

"Mason stepped up, and I feel very confident with what he can do," he said. "And we have Will (Stone) kicking off for us, so I think we're in good shape from a specialists standpoint."

How did Arch do in the scrimmage?

Everyone is dying to know about how Arch Manning is progressing in Sarkisian's system. He likened the scrimmage to the NFL's "Hall of Fame Game," which is the first preseason game of the NFL calendar every season. It's not typically the cleanest game, either, and that's how Sarkisian approached it in regards to Manning's performance.

"There were about five or six plays that I'm very confident he's going to make as we move forward," Sarkisian said. "Saturday was our ninth practice of fall camp, so to think that we're a fine-tuned machine by then is probably not realistic. He didn't do anything catastrophically bad, but I know what he's capable of. He came out today and had a great practice."

Sarkisian said that he and Manning meet all the time. He wants to make sure Manning's mental fortitude is such that he's on an even keel. He can't listen to noise outside of the building, which is typically one of two extremes — either he's the greatest quarterback to play the game, or he's the biggest bust.

"We don't think that way, and I don't think Arch thinks that way," Sarkisian said. "I think he thinks about, 'What am I going to do today to improve? What am I doing to be the best teammate I can be when game week rolls around?'"

Longhorns won't see inside their home stadium for all of October

DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium will be a lonely place on Saturdays in October.

Texas has three true road games — Florida, Kentucky and Mississippi State — with the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl considered its only "home" game. With the stadium famously split into half burnt orange and half crimson, it's certainly not like playing in front 105,000 fans in Austin.

It's a scheduling quirk that Sarkisian said is "unique."

"It is what it is," he said. "We have some very tough road games, but it's one of those things where we have to take it one week at a time. It's about what's right in front of us. We just have to pack our defense and our run game on the road with us."

He admitted that he "hates" using coaching adages with reporters because he also hates listening to them during press conferences, but at the end of the day, it's the approach that's worked for the Longhorns during his tenure.

"That's kind of the secret sauce," he said.