Texas coach Steve Sarkisian invokes Nick Saban, says Longhorns must avoid 'rat poison' of sudden praise

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian channeled Nick Saban on Monday, issuing a warning to his Longhorns after their near-upset of No. 1 Alabama on Saturday.

«First of all, to quote my old boss, we've got to be careful of the rat poison of people telling us how good we are, which is important,» Sarkisian said. «A week ago, everyone told us how bad we were. Now this week, everyone wants to tell us how good we are. We've got to be careful to quiet the noise outside of our building and focus on us.»

Alabama, which had won 53 straight nonconference games, had to kick a field goal with 10 seconds left to beat the Longhorns in front of a record crowd of 105,213 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Texas was a 21.5-point underdog going into the game, the largest spread the Longhorns had faced since the 1978 FBS/FCS split.

«I definitely wanted to address it because, you know, I'm getting the text messages too,» Sarkisian said. «I'm getting the phone calls. 'Hey, you guys are great, man. You look great,' this and that. Thanks, but you know, we got more work to do.»

The Longhorns are facing a UTSA team that went 12-2 last season and won Conference USA. This is the first time the two system schools have faced each other, with UTSA just starting a football program in 2012. Texas hasn't lost to a current Group of Five team since Rice in 1994, although the Owls were Southwest Conference rivals at that point. UTSA is 1-1 after a triple-overtime loss to No. 24 Houston and an OT win at Army this past weekend.

«They have our attention,» Sarkisian said. «That didn't take long this morning when we turned the tape on for them. They get your attention. We need to be ready to go.»

Sarkisian was specifically impressed with his defense's