Moro Ojomo’s candid remarks spotlight culture battle Steve Sarkisian is waging at Texas

One major aspect of the head coach’s job is to control the message — both inside the locker room and externally through the media. Something is getting lost in translation at Texas.

After the first spring practice on March 22, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about the players’ current level of buy-in compared to one year ago.

“I said this to you guys last year,” Sarkisian replied. “I think it’s good, but you’ve got to ask the players that question.”

Last week, reporters did ask defensive tackle Moro Ojomo. In earnest fashion, the senior described a culture where some players put women, money and alcohol over winning, and that it feels like “it’s ingrained” at Texas.

More: Sure, Texas has offensive linemen, but it’s the seven freshmen who have Longhorns buzzing

Based on that response, Sarkisian told reporters Tuesday, “He won’t be talking to you guys for a while.”

This all began last Thursday when Ojomo sat for a 25-minute interview session after practice. UT officials usually make only key contributors or captains available. It’s a merit-based approach, to a large degree, and common in college athletics.

Ojomo is an academically brilliant, team-first player with four seasons, 25 starts and 38 career games on his résumé. The Katy product has been at Texas since 2018, seen Sugar Bowl highs and Kansas lows and knows full well how the locker room ticks. At no time has Ojomo ever talked out of showmanship, at least not with reporters.

Ojomo, a business and finance major, is a projected starter again this fall. He is without question one of the Longhorns’ best spokesmen.

Asked last week whether young players listen to him, Ojomo said, “They’re 18- to 22-year-olds that want to chase women, want to chase money, want to chase alcohol and they don’t see the future. They’re very distracted by what is in front of them.

More: Guided by faith, DT Moro Ojomo following his athletic, educational passions at Texas

“It’s such a hard thing, especially guys that haven't been in a winning culture,” Ojomo added. “That’s why it’s very easy for a lot of these powerhouses to keep going, because it’s established. ... It’s so much more difficult. They always talk about coming here and changing stuff. Coming here, changing stuff, it's like it's ingrained."

He continued by saying there are players "more worried about being on Sixth Street than, like, balling and making $50 million dollars. It’s crazy as hell. I don't know why.”

Calling out team culture is one issue. Calling out individual players is another. Asked about the offensive line, Ojomo said, “Christian Jones has got to figure it out. Andrej Karic and Jaylen Garth need to grow up.”

If this were 2002, or maybe even 2012, Ojomo’s comments would probably earn knowing nods from Longhorns who were part of championship teams. But the Horns have played in only one Big 12 championship game since 2009, suffered through three straight losing seasons from 2014-16 and went 5-7 last year in Sarkisian’s debut.

Some, if not most, of Texas' class of 2023 recruits weren't even born when Vince Young scored on fourth-and-5 to win the 2005 national title.

Charlie Strong and Tom Herman were both unable to steer this lumbering battleship that went off course under Mack Brown the instant Alabama wrecked Colt McCoy’s shoulder in the 2009 title game. Now, Sarkisian is at the controls.

“Culture is always challenging. Culture is organic,” Sarkisian said Tuesday. “And I think Moro would be the first one to tell you, I think he’d love to have some of the things he said back.”

Sarkisian said it was “a little disheartening” if one player’s comments made it seem as if Texas has a locker room full of disinterested players. “But it was said, and it was written, and so that’s OK," he said. "But what we do internally, what we do in house is more important to me.”

Set aside Ojomo calling out individual players. How did Sarkisian feel about the message itself?

“The forum was really poor. He should not have done that in public,” Sarkisian said. “A player-led team, a really good player-led team, those issues and if you have issues with anything, (they) get taken care of in the locker, get taken care of in the meeting room. If you're really a family, you don't go out and talk about family business. You take care of things internally.

“I think his intentions were right, but the delivery and the form that it was used was poor,” the coach added. “In the end, you have to make sure to mow your own lawn first, and you’ve got to make sure your own house is in order first before you start to discuss what somebody else is doing or how they’re doing it.”

Asked if he would discipline Ojomo, Sarkisian said, “He won't be talking to you guys for awhile.”

Texas football wraps up first scrimmage

In football news, quarterbacks Hudson Card and Quinn Ewers both played “efficient” during Saturday’s scrimmage, Sarkisian said. Both completed more than 70% of their passes and neither had a turnover.

“I thought we defended the run really well Saturday, which we want to do, we need to do, we should be good at and I thought we did that,” Sarkisian said. The day’s only explosive running play happened on the final play of the scrimmage.

“On the flip side,” the coach said, “I want to be able to run the ball better. That’s critical.”

From the defensive backs, Sarkisian said, “I want more deflections. I want more knock downs. I want more interceptions.” He noted that Kitan Crawford is looking better at safety than he was at cornerback and that Morice Blackwell Jr. was one of the unit’s better tacklers.

Sarkisian also said Tuesday that freshman defensive back Jaylon Guilbeau was currently suspended for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

Contact Brian Davis by phone or text at 512-445-3957. Email bdavis@statesman.com or follow on Twitter via @BDavisAAS.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Moro Ojomo: Some players put women, money, alcohol over Texas football