On Monday morning, Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian defined two concepts relayed over the weekend to his team: “relief syndrome” and “Mamba mentality.”
The former could kill the Longhorns’ season if they let it. The latter could save it.
Mamba mentality, a term coined by Bryant during his dominant NBA career, describes the relentless pursuit of self-improvement. Relief syndrome, on the other hand, is a state of complacency that people often slip into after achieving a major goal.
“Now is not the time for relief syndrome,” Sarkisian said in a media availability on Monday. “Now is the time for Mamba mentality. We’ve got to stay hungry, and nobody did that better than Kobe (Bryant). So that’ll be the mentality going into this thing.”
For Texas football, that goal was defeating then-No. 7 Ole Miss in front of a home crowd. The victory electrified those packed within the seats of the Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, and it helped the Longhorns keep their season alive another week.
But taking down the Rebels doesn’t mean the Longhorns can take too deep of a breath — in fact, the team has to take down each of its opponents between now and the end of the regular season to have optimal odds of making the College Football Playoff.
And, despite Saturday’s valiant victory, the Longhorns still have a lot to figure out. The biggest question marks seem to be surrounding their continuous inability to execute entering the second half — something relief syndrome could be partly responsible for.
After establishing a comfortable 24-3 lead in the first half, the Longhorns were held to just 19 yards of total offense during the quarter, and Ole Miss scored 14 points unanswered to cut its deficit to just one score.
They probably could’ve used some of that Mamba mentality Sarkisian talked about during those worrisome 15 minutes against the Rebels. This week, he is placing an even bigger emphasis on his team adopting a relentless mentality.
The concept of Mamba mentality is also a personal one for Sarkisian, as his daughter went to high school with Bryant’s daughter and played volleyball with her. Sarkisian said he would see Bryant leave after volleyball games to coach his daughter, Gianna Bryant, at basketball.
“I watched him coach six little girls like it was the NBA Finals, and that was the level of intensity that that guy brought every day,” Sarkisian said. “So I’m a huge fan, not only of the player, but of the person, the whole Mamba mentality.”
Whether he called it Mamba mentality or something entirely different, the key principle of Sarkisian’s message is the same: Texas cannot relax in the wake of one of its most critical wins of the season. It must immediately turn its attention to its next battle, which will take place against Mississippi State this upcoming Saturday in Austin.
The Bulldogs have a lot of speed on their roster, and head coach Jeff Lebby’s playcalling style is one centered around getting plays off before opposing defenses can get set. It will require the Longhorns’ best in all facets of the game.
Senior defensive back Jelani McDonald is aware of that reality.
“We’re trying to be great, and in order for us to be great, we have to have that Mamba mentality,” McDonald said.
