July 1, 2024 • 12 mins
Steve Sarkisian visited with the SEC Network during yesterday's celebration and spoke about the measures Texas has taken to ensure they are SEC ready.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Back to the Craig Way Show.Connect with Craig through the text line by
text team so eight one five threezero followed by your message. Standard message
and data rates may apply as wecontinue Monday Show, hour two of our
three hour program. And as promised, wanted to get to some Steve Sarkisian
sound as he has on a bitof media, kind of like a media
(00:25):
row, but more like a mediasummer, appearing on various talk shows.
Of course, we played audio fromhis conversation with Joe Klatt on The Big
Newton Conversation, which was a greatinterview, won the Josh pat Show from
CBS in two four seven, alsowent on Greg Mlclroy's ESPN show. But
before we get to that, heappeared on the Live from Texas SEC Network
(00:49):
broadcast yesterday hosted by Laura Rutledge withRoman Harper and Paul Feinbaum and Jordan Rodgers,
the brother of Aaron Rodgers, andthe first question he was at was
about Quinn Yours as Quin Yours fourgo for went the NFL Draft this past
season, comes back after a fantasticyear, threw for almost thirty five hundred
(01:11):
yards sixty nine percent completion passer ratingone hundred and fifty eight QBR, twenty
two touchdowns, six interceptions, gothealthy, lost a lot of weight,
and despite a couple of injuries throughoutthe year, had a fantastic season and
this year looks to come back evenbetter another year under Steve Sarkeesian system and
(01:34):
c J. Folgl from mon TexasFootball actually was at the Manning Passing Academy
that was held in Louisiana this pastweek. Were yours through and he thought
it was the best yours has everlooked as he continues to the fell best
a quarterback and will no doubt bea part of the Heisman conversation as Texas
enters the season as a top rankedteam with once again not only college football
playoff aspirations, but National Championship aspirations. In Rome, Harper, who was
(02:00):
on the broadcast yesterday, asked SteveSarkejian about quinn yours development as he enters
his third season as a Texas quarterback. I was just talking about that to
somebody the other day. When hefirst got here, really that was his
true freshman year. Remember he graduatedhigh school year early. So then he
(02:21):
gets here and it's like getting usedto being a college quarterback and then coming
out of year one, what isthe discipline that's needed to be a quarterback?
Changing his diet, cutting his hair, you know what? What is
that? And now going into yearthree with us, the biggest thing I
see out of Quinn now more thanever is the leadership. So it's like
in this process learning a system,what it's like to be in college,
(02:43):
then okay, growing up in yeartwo and now year three, you can
feel this is his team and youcould you could see that different from Quinn
from his first season with Sark tothe second year. Last year in the
you know, he cut he cutthe mullet, he cut the mullet off
heading into I believe it was itwas springball last year lost I want to
(03:04):
say fifteen to twenty pounds really beefedup muscle wise. But it wasn't just
a physical part of his game wherehe's matured. It's also how he as
as a leader. As we heardSark talk about. We could see that
more now with the way his teammatestalk about him and also the way that
he speaks when he does interviews.I think there's a huge difference in the
way he talks now than when hedid when he first go out to Texas,
(03:27):
And that makes sense, right.I mean, remember, these are
just eighteen year old kids. Hedid not have that senior season of high
school, enrolled early at Ohio State, dealt with various injuries, and of
course comes to Texas and basically,you know, didn't play football for two
straight seasons. And I think wesaw that both on the field and off
the field, and now looks tolead Texas in their first ever SEC sees
(03:53):
it the second question that Sark wasasked, and it's a question that we
have talked about for a few yearsnow, ever since the announcement came about
Texas being SEC ready, and Sarkwhen he first got to Texas was already
kind of working on this and thiswas kind of beefing up the offensive in
defensive lines. He knows firsthand frombeing the defensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick
(04:16):
Saban that the win football games,it's one up front. And Texas for
a long period of time, especiallyin the last decade or so, has
had their difficulties with the offensive line, and Sark and Kyle Flood have done
a fantastic job of bringing in talentand going into this next season. Dj
(04:40):
Campbell, he's been a consensus firstround mock draft projection and we expect that
again once this year. But it'snot just Dj Campbell, it's everybody else
on the offensive line as Texas hasreally worked hard to be SEC ready in
that aspect. But it's not justdefensive line. It goes from to the
playmakers, to the coaches, tofacilities all that. So Sark was asked
(05:03):
about what Texas has been doing tobe SEC ready for the football season.
You know, obviously a ton ofcredit goes to Chris Dell Kanye or athletic
director. You know, obviously aton of credit goes to Chris Dell Kanye
or athletic director. You know,President Hartzell, Chairman l Tithe for them
trusting me to come here and believingin it to go do it the way
(05:27):
we felt like we needed to doit. And you guys are going to
visit with CDC here in a littlebit. But he always talks about getting
us aligned right and the fact thatwe're aligned from the chairman of the board,
the president, the athletic director tome and then them trusting what was
needed to get done to where wewanted to go and that was changing a
roster that was changing, a mentalitythat was changing, a culture that was
(05:48):
recruiting the types of players that areneeded to compete in this conference. And
so you know, I'm probably morethan anything more appreciative of them, and
so appreciative our fans and the supportbecause five and seven was not fun in
year one, I can promise youthat. But to get to where we
are today and the type of rosterthat we have and some of the success
(06:09):
we had last year, it's beenreally gratifying, all right, coach,
So five wins and Sarks first yearto eight wins in the second year,
to the College Football Playoff in thethird year, a huge jump up.
And I felt like going the lastseason Texas and everything went in their favor
if everyone could stay healthy, thatthey were a College Football Playoff team,
(06:30):
And it turned out to be correct, beating Oklahoma State in the Bakedal Championship
their first Big twelve titles. It'stwo thousand and nine, So Sark was
asked about, Okay, you hadthat win, you had the great season
last year, how do you continuethat into the SEC? Well, I
think that's the challenge right at thatlevel of consistency that's needed, not having
(06:51):
to just get up for a gameor two. It's about playing a brand
and a style of football consistently,and that starts in the offseason. If
there's anything you take from a NickSaban and that level of disciplined consistency that
he had for himself that permeated throughoutthat entire building in that team. So
you take some of those things frompeople that we are mentors, and that's
(07:14):
clearly a complacency is the devil rightnow, we have got to stay driven,
we gotta stay focused, and weneed to understand, Hey, when
we walked out of a tunnel withthat helmet on, we're the target,
right, there's no more you know, we're the hunted. Well, we
have to go hunt. Wee geta week out as well. Complacency is
the devil. What a quote that'sgoing to be hanging up in some high
(07:35):
school football walker room the next fewyears in the city of Texas. Okay,
So Sartin mentioned about, you know, we have to take the hunt
to them and that includes a lotof teams on this football schedule next year,
and sark was asked about the scheduleand what he's looking forward to the
most. Of course, it doesfeature A and M in Arkansas once again.
(07:58):
They open the season against Mississippi Statein Austin, Oklahoma. Two weeks
later, then Georgia comes to town. You have Kentucky, you have Florida,
you have Vanderbilt. It's gonna bea really fun year for Texas in
their first year in the SEC.But Sark makes a good point that,
well, there's still a couple ofgames before Texas begins their SEC Conference play
(08:20):
well, August thirty first, attwo thirty a DK. That's it's gonna
be warm, and we're gonna needto be ready to play because they throw
it all over the field. SoI don't know how long that game's gonna
last, but need to be readyto play. And then obviously get a
heck of a challenge going down Arburnweek two, and you find out about
some of the makeup of your team. And then we know the challenge of
who's gonna come up from San Antoniowith UTSA. They've got a great program,
(08:43):
they've won a bunch of games.So the early slate of our schedule
is gonna be good for us becausewe're gonna need to figure out who we
are we are as we start gettinginto this SEC schedule down the road.
That way two game against Michigan's gonnabe a lot of fun. Last thing
from I'm a Sark's visit to theSEC Network booth yesterday, once again kind
(09:05):
of along the same lines of theSEC mentality, and Sark was asked about
do you change the way you thinknow on the field because you're growing from
the Big twelve to the SEC Andthis also includes a follow up question from
Paul Feinman. The biggest thing andlike I was saying, it's the mentality,
right, all of us as coachesplayers, we came to the University
(09:28):
of Texas because of the brand,right, because this great university, because
of playing in those great games,and now to do it on the stage
in the SEC, we've got togo attack it, right, And like
I said, that's a weekend,week out thing. We can't we can't
wait, and we have to recognizeand understand, like hey, in this
conference, the challenges are very uniquebecause of the quality of players and the
(09:52):
quality of coaches in the Southeastern Conference. So there are no down weeks.
You have to come prepared week inand week out, with a mental I
need to go win the game.You can't go into these games. Hey,
if we just played good enough,we'll see. You have to go
win these games. You can't coaching. You have been through so much.
I mean, you had one ofthe premier jobs in the country at an
(10:13):
early age. We all know whathappened as you see events like this,
as you played in the college footballplayoff last year. I know there's no
time, but have you ever stoppedfor a couple of minutes to think about
the journey you've been on and whereyou are right now? Yeah, that's
fascinating. You know, I've beenfortunate to have a couple of really cool
mentors in my career. You know. Pete Carroll was incredible. Nick Saban
(10:37):
was incredible, And as I reflectedon my journey in my career and now
my time here in Texas, Ihad to look at their careers too,
and their careers really didn't springboard andtake off until they were about fifty years
old either. Pete Carroll had firedtwice in the NFL as a head coach.
Some would argue Nick Saban was anaverage head coach when he was at
(11:00):
Miami. Got right now and Ican say to him, I can tell
you him about that. But whendid they take off right into their fifties
and into their sixties, And that'swhen USC takes off and Seattle does what
they go do. That's when Alabamagoes on this amazing run with Nick Saban.
So I kind of like it to. Sometimes you got to figure out
who you are too, And Ithink I've had to do some of that
(11:22):
soul searching over my time to figureout who am I, who am I
true to? Because ultimately, thisteam, our football organization, is going
to start to embody my personality.And it's hard to embody a personality when
you don't know who you are.And so I think more than anything is
knowing who you are, being trueto who you are and now enjoy this
(11:45):
ride of what we're able to godo right now at Texas. I just
turned fifty this year, which iscrazy, crazy to think, but the
fact that we were starting on thisrun and we're going into your forest pretty
awesome. Yeah. That's the pointwe've heard touch on a huge times now
is about he knows who he isas a head coach. He's not trying
to be Pete Carroll He's not tryingto be Nick Saban, He's trying to
(12:07):
be Steve Sarkisian. And hey,as he points out, it took some
time for him to figure that out, but also it took some time for
Pete Carroll Nick Saban to figure thatout. And those are two of the
greatest coaches of all time. Thatwas Steve Sarkishan from the SEC Network live
broadcast yesterday at the SEC Celebration.All right, our two will continue here
(12:28):
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred TheZone
Back to the Craig Way Show.Connect with Craig through the text line by
text team so eight one five threezero followed by your message. Standard message
and data rates may apply as wecontinue Monday Show, hour two of our
three hour program. And as promised, wanted to get to some Steve Sarkisian
sound as he has on a bitof media, kind of like a media
(00:25):
row, but more like a mediasummer, appearing on various talk shows.
Of course, we played audio fromhis conversation with Joe Klatt on The Big
Newton Conversation, which was a greatinterview, won the Josh pat Show from
CBS in two four seven, alsowent on Greg Mlclroy's ESPN show. But
before we get to that, heappeared on the Live from Texas SEC Network
(00:49):
broadcast yesterday hosted by Laura Rutledge withRoman Harper and Paul Feinbaum and Jordan Rodgers,
the brother of Aaron Rodgers, andthe first question he was at was
about Quinn Yours as Quin Yours fourgo for went the NFL Draft this past
season, comes back after a fantasticyear, threw for almost thirty five hundred
(01:11):
yards sixty nine percent completion passer ratingone hundred and fifty eight QBR, twenty
two touchdowns, six interceptions, gothealthy, lost a lot of weight,
and despite a couple of injuries throughoutthe year, had a fantastic season and
this year looks to come back evenbetter another year under Steve Sarkeesian system and
(01:34):
c J. Folgl from mon TexasFootball actually was at the Manning Passing Academy
that was held in Louisiana this pastweek. Were yours through and he thought
it was the best yours has everlooked as he continues to the fell best
a quarterback and will no doubt bea part of the Heisman conversation as Texas
enters the season as a top rankedteam with once again not only college football
playoff aspirations, but National Championship aspirations. In Rome, Harper, who was
(02:00):
on the broadcast yesterday, asked SteveSarkejian about quinn yours development as he enters
his third season as a Texas quarterback. I was just talking about that to
somebody the other day. When hefirst got here, really that was his
true freshman year. Remember he graduatedhigh school year early. So then he
(02:21):
gets here and it's like getting usedto being a college quarterback and then coming
out of year one, what isthe discipline that's needed to be a quarterback?
Changing his diet, cutting his hair, you know what? What is
that? And now going into yearthree with us, the biggest thing I
see out of Quinn now more thanever is the leadership. So it's like
in this process learning a system,what it's like to be in college,
(02:43):
then okay, growing up in yeartwo and now year three, you can
feel this is his team and youcould you could see that different from Quinn
from his first season with Sark tothe second year. Last year in the
you know, he cut he cutthe mullet, he cut the mullet off
heading into I believe it was itwas springball last year lost I want to
(03:04):
say fifteen to twenty pounds really beefedup muscle wise. But it wasn't just
a physical part of his game wherehe's matured. It's also how he as
as a leader. As we heardSark talk about. We could see that
more now with the way his teammatestalk about him and also the way that
he speaks when he does interviews.I think there's a huge difference in the
way he talks now than when hedid when he first go out to Texas,
(03:27):
And that makes sense, right.I mean, remember, these are
just eighteen year old kids. Hedid not have that senior season of high
school, enrolled early at Ohio State, dealt with various injuries, and of
course comes to Texas and basically,you know, didn't play football for two
straight seasons. And I think wesaw that both on the field and off
the field, and now looks tolead Texas in their first ever SEC sees
(03:53):
it the second question that Sark wasasked, and it's a question that we
have talked about for a few yearsnow, ever since the announcement came about
Texas being SEC ready, and Sarkwhen he first got to Texas was already
kind of working on this and thiswas kind of beefing up the offensive in
defensive lines. He knows firsthand frombeing the defensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick
(04:16):
Saban that the win football games,it's one up front. And Texas for
a long period of time, especiallyin the last decade or so, has
had their difficulties with the offensive line, and Sark and Kyle Flood have done
a fantastic job of bringing in talentand going into this next season. Dj
(04:40):
Campbell, he's been a consensus firstround mock draft projection and we expect that
again once this year. But it'snot just Dj Campbell, it's everybody else
on the offensive line as Texas hasreally worked hard to be SEC ready in
that aspect. But it's not justdefensive line. It goes from to the
playmakers, to the coaches, tofacilities all that. So Sark was asked
(05:03):
about what Texas has been doing tobe SEC ready for the football season.
You know, obviously a ton ofcredit goes to Chris Dell Kanye or athletic
director. You know, obviously aton of credit goes to Chris Dell Kanye
or athletic director. You know,President Hartzell, Chairman l Tithe for them
trusting me to come here and believingin it to go do it the way
(05:27):
we felt like we needed to doit. And you guys are going to
visit with CDC here in a littlebit. But he always talks about getting
us aligned right and the fact thatwe're aligned from the chairman of the board,
the president, the athletic director tome and then them trusting what was
needed to get done to where wewanted to go and that was changing a
roster that was changing, a mentalitythat was changing, a culture that was
(05:48):
recruiting the types of players that areneeded to compete in this conference. And
so you know, I'm probably morethan anything more appreciative of them, and
so appreciative our fans and the supportbecause five and seven was not fun in
year one, I can promise youthat. But to get to where we
are today and the type of rosterthat we have and some of the success
(06:09):
we had last year, it's beenreally gratifying, all right, coach,
So five wins and Sarks first yearto eight wins in the second year,
to the College Football Playoff in thethird year, a huge jump up.
And I felt like going the lastseason Texas and everything went in their favor
if everyone could stay healthy, thatthey were a College Football Playoff team,
(06:30):
And it turned out to be correct, beating Oklahoma State in the Bakedal Championship
their first Big twelve titles. It'stwo thousand and nine, So Sark was
asked about, Okay, you hadthat win, you had the great season
last year, how do you continuethat into the SEC? Well, I
think that's the challenge right at thatlevel of consistency that's needed, not having
(06:51):
to just get up for a gameor two. It's about playing a brand
and a style of football consistently,and that starts in the offseason. If
there's anything you take from a NickSaban and that level of disciplined consistency that
he had for himself that permeated throughoutthat entire building in that team. So
you take some of those things frompeople that we are mentors, and that's
(07:14):
clearly a complacency is the devil rightnow, we have got to stay driven,
we gotta stay focused, and weneed to understand, Hey, when
we walked out of a tunnel withthat helmet on, we're the target,
right, there's no more you know, we're the hunted. Well, we
have to go hunt. Wee geta week out as well. Complacency is
the devil. What a quote that'sgoing to be hanging up in some high
(07:35):
school football walker room the next fewyears in the city of Texas. Okay,
So Sartin mentioned about, you know, we have to take the hunt
to them and that includes a lotof teams on this football schedule next year,
and sark was asked about the scheduleand what he's looking forward to the
most. Of course, it doesfeature A and M in Arkansas once again.
(07:58):
They open the season against Mississippi Statein Austin, Oklahoma. Two weeks
later, then Georgia comes to town. You have Kentucky, you have Florida,
you have Vanderbilt. It's gonna bea really fun year for Texas in
their first year in the SEC.But Sark makes a good point that,
well, there's still a couple ofgames before Texas begins their SEC Conference play
(08:20):
well, August thirty first, attwo thirty a DK. That's it's gonna
be warm, and we're gonna needto be ready to play because they throw
it all over the field. SoI don't know how long that game's gonna
last, but need to be readyto play. And then obviously get a
heck of a challenge going down Arburnweek two, and you find out about
some of the makeup of your team. And then we know the challenge of
who's gonna come up from San Antoniowith UTSA. They've got a great program,
(08:43):
they've won a bunch of games.So the early slate of our schedule
is gonna be good for us becausewe're gonna need to figure out who we
are we are as we start gettinginto this SEC schedule down the road.
That way two game against Michigan's gonnabe a lot of fun. Last thing
from I'm a Sark's visit to theSEC Network booth yesterday, once again kind
(09:05):
of along the same lines of theSEC mentality, and Sark was asked about
do you change the way you thinknow on the field because you're growing from
the Big twelve to the SEC Andthis also includes a follow up question from
Paul Feinman. The biggest thing andlike I was saying, it's the mentality,
right, all of us as coachesplayers, we came to the University
(09:28):
of Texas because of the brand,right, because this great university, because
of playing in those great games,and now to do it on the stage
in the SEC, we've got togo attack it, right, And like
I said, that's a weekend,week out thing. We can't we can't
wait, and we have to recognizeand understand, like hey, in this
conference, the challenges are very uniquebecause of the quality of players and the
(09:52):
quality of coaches in the Southeastern Conference. So there are no down weeks.
You have to come prepared week inand week out, with a mental I
need to go win the game.You can't go into these games. Hey,
if we just played good enough,we'll see. You have to go
win these games. You can't coaching. You have been through so much.
I mean, you had one ofthe premier jobs in the country at an
(10:13):
early age. We all know whathappened as you see events like this,
as you played in the college footballplayoff last year. I know there's no
time, but have you ever stoppedfor a couple of minutes to think about
the journey you've been on and whereyou are right now? Yeah, that's
fascinating. You know, I've beenfortunate to have a couple of really cool
mentors in my career. You know. Pete Carroll was incredible. Nick Saban
(10:37):
was incredible, And as I reflectedon my journey in my career and now
my time here in Texas, Ihad to look at their careers too,
and their careers really didn't springboard andtake off until they were about fifty years
old either. Pete Carroll had firedtwice in the NFL as a head coach.
Some would argue Nick Saban was anaverage head coach when he was at
(11:00):
Miami. Got right now and Ican say to him, I can tell
you him about that. But whendid they take off right into their fifties
and into their sixties, And that'swhen USC takes off and Seattle does what
they go do. That's when Alabamagoes on this amazing run with Nick Saban.
So I kind of like it to. Sometimes you got to figure out
who you are too, And Ithink I've had to do some of that
(11:22):
soul searching over my time to figureout who am I, who am I
true to? Because ultimately, thisteam, our football organization, is going
to start to embody my personality.And it's hard to embody a personality when
you don't know who you are.And so I think more than anything is
knowing who you are, being trueto who you are and now enjoy this
(11:45):
ride of what we're able to godo right now at Texas. I just
turned fifty this year, which iscrazy, crazy to think, but the
fact that we were starting on thisrun and we're going into your forest pretty
awesome. Yeah. That's the pointwe've heard touch on a huge times now
is about he knows who he isas a head coach. He's not trying
to be Pete Carroll He's not tryingto be Nick Saban, He's trying to
(12:07):
be Steve Sarkisian. And hey,as he points out, it took some
time for him to figure that out, but also it took some time for
Pete Carroll Nick Saban to figure thatout. And those are two of the
greatest coaches of all time. Thatwas Steve Sarkishan from the SEC Network live
broadcast yesterday at the SEC Celebration.All right, our two will continue here
(12:28):
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred TheZone
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