Steve Sarkisian on the depth at Defensive Line and Secondary

Hour 2 of Wednesday's program begins with audio from Steve Sarkisian's interview with Greg McElroy on ESPN. Sark talks about replacing T'Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy on the defensive line and the depth of the secondary as the Longhorns transition into the SEC.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Piece of Texas legend, a Hallof Fame broadcaster, the voice of the
Texas Longhorns, and your host ofthe Craigway Show. Here he is now
Craig Way. A four day weekendfor us here at the Zone. No

(00:43):
local programming Thursday and Friday. CraigWay will be back Monday, next time
We're back on the airwaves. Noshow on Tuesday due to the Round Rock
Express schedule. They are playing abaseball game during our show, So Craig
will be back Monday, and thenon Wednesday comes back around. It'll be
regularly scheduled programming for the foreseeable future. Of course, we'll be up at

(01:07):
up in Dallas for the SEC MediaDays four day event. Very excited to
be up there for that with withTexas partaking on Wednesday, Steve Sarkeesian and
a handful of Texas football players upthere as well, and not only will
Craig and I be up there,but Mike Harge as well, bringing you
live content throughout the week. Lookingforward to that. Always a fun week,

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and we'll be even more fun thistime being in the SEC first time.
As we kind of we got thatfeeling on Sunday that Okay, it's
real. Here we are talking withCrystocante and Drew Martin, John Bianco and
Charles Branch all those members who puttogether Sunday's event said yeah, you know,

(01:51):
it kind of felt real when westarted hanging all the SEC banners and
there was a huge SEC kind ofa pinwheel logo. You probably if you
saw it, you would know whatI'm talking about with the college flags in
the school name inside Florida, Alabama, Georgia. Well, now a new
logo with Texas in Oklahoma included becausethey are officially members of the Southeastern Conference

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with football starting just fifty nine days. Of course, football, women's soccer,
volleyball the first sports to really leadoff for Texas in their pursuit of
another Director's Cup three in the lastfour seasons. And could not think of
a better time for Texas to transitioninto one of the best colleges, one

(02:37):
of the best conferences in America.Okay, how do you feel? How
do you feel about the pinwheel shirt? Yes or no? You're gonna wear
it or not? That's my question. You know, I could buy one,
you know, I think it's acool logo. Honestly, in years
past, I've seen it. It'slike, man, you know, that's
kind of a it's kind of ayou know, cool logo. But as

(03:00):
a Texas alumni, I can't wearan SEC skull shirt when it has Texas
A and M on it and notTexas. But now that you know they're
they're officially out and you can buythem officially. Believe you can buy them
the ut co op store. Nowthere it is Texas and burn orange.
In between Tennessee and Texas A andM, there's Oklahoma and they were sooner

(03:22):
red below South Carolina Missouri. Soit's not a bad looking shirt, Okay,
just curious, just curious if you'regonna wear it. There's also one
with cowboy boots on it too thatinclude the Texas logo on it as well.
So many, many, many optionsas Texas transitions into the SEC.
And if you have any big twelvegear, you probably just go ahead and

(03:46):
chunk it if you want to.Speaking of Texas football, I played you
some adio from Steve Sarkjan in thefirst hour talking about the defensive line.
Now a big part of the Texasdefense. You know, they had time
struggled to rush the passer, especiallyagainst Washington also at times struggled to stop
Michael Pennocks junior in rome of doonsay, now you can kind of say,

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well, we're giving Michael Penick juniora clean pocket. He's going to pick
apart any secondary he faces. Wesaw what happened against Michigan or Michigan was
able to get the penix and MichaelPennock junior probably played his worst college game
as a member of the Washington Huskies. Now with that, Texas wanted to
bolster their secondary and picked up Andrewmccooba out of Clemson, the former LBJ

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Austin Area product who was the firstClemson freshman to be on the Freshman All
American lists. Also added Javon Cole, the San Jose State cornerback, and
picked up some very key five starand four star defensive backs Savior Filsami,
Kobe black Wardel Mack, a fewothers that you know could make a huge

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impact. Of course, Michael Taftjunior returns as a safety, Derek Williams
junior's Milik Manny Muhammad paras sophomore,johny Baron. We'll be back, Jalen
Gilbo, We'll be back. GavinHolmes, the Lake Forest transfer, we'll
be back, so the secondary experiencedand adding more returners, which will be
key for Texas's first season in theSEC. Well, I'm excited about the

(05:20):
group, you know. I thinkto your point, to watch the growth
of a Manny Muhammad last season,to watch the growth of a Derek Williams
last season, both true freshman thatthat played a significant amount of time for
us, you know just how farthey've come. Now. Johnday Baron in
the mainstay that he was for usthe last two years and getting him back

(05:42):
to one hundred percent healthy is afantastic player for us. Pretty confident,
he's a little bit a little bitconfident, But I'll see what one One
guy that's back to playing great footballfor us right now that was actually a
starter for us as a true freshmantwo years ago, had had a knee
injury and last season and was toughon him but had a great spring is
Jalen Gilbert. And so where he'sat. And then you look at what

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we're able to do recruiting wise,and what we're able to do in the
portal to go get an Andrew mccuba, a three year starter from Clemson to
come back home to Austin has beena great addition to safety for us to
go get a Javon Cole transfer fromSan Jose State, to watch the growth
of a Gavin Holmes who came tous last year from Wake Forest. Not
to mention some of the high levelof recruits we have, whether it's a

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Kobe Black, a Wardel, MackExavier, Phil Sam Jordan Johnson Rubel,
and then you have kind of theglue back there in Michael taff So we've
got probably, in my opinion,this is probably the most talented and deepest
secondary that we've had in our timehere. And I'm looking forward to watching
these guys because I think the continuityof the coaching staff them having the same

(06:53):
coaches now going into year four hasbeen helpful the communications better. But I
think on the flip side of thatcan help those guys, and I think
we did address it with the passrush, you know, going and getting
a trade more from a UTFDA who'sa legit pass rusher, going and signing
Colin Simmons who's a legit pass rusher. The development of an Ethan Burke and

(07:15):
the Baron Surrell. These all thoseguys make the passing game a lot more
difficult and their ability to get tothe quarterback, and so, uh,
I do think we've addressed that ina way where we feel really confident in
that man if if we can forcepeople to throw it that that we're gonna,
we're gonna, you know, createmore opportunities for ourselves for turnovers,
sacks, fumbles, interceptions because we'rea little better in the pass rush and

(07:39):
we're a little better in the coverageand back in. So with that,
how about the physicality because we knowit's going to be taken up to just
a little bit of a different notchin the Southeastern Conference. Yeah, I
think part of that is I thinkabout who my mentors were in the sport
growing up, and uh, havingspent nearly eight years with Pete Carroll and

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having spent three years with Nick Sabeand two defensive minded head coaches, and
the mentality that you have to havedefensively to be really successful for a long
period of time. So I thinka lot of people see me and they
assume I'm just a quarterback guy whowants to throw the ball all over the
place. We believe in playing greatdefense and physical brand of football. And

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I think the other probably thing thatis maybe a little bit of a misnomber
is we believe in running the football, and what we do offensively is predicated
off of our run game and theidea that I've never not had a thousand
yard rusher, and we take pridein that, and we take pride and
team run and going out and runningfifteen straight plays and there's not a pass

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and everybody knows it, and there'sa mentality to that. So I think
that's from the football side, butI also think there's a side to it
in our offseason conditioning program and whatCoach Beckton does with our guys even in
summer conditioning. You know, wehave to be cognizant of the safety and
welfare of our players, but buttwice a week all summer long, we

(09:09):
go out and run and dk Rat four o'clock in the afternoon. And
and that that's a mentality, andthat that that that our players kind of
start to believe in the toughness thatit takes to be a Texas Longhorn.
And and so it's a process thatthat that we go through with our guys
that the older players definitely take alot of pride in and now it's it's

(09:31):
getting the the younger players acclimated,acclimated to that and and what that means
for us, not just in thesummer of getting through a summer run at
four o'clock, but how that's goingto help us come the fall from a
mentality standpoint, but also there's amental toughness side. But but but the
physical toughness that goes with that.If you went for a run at four

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pm afternoon right now, Andrew,how long would you last? Twenty minutes?
Max? Oh, twenty minutes.Okay, I give my of twenty
minutes. I'm not making an hourif you're asking that, not thirty minutes
for sure. So twenty minutes.I mean that's close to two miles,
So you can do you think?I mean, we're what is this?
You really pushed me here? CamI I maybe I don't know the betting.

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See let's see, it's it's threeto ten right now, so looking
at the weather, it's ninety sevendegrees. Yeah, I think I'd do
about a mile and then be like, why am I out here again?
I don't have to face George orAlabama this season? I just need to
be as long as my voices.Okay, I'm fine. Yeah. A
big part of that we talked aboutbeing physical in a course, it's having
the guys in the trenches, havingthe playmakers. But SEC is also with

(10:41):
the mentality, right, because wehave seen schools that they have the guys,
but hey, when the going getstough, the tough gets going,
right, you want to make sureyou have guys who mentally already who can
combat the highs and lows who ifthey get punched the mouth, they're going
to come right back with their ownpunch. And we see school that don't
have that for the most part.You know, that was part of a

(11:01):
Texas program I think from the midtwenty tens that kind of lacked that toughness
right. And Soccer's done a fantasticjob in his time at Texas at not
only just turning around the culture andturning around the talent and the coaching,
but also kind of developing that toughnessfrom a Texas team. And we'll see
how that translates to the SEC becausethat's going to be very physical, that's

(11:24):
for sure. We'll continue more talkon Texas football throughout the show. Greg
Sankios well, had some thoughts ontaxis during the SEC, fixed Schaeffer and
Rodney Terry as well, but hopingto be joined by CBS Austin sports reporter
Jeff Barker live in studio, goingto talk to him about the SEC,
maybe some Laker talk and more hereSo Creig Waves Show continues here on this Wednesday afternoon