Sark reacts to Texas being picked 2nd in SEC Preseason Poll

The first ever SEC Preseason poll featuring the Texas Longhorns has been released and it's complimentary of Sark's squad. Hear his reaction to the prediction that the Horns will finish 2nd in the conference behind Georgia. Craig and Cam also run down the First, Second, and Third Team All-SEC lists. 

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Back to the Craig Way Show.Connect with Craig through the text line by
texting Texas to eight one five threezero followed by your message. Standard message
and data rates may apply. It'sMonday afternoon here on the Zone. The
SEC preseason media poll was announced onFriday, and there were no real big

(00:29):
surprises other than what you mentioned,Cameron, that two people, two media
members actually voted one for Vanderbilt andone for South Carolina to win the SEC.
Ridiculous. Ridiculous. The only thingI can think of it. It's
one of two things. It's eitherthey're blind. It's either an incredible Homer
vote like they're going to cover them, they're going to vote for him by

(00:51):
gully, or they're or they're doingit kind of almost like a joke type
of It didn't really make much ofa difference other than a conversation piece,
and it had no impact really onthe way it went. The Georgia was
the overwhelming choice to win. Theygot one hundred and sixty five first place

(01:11):
votes. Texas got twenty seven,then Alabama with twelve, Ole miss with
four, Vanderbilt two points, LSUtwo points, South Carolina one point.
The Predictator or A Finnish. Georgiaclear number one, followed by Texas,
Alabama, Ole, Miss, LSU, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma and M,

(01:37):
Auburn, Kentucky, Florida, SouthCarolina, Arkansas, Missippi State,
Vanderbilt. So let's see sixteenth Toftyfourteen thirteen, twelve eleven ten. Oklahoma
and A and M were picked eighthand ninth, respectively. In that first
team offense, the quarterback is CarsonBeck of Georgia, Trevor ATM of Georgia,

(01:57):
and Jarquest Hunter of Auburn. Therunning backs. The wide receivers Luther
burn the third of Missouri and TreyHarris of Mississippi. Cayden pre Scorn tight
End of MISSOO I mean of Olemiss offensive lineman, it just says O
lineman Tyler Booker of Alabama, WillCampbell of LSU, Tate Rutledge of Georgia,

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and Kelvin Banks of Texas. Thecenter, Cooper Mays of Tennessee.
Second team, Quinn Ewers is thequarterback. The running backs are Raheem Sanders
and C. J. Baxter,also Montreal Johnson. There was a tie
there for that second running back spot. Isaiah Bond of Texas a wide receiver,

(02:45):
Kyrin Lacey of LSU at wide receiver, Mason Taylor of LSU at tight
end, Emery Jones of LSU,Caden Proctor of Alabama, Xavier Trust of
Georgia, Dylan Fairchild of Georgia offensivelineman, all of those guys in Parker
Burrells of Alabama is the center andthe third team, Jaylen Milroe of Alabama

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quarterback, Justin Haynes of Alabama,and Ulysses Bentley of Old Miss at running
back, Dion Burke's of Oklahoma,Dominic LaVette the love It of Georgia at
wide receivers, Oscar Delp of Georgiatight end, the old lineman, Ernest
Green the third of Georgia, MarcusCox of Kentucky at offensive line, Trey

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Zoom the third of A and Mand Jayden Roberts of Alabama on the offensive
front of Jake Majors of Texas asthe center that was on that and then
on the defense, just to letyou know, on the defensive side,
the Longhorns at Anthony Hill make secondteam at linebacker, Trey Moore the transfer

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how along the defensive front on thethird team on that the specialist Burt Auburn
is the placekicker on the first team. So the balloting came out, and
then Sark was asked about this aboutbecause and like I said, this is
how you know. This is afternow SEC media days had happened yesterday and

(04:13):
Sark was asked by Kirk Bowles theHouston Chronicle. By the way, the
recruiting the national recruiting question was fromwas again was from Mike Craven of Dave
Campbell's Texas Football and Carter Yeats fromDave Campbell's Texas FOOTBA asked him about the
helmet communication, but it was itwas Kirk Bowles from the Houston Chronicle,
and when they asked for everybody toidentify themselves, he said Kirk Bowles,

(04:38):
Houston Chronicle, and before he couldeven say another word, Sark goes,
I'm still trying to get used tothat, and Bull said me too.
So he asked him about the factthat Texas was picked to finish second in
the SEC. So it just cameout obviously on Friday, so this clearly

(04:59):
was updated, asking him for histhoughts on that he had some players on
a first team, second team,third team, and he said, as
far as being picked second behind Georgia, does it matter, does it serve
as motivation, does it serve ascaution, does it serve as anything?
And this was Sark's response. Ialways do this exercise with the team,

(05:20):
and I'll do it with them again, and I'll I'll show the preseason poll,
and I'll show the preseason All SECteam, and I'll probably show four
or five headlines of articles of howgreat we're supposed to be, and then
I'll probably show another seven or eightarticles or headlines or quotes from coach Saban

(05:42):
saying we're not going to run theSEC, just as a reminder that people's
opinions of us before we ever evenplay a game really don't matter. What
we do is what matters. Andso do I think we have a pretty
good team? Sure, I do, you know, and I didn't and
shy away from that at media days. But at the end of the day,

(06:02):
it's not about what other people think. It's not about what we say
we're going to do. It's aboutour actions. It's about the way we
actually perform and that's going to beour focus. So it just kind of
is what it is, you know, I think it's great for college football.
I'll say that I love preseason polls. I love preseason all conference teams

(06:24):
and all American teams because it givesthe college football fan and the pundit stuff
to talk about, and it keepscollege football at the forefront of what's going
on. And like I said,I think our sport is at an all
time high from a popularity standpoint,and part of that is some of this
preseason stuff. Part of it ismedia days and things of that nature.

(06:44):
So I do like that where wefall really is irrelevant. We have to
go play the games, and wehave to perform, and we have to
work through the adversity that we getfaced with, and we've got to rely
on depth, and we got tocan you need to develop our players as
the season goes on. We gotto keep working on our culture, and
we got to make sure that wehave the right mental intensity, the right

(07:06):
mental fortitude week in and week outto perform to the best of our ability.
And then Kirk Bowles had a followup where he asked him about the
whole mental side of things. Herolled it all the way back to when
Texas won the Big Twelve in twothousand and nine and went unbeaten all the
way to the National championship game.We know what happened there. Cold McCoy

(07:27):
gets hurt, Alabama winds up wittingthe thing. And then he referenced about
mac Brown and having to you know, bounce back on the mental side to
avoid the drop off because they didgo five and seven the next year.
So that was Kirk's question to Sarkabout does he have to work on the
team's mental side to avoid that typeof drop off after going twelve and two

(07:50):
a season ago. You know,I think from where we were as a
program over the last decade to wherewe got to last season in I think
we still have a really hungry footballteam. And I think we got a
taste of what it can, youknow, being in a playoff taste like.
But I also think the way itended left a pretty bad taste in

(08:13):
our mouth. And so I thinkwe've got a very hungry football team that
wants to get back, and they'veshown me nothing but the right type of
work ethic, the right type ofmindset throughout the entire offseason, throughout this
summer that I'm not too concerned withcomplacency. You know that we've got a
hungry team. It's competitive, it'stough, it's tough minded. But again,

(08:37):
as a coach, that's my jobright week in and week out to
make sure that we have, likeI said, the right mental intensity week
in and week out. Because physicallyit's going to be challenging, we all
know that, but the mental sideis something that we can control, and
I think that's something that we takea lot of pride in as a staff,
myself included, to try to putour players in the right frame of

(08:58):
mind from a preparation standpoint, becausepreparation is as much or more important than
the actual action of playing the game. On Saturday, there's some thoughts from
Sark about that. We'll have someother comments from Sark, more of the
side about staffing and recruiting dates,signing dates and things like that. We'll
have that coming up next hour aswell. We'll be back to wrap up

(09:20):
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