Steve Sarkisian on his confidence level with the team, finding rhythm on offense

Steve Sarkisian spoke about finding consistency with his team on offense and in the red zone along with lessons learned from last season and managing expectations. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
And we're back to the Craig Way Show.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Have a message for Craig, share it by using the
talkback feature on the Ihearts Radio app.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
You know, the opening, the beat of this sounds a
little like mister Bluesky from Jeff Lynn's Yello Electric Light
Orchestra that began their tour over the weekend. So naturally,
my good friend take Carrett. He and I are both
big eel of Yellow fans. He got his hands on
the set list, found that out, sent that to me.

(00:38):
I think we saw him play back in eighteen. Going
in in October. A lot happening that week of the
Georgia game. And that's that week of it. Jeff lynns Yellow.
They're on tour now and they're going to be at
Moody Center in October. Looking forward to that. Got a
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(01:01):
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(01:22):
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(02:24):
but you need to go ahead and get on it
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for a few more minutes, all right, before we get
back to Sark Keegan Bradley. Yeah, for folks who don't know,
Keegan Bradley could wind up being this year's golf version

(02:48):
of nineteen eighty three North Carolina State Wolfpack basketball Cardiac
Pack had to win the a SEC tournament just to
get into the ENNC Tournament, which they did including an overtime,
went over North Carolina led by Michael Jordan in the semmifinals,
and beat Virginia and Ralph Sampson in the finals, and

(03:11):
had to win those three games just to get into
the NCAA tournament. And then that was the Survive in
Advance Jim Valvano coach team that won all six games,
beating five Slamma Jam in Houston for the national championship.
But they wouldn't even have got into the tournament had
they not won the ACC tournament. Well, Keegan Bradley didn't

(03:32):
even think that he had a shot to win the
BMW Championship because he didn't think he would be playing
there in Castle Rock, Colorado. He was sitting in his
hotel room in Tennessee with his bags packed. It looked
like he wasn't going to make it into the top
fifty in the FedEx Cup standings. He got the fiftieth
and final spot in the final hour, the last man

(03:55):
in Castle Pines for the next playoff a bit, so
what do you do after left Memphis? He Sibody goes
to Colorado and he won the tournament, his seventh career
PGA tournament victory. So he went from number fifty in
the standings cam Parker to number four and so going

(04:15):
into the final leg of the FedEx Cup this week
at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Scotti Scheffler is
automatically set in the field at minus ten based on
his leading the points standing throughout the year. Xander Schoffley
will start two behind him at minus eight. Adeki Matsuyamu's
been hot three back at minus seven, and there is

(04:36):
Keigan Bradley at minus six. It's an amazing developing story.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
There is very reminiscent of what Billy Horssel did in
twenty twelve twenty fourteen when he was in the outside
looking in of the top whatever it was fifty to seventy,
ended up winning the first tournament, the second tournament and
then got to the tour Championship ended up winning that
and becoming the FedEx Cup champion, So maybe Keking Bradley

(05:04):
can replicate that story. Adam Scott, who also was on
the outside looking in, went from forty first to fourteenth
in the top thirty. Tommy Fleetwood was with the outside
looking in. He got in, but then some other big
names ended up just missing out. Will Zalatorus who lives
up in Dallas, he missed out. Matt Fitzpatrick who was

(05:29):
an issue with his driver being cracked, try to get
it replaced. On Sunday, the PJ Tour officials said no,
Max Homa missed out, but then guys like Justin Thomas
who just made it on the cut line as they
hid down the Eastlake. The final final tournament of the
twenty twenty four PGA Tour season. It Scottie Scheffler, who

(05:49):
has not won the FedEx Cup yet in first place.
I believe this is the second time he'll go in
as the leader in this staggered scoring format, which he'll
begin at ten under and Sander I think an eight
under and then Hitdeki Matsyama, who withdrew this past weekend,
signing a back injury. He'll be at seven, so we'll see.

(06:13):
Did not watch too much of the tournament this past weekend, Craig.
I think college football coming back a little bit more
exciting than the golf. And then we'll see. Not really
the biggest fan of East Lake, but they did renovate
it this past season, trying to get it back to
the original. Donald Ross has signed, so we will see.
But of course they got to wrap this up before

(06:34):
NFL star Trell here. You're gonna get nobody watching golf.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
That's true. The NFL season, that's true. Let's hear some
more from Steve Sarkagian start from the season opening press
conference and uh some other some other comments from him.
He was asked if does he what kind of advice
would he take from guys who were his boss is

(07:00):
like Nick Saban and also like Pete Carroll, you know
who he was on their staffs at Alabama and USC
and NFL coaches that he visits with. What kind of
advice does he seek from those guys.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
I think it was more so about in season than
it was off season. You know, I was really leaning
into those guys because just look at the run that
New England went on with Bill Belichick. You look at
the run that Kansas City has been on with Andy Reid,
and you can really look to what Kyle Shanahan has
done with the forty nine ers. They go deep into

(07:38):
the playoffs year in and year out, and then they
have to turn around and get their team ready again,
and then they go deep into the playoffs again and
then again and again. It's and it's more about workload
management of their players. And that's a fine line because
you want to make sure that your players are prepared
physically and mentally ready to play, but yet you also
want to try to see the big picture of that

(08:00):
You've got, you know, the bulk of your roster and
your best players really healthy when they're needed, you know,
and that playoff run and those guys have had a
lot of success of doing that. And we're in a
little bit of a different phase. They have older players,
veteran players who have done it for a long time.
We have younger players that we're still developing, right eighteen
to twenty two year olds. But you know, I just

(08:22):
try to tap into their expertise and their experience of
all this. And yes, there's a few things we've already
started to implement that will continue to implement as the
season goes on.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
All right, Next, he was asked about third down offense
because he wants his team to be better on third downs.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Kind of similar to the red area, you know where
I felt like we were in way too many third
and long situations a year ago, and part of that
is because of some self inflicted wounds. Too many false starts,
you know, too many you know, penalties or negative plays
that knocked us back, and you know, the conversion rate
is just not good. And his third and seven plus

(09:01):
it's just not good. It's not good for anybody. And
when those are the bulk of your conversion plays, we
need to be better there. We need to move those
numbers into third and five and third and fours. On
the flip side, we need to be better in the
kind of that third and two to three range. Our
execution's got to improve, and so we how do we
how do we rectify it? I'm a solution oriented guy.

(09:22):
We got to minimize the self inflicted wounds, and then
we got to make sure that we're really dialed in
and the execution component from that third and two to
four type range to where those should be a high
completion or conversion rate, and we weren't quite as high
as where we need to be in that phase.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
One of the areas that folks sho kind of doing
a wait and see on is the punting situation. Michael
Kern is the freshman from saying Thomas Aquinas down in
Fort Lauderdale and Sarks As would Kern see the field
on Saturday, Oh, he's got He'll be on the field.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Well, hopefully he's not on the field, but he'll be
on the field. Michael Kern, I've been very impressed, you know,
I think early on he had a little bit of
the freshman jitters. I thought that Coach Banks did a
great job with him. He's a guy that I think
is operating at a high level for us right now. Naturally,
Saturday is going to be a little different, you know

(10:11):
when the first time he trots out there and you
know there's the buzz in the crowd and there's that
many people. But he's extremely talented guy. He's very confident,
he's got good demeanor about himself. So we're very comfortable
with him taking the field and putting the ball for us.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
All Right, we have some more comments from sark We'll
get to that coming up when we continue on sports
Radio AM thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.