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September 12, 2024 14 mins
Steve Sarkisian visited with the media on Thursday to discuss this weeks game against the UTSA Roadrunners. Sark discusses how the weather and UTSA's up tempo offense will impact the game and the usage of Silas Bolden through two games.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
Texas Longhorns and Hall of Fame broadcaster Craig Way.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
A busy Thursday afternoon here on the program, and there's
a college football realignment news today.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Before we get to the start.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Cuts, don't kick dirt on the PAC twelve just yet.
Apparently not dead yet, and the PAC twelve is wanting
to make it once more a Power five and not
like this year, a Power four because the PAC twelve

(00:49):
has announced announce this morning that the following schools will
join their league starting in twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven,
Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, and Fresno State.
The PAC twelve Board of Directors unanimously approved applications from
those four Mountain West schools who will join Oregon State

(01:13):
in Washington State, the conference's two remaining schools following the
league's collapse last year. Teresa Gould, the PAC twelve commissioner, said,
and there was her quote. For over a century, the
PAC twelve conference has been recognized as a leading brand
in intercollegiate athletics. We will continue to pursue bold, cutting
edge opportunities for growth and progress to best serve our

(01:36):
member institutions and student athletes. I am thankful to our
board for their efforts to welcome Boise State University, Colorado
State University, California State University, Fresno President of State has
be known, and San Diego State University to the conference.
An exciting new era for the PAC twelve conference begins today.
So what is the Mountain West have to say about this? Well,

(02:01):
Gloria Navarez is their commissioner and she released this statement quote.
The Mountain West Conference is aware of media reports regarding
the potential departure of several of our members, and we
will have more to say in the days ahead. All
members will be held of the conference by laws and
policies should they elect to depart. The requirements of the

(02:24):
scheduling Agreement will apply to the PAC twelve should they
admit Mountain West members. Our Board of Directors is meeting
to determine our next steps. The Mountain West is a
proud twenty five year history and will continue to thrive
in the years ahead. If you're wondering about those by
laws in the Mountain West, they require departing schools to
pay an exit fee of roughly eighteen million dollars with

(02:45):
two years notice, which is what the four schools expect
to pay. According to a source, that number would jump
to thirty six million with one year's notice. That's why
you're hearing twenty six twenty seven. That's two years notice.
So the PAC twelve expected to be in position to
help the schools with the exit fees, in part due
to withhold media rights distribution to those departed members and

(03:08):
the other conference assets. The conference also would be subjected
to forty three million dollars in poaching fees, as outlined
in the scheduling agreement between the conferences this year. This
year that resulted in Oregon State and Washington State playing
six Mountain West opponents. Point and it's going to be
weird when they're playing those schools that are going to
be members of their deal. That's going to be stranger

(03:30):
than the Texas ou thing, for sure, because when I
think of super conferences, I think of Fresno State.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
Hey, I mean credit pack two for salvaging what we
thought was going to be the end of their conference.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
And yeah, it's not the same as before.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
There's no more Oregon and Washington and USC and USCLA
but hey, you know, they're still alive, and it's basically
just a Mountain West plus Oregon State in Washington State. Now,
isn't it weird to think about that at some point
TCU is a part of the Mountain West Craig.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah. And here's the other thing. Here's the other thing.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
There's been a lot of jokes because of all of
the schools that left the PAC twelve that it's called
the Tupac right because of Oregon State Washington State. So
they've added four more, So does that make them the
six pack pack? The six pack that used to be
the nickname for the PAC twelve baseball teams because only
six of them played baseball.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
For a time, they were called the six Pack.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
But remember, lest we forget, they still have to add
two more schools to get it to eight. They have
to do it to reach the NCAA minimum requirement. So
the league is in the first year of the two
year grace period afforded by the nca bylaws to exist

(04:50):
below the minimum in the case of departures. So it's
unclear how many schools the new conference expects to have
by twenty twenty six, but we know this, If those
four schools has announced are indeed leaving in two years,
and they'll pay the eighteen million dollar rights fee helped
out by the PAC twelve as they withhold rights feed

(05:13):
money from the schools leaving to go to the Big
Ten and the ACC.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
And the Big twelve.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
So if those four schools are indeed joining, which they
say they are in two years, that gives them six.
They got to find two more schools and they got
to do it within this two year window. That's the
key to the whole thing. They got to have at
least eight. And if they have eight, then they're back
in with the whole thing of the college Football Playoff

(05:40):
and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
What do you notice about those six schools? Correct? What
do you notice there's one thing in common?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Well, none of them have been college Football playoff teams.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
That's true. Also, they all have the word steam in
their name. Okay, maybe maybe add two schools I can't
take cred assualt on twin or maybe out of school
that doesn't have state, and or just go all in
and just change the conference name to pack State because
they could still they could still add San jose A

(06:10):
State right in Utah State, right there's eight.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah. Yeah, they could make it exclusive, call it the
state eight. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
There you go, see eight, the eight state. We're solving
conference free line.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Okay, all right, let's hear from a Logorn's head coach,
Steve Starkeysian.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
This from the weekly media availability.

Speaker 6 (06:28):
His opening remarks, Obviously, we're very excited for the ball
game Saturday night, you know, six o'clock kick dk R
back at home night game. The energy that I know
we'll be in that stadium, not only from our fans,
but I think from our team. I think those two
things working off of one another.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Is exciting.

Speaker 6 (06:51):
You know, it's fun to go on the road and
play on the road in the hostile environment, but there's
nothing like playing at home when you have one hundred
thousand fans behind you. And so we're definitely looking forward
to that. I'm proud of our staff and our team
this week in that I don't think anybody has walked
around our building like if we've arrived or we're a

(07:12):
finished product. I think we all recognize areas for improvement.
I think the coaches have remained demanding of the players
of how to improve and what the standard is to
work at to get better. And I think the players
have responded to that, and so I'm looking forward to
our guys taking the field and playing a good football

(07:32):
game Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
All Right, when they take the field Saturday, it's gonna
be pretty warm, warmer than it was for the opener
against Colorado State. The projected high is ninety six as
we speak right now at two twenty six pm Central
daylight time, it's eighty nine degrees right now, and the
high he's going to get to ninety one to day,
but it's going to get hotter in the ensuing days.

(07:56):
Tomorrow it will be ninety six. Saturday it'll be ninety
six as well. So rotation obviously is going to be
important for the positional groups. So other than the defensive line,
what positional groups, rotation will be important with the tempo
of Utsay's offense and the weather.

Speaker 6 (08:13):
Every one of them. On defense, you know, we're gonna
play a lot of players. We're gonna play dbs, we'll
play our linebackers, and we'll play our defensive front. You know,
be a similar format to kind of how we had
to play that first game against Colorado State. Granted, uh,
you know, it's a few hours later, but it'll still
definitely be warm, most notably in the in pregame and

(08:34):
in the first half. And so we've got to do
a really nice job of rotating our players and having
that rotation tight and on point. And then we got
to trust the guys when they're in there, and and
that's uh, you know that they earn that trust by
the way they practice. So I feel very comfortable with.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
That they practice well. They played well.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Quinn Ewers has played about as well as any quarterback
in college football the first couple of weeks between his
play the preseason attention coming in the nil stuff, especially
the Doctor Pepper commercial where he's the deputy. Between all
of that and his really strong play, he's been named
as as.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
A, if not the top favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
So Sarka was asked, does Quinn's you know, low key
demeanor help him navigate the buzz of all this stuff
that's around him being a Heisman favorite.

Speaker 6 (09:25):
I don't even know if he's at the top of
the Heisman on. So that's why that's why it's gonna
be good for him. That's why I think he'll handle
it really well. He just doesn't consume himself of what
other people think. You know, he's more focused on what
he needs to do to perform. He's more focused on
how he can support his teammates and be the best

(09:45):
quarterback leader teammate that he can be, you know.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
So I just he doesn't.

Speaker 6 (09:51):
He's not one of those guys that is on social
media all day long. He doesn't carry his phone around
everywhere that he goes. He's focused on what does he
need to do to put himself in the best position
to be successful. And that goes all the way to
his nutrition, his diet, his sleep patterns, who who he
associate associates himself with, you know, his his preparation, his

(10:14):
work ethic, his understanding of the game plan and the
checks and why we're doing what we're doing. So I
think that consumes his time more so than than what
a odds or polls or whatever people might think. You mean,
We're in week two, We got we got a long
long way to go.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
You know, Sark mentioned about who he associates himself with.
I'd be most concerned about him associating with Brian Bosworth.
I just got to say, you know, doctor Pepper commercials,
those good He's He's done his role on that uh
pretty well so far as the deputy in Fansville in

(10:54):
the Doctor Pepper commercials, It's worked out pretty well so far.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Now. One other thing.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
What folks have clearly taken note of is how productive
the receiving corps has been. Matthew Golden that great toe
tap catch for the touchdown last week on the past
from yours. You know, Isaiah Bond with the big plays
that he has made, had that big early catch that

(11:22):
was important. Ryan Wingo, of course, Wingo known for the
jet sweep thing, what he did for fifty five yards
as much as anything else. And clearly gunner Helm with
what he's done. Now. The one guy that's probably expected
quite a bit of it is Silas Bolden. Now Bolden
has only caught one pass so far, but he's been

(11:44):
back on punt returns. So Sark was asked, what is
it that he feels that Bolden needs to do to
get into that rotation more on the offensive side in order,
you know, to get more reps and more targe.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
It's more passes thrown his way.

Speaker 5 (12:02):
It's a deep room.

Speaker 6 (12:03):
You know, the guys have been playing a lot of
reps and sometimes the ball finds you, and sometimes it doesn't.
That's just the way it goes sometimes. Silas is a
really talented guy. Obviously we utilized him in the punt
return game. He's played offense. He's kind of touchdown in
week one and.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Week to week.

Speaker 6 (12:20):
You just never know when that ball finds you for
four or five or six times and it turns into
a really big game. I think what's the most important
for him is to continue to have a great attitude,
continue to work hard, continue to really understand the nuances
of the offense, and then when that when that ball
starts finding him, that he's in position to go make
those plays.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
So there it is.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
There's some comments from Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkisian, and
we'll hear more from Sark coming up in each of
the next two hours. And again this is from this morning.
This is the most recent sound from Sark. He does
that media availability via zoom on Thursdays after he has
his main press conference on Monday and the SEC teleconference

(13:03):
on Wednesday, and then that on Thursday. He's probably been
this is what my thirty eighth year on the network
and whatever twenty third football season A play by play
going in the twenty fourth season, a play by play
starting with basketball and whatever. Thirty four years in the booth. Overall,

(13:26):
I cannot remember a football coach of Texas being more
accessible than he than Sark has been here so far
with what he's done three times a week, I don't remember.
I remember Mac Brown briefly had a deal where he
did a Sunday morning thing the Big Twelve had that,

(13:46):
he had a Big Twelve conference call, and he had
his press conference. But those were hit and miss, and
we've seen pretty consistent in terms of those three availabilities
for Sark. Plus, we get him on Long Worn weekly
every week, and we'll have him on tonight. We did
the show last night Fozzy Whittaker's special guest, but you

(14:08):
can hear it coming up at five o'clock this afternoon.
Normally it'll be at seven, but because of Round Rock
Express Baseball, you'll hear it immediately following the show. We
record the show on Wednesdays at Pluckers the West Campus
location from six o'clock to seven o'clock, but the show
is airing today at five o'clock.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Immediately following this program

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Up next Inconceivable here on this Thursday afternoon on sports
Radio AM thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.
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