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September 20, 2024 • 12 mins
Coach Steve Sarkisian discussed the ULM Warhawks with Craig Way during on this weeks edition of Longhorn Weekly with Coach Sark from Pluckers. Hear Sark and Craig preview the Texas Longhorns opponent this Saturday.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Monday's are Longhorns Monday Presentation. We bring you Sarks Weekly
News Conference live from the ut campus. Our coverage begins
eleven o'clock in the morning every Monday. All you have
to do is just tune in to us here on
the Zone and my cardball Harge and lifetime Longhorn Will
Matthews joined Camon myself there and we review the weekend

(00:23):
and update the latest college football rankings and all that
sort of stuff at eleven and that we leads up
to eleven thirty when we bring you Sarks Weekly News
Conference live and you hear it right here and on
the iHeartRadio app. So we bring that to you on Monday.
Tuesday is our Texas Tuesdays where we hear from long

(00:45):
worn players like we did and we got a chance
to hear Will Matthews with sit down with some long
worn players this week.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
On Tuesday, Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
We hear from Sark from the SEC teleconference where he's
updating things. Thursday we hear from Sark's final meeting with
the media and the local media is media briefing, and
quite often on Thursday is also when we hear from
the opposing head coach and as I mentioned we weren't

(01:14):
unable to bring that conversation that I had with Brian Vincent,
the head coach of m UEL Monroe, to you yesterday
because of technical issues, but we got it resolved in
salvage and all that. That's coming up in the three
o'clock hour today. And then of course Thursday night is
Longhorn Weekly. After we had recorded the show on Wednesday
night at Pluckers, we air at Thursday nights at seven,

(01:37):
and then in this spot on Fridays, we take the
opportunity to lift one segment of that program and that's
where we discuss the opponent. So this is from last
night's airing of Longhorn Weekly with Coach Sark, which we
record on Wednesdays, but it aired last night at seven

(01:57):
o'clock and this is Coach Sark and I just discussing
this week's matchup with the Warhawks of u EL Monroe.
U EL Monroe had an open date on their schedule,
so they didn't play last week. They are too and
oh they're unbeat and that pretty impressive. Whinever Uab, how
about your thoughts on the.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Warhawks when you look at them?

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, I think for for coach Vincent in year one,
taking over a program that was two and ten a
year ago to get them to a two and oho start,
and the way they're playing, and they've got a style
in which they want to play the game. You know,
they eat a lot of new faces, whether they're transfers,
junior college transfers. These guys believe in running the football.
They believe in control, in that kind of the clock,

(02:37):
the tempo of the game. They believe in the play
action pass to hit those explosives. They play really sound defense.
You know, that's not some gimmick defense. It's very sound defense.
They moved the front and they're opportunistic in that way.
And for the win they got against uab is a
heck of a win. Uab b's got a pretty good
ball club. So off to a good start and another

(02:57):
new challenge for us.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Depend on quin yours availability, and if we see quite
a bit of arch Manning, we could have the quarterback
name matchup of the week in all of college football.
Arch Manning and general Booty. We'll be there. And there's
bloodlines there, you know I have.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
First of all, that's the Louisiana connection, right yea, you
know the Booties that Shreveport area, and obviously the Mannings
in the New Orleans area. But I coached his uncle,
John David Booty at USC and so I know the
family really well, and I'm happy for General. You know,
it's always a journey when he started where he goes
to OU and he goes to junior college and now
he's here. So I'm happy for him that he's getting

(03:40):
an opportunity to play and play on a good football team.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
It looks like they've got some big targets at tight
end and he got some.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Speed on the outside of wide receiver.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
They do they do, but everything is centered around their
run game. They're going to run the football and they've
got three good backs that are going to carry the ball.
So we've got to do a great job on first
and second down in this game. We've really got to
control to run game. But while we're doing that, we
can't let the play action pass and the pocket movement,
the keeper stuff hurt us for the explosives down the field.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Which is also interesting given the factor was looking at
the numbers, I think your team uh is only allowing
the opponent to convert. I think it's twenty three percent
on third down right, which is like top.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Five in the country running. You have to you have
to be pleased with that.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
We were really good a year ago and it was like, Okay,
how are we going to recreate it?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
And I think we've gotten it. I think we've improved.
I love the way.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
We're playing third down defense right now, in short yardage
and in the in the third and longer situations. We're
mixing coverages, We're sticky in coverage. We got we got
a good pass rush going right now, and so that's
always one of the keys for us.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
You know, the ball is always number one. You ask
me every week. I tell you the ball, yep.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Right.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
The turnover margins the number one stat in football that
that determines winning and losing. Third down efficiency is really important,
our ability to maintain it offensively and then defensively, the
ability to get off the field. And so we're hitting
at about a twenty six twenty seve margin difference now.
I think we're at like fifty percent on third down
and like you said, we're about twenty three. That's a

(05:06):
good number for us to have. Not to mention the
fourth down conversion rate.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
You tell me if I'm wrong about this.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I always believed, and I had a statistician years ago
who would give me average yards needed on third down
and if it was like seven point eight or six
point nine or whatever.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Long day, the defense is doing its job.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, long day. That means the defense is winning first
and second down and they're forcing those third longs. And
that's why it's so critical to be good on first
and second down too.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
And that's where we look at.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
The explosive plays, we look at the average yards per play,
we look at all that kind of stuff. So, yeah,
what are you What are your down in distances that
you're having to get third downs on is critical as well.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
There it is from Coatzard. And how about that number
average yards needed on third down? I had a statistician
used to give me that. If you were looking at
seven point eight average needed on third down or even
hiring that you got a problem there.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
That's not great and it shows you, first off, you're
not getting any yards in first down or second down,
and if you've got seven or eight yards ago, that
means you are obviously passing, and that allows the defense
to focus in on that. It makes your job tougher
as a play caller, as an offense as a quarterback
when the defense already knows, hey, they're not going to
run the football. And maybe once or twice you can

(06:21):
fill them with a draw play. But for the most part,
seven eight yards awful, awful way for the offense to
be playing football on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
What kinds of things would you like?

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I mean, everybody's expecting a Texas to win b probably
win handling. But beyond those kinds of captain obvious expectations,
what are the other things that you're looking for that
you'd like to see out of the game on Saturday?

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Think offensively for arts Manning, just to continue to see
him develop as a quarterback, allow him to get better.
Because there's a good chance that he'll also play against
Mississippi State. And we've seen quin yours go through very
injuries during his three years at Texas. There's a good
chance that arch Manning up to come back in at
some point this season one Quinn comes back. Just because
of Quinn's inability to really say healthy, it's going to

(07:11):
be a super long season, right, Texas could play between
sixteen and eighteen games this season, So obviously development of
arch Manny and I think Sarko say this too, limiting
the pre snap penalties where we're still seeing that kind
of affect the offensive line, whether it's false starts or
snap infractions, legal shifts. You kind of want to see
Texas kind of hone in on that get that figured out,
especially as the season goes. Indefensively, I think for the

(07:34):
most part, they've looked very incredible for the season. I
think maybe one or two big plays they've given up
come down to keeping the quarterback in the pocket and
also run gap integrity. Now, Texas run defense has been
pretty good, but we saw Utsa their one scoring drive
came off a couple big runs where the linebacker just
did not get to the gap in time. The gap

(07:56):
integrity on the defensive line was split wide open to
the running back find an easy hole to run through.
So I think for the run defense is kind of
crashing those gaps, not allowing the running back to get
to the second level and forcing the linebacker or dB
the makeup play, and also making sure keeping the quarterback
in the pocket. But when you have guys like Colin
Simmons and Trey Moore who just get to the quarterback

(08:18):
so quickly, sometimes it's tough in defensive tackles. They may
not be ready for it. Yeah, when Colin Simmons already
in the backfield after two seconds.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Man, he's been so much fun to watch.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
So those are really the only the two things I'm
looking forward to, and probably overall, just can you stay healthy?

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, and that leads to one of the things that
I was thinking about. Somebody asked Sark yesterday in the
media availability about how important it was, and they named
two guys in particular, Trevor Gooseby and Brandon Baker. They
are listed respectively. Is the backup left tackle and the
backup right tackle. Goosby went in when Kelvin Banks went

(08:56):
down for all of one play against UTSA. He came
back can and Kelvin's fine, but Gooseby went in and played.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
He's a red shirt freshman.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Brandon Baker a highly heralded freshman, true freshman from out
of the Modern Day program in California, and he's been
the backup the right tackle the guard rotation, and it
has been a rotation. D J. Campbell starts, but Cole
Hudson has been in there and rotating in there. When
Hayden Connor slides from left guard, the center to give

(09:26):
Jake Majors a breather, and it does happen. When that happens,
Neto O Miazulu goes in at left guard. So I
think it's important for those guys and Malie Gogbo and
Jayden Chapman and Andre Kojo, Connor robertson those guys to get
some more reps, to get some more practice. Now, Clearly,

(09:46):
when you're playing a game, the object is to win
the football game.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
It's not about a situation of.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
You know, just oh, we're gonna go in and we're
just going to play all these different guys and the
bench early and all that. That's not the perspective taken
by the coaches. Job number one is to win the
football game. Now, once the game is in hand, as
Cameron was talking about, perhaps you know in the third quarter,
that's when you start seeing some of these other guys

(10:17):
in there. Now you will see when it comes to
skill position guys, you'll still see all of them get
in there when the issue is still in doubt. That's
happened in all three games at one white out. Isaiah
Bond's been out there, Ryan Wingo's been out there, Ryan
Nibblin on the one side. On the other side, Matthew Golden,
Silas Bowlnen Book been out there in the slot, DeAndre
Moore and John tay Cook. They've all been out there.

(10:39):
And if the tight end spot's gunner Helm obviously is
off to a fabulous start, but One Davis and Amari
and I Black had played extensively there on the offensive side,
so expect to see those guys out there when the
issue is still being decided. I was talking about the
depth within the offensive line if they continue the same
thing with the defensive front. But they have a pretty

(11:00):
regular rotation anyway, with Baron Soirell and Ethan Burke on
the jack end, and we've seen Colton Vossit get in
on that side, Trey Moore, you mentioned Colin Simmons, and
even Justice Spinkley on the other defensive end with that
stand up position.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
There, Bill Norton at the nose.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Vernon Broughton with the defensive tackle, with seeing Tiasavea get
in there, and then Jermaine Lelay has been in there
at the defensive tackle as well as Array bledsone, So
those guys have all been there. Secondary guys rotate pretty regularly.
We'll see if Jelani McDonald is back to help spell,
Andrew mccoba at the boundary, safety at the field safety
Michael Taffan, Derek Williams both split reps and see time.

(11:39):
And at the corners, Jade Baron sometimes we'll slide over
to the Star and Gavin Holmes will go at the
corner if Baron is giving Jaln Gilbo a breather at
the Star, and then Manny Muhammad on the other corner.
And we saw Kobe black get out there. We saw
Warren Roverson get out there as well. In the linebacking corps,
yeah there's rotation. David Ben and Anthony Hill are the
starters at strongside middle linebacker respectively. But you'll see Moe Blackwell,

(12:02):
Maurice Blackwell getting there as well as Leonge la Fowl
who had a big hit last week, and Ti Anthony Smith.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Had a big hit.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
So expect to see all that rotation continue regardless of
how the game is going, but especially if the game
is going as expected. All Right, up next Inconceivable for
a Friday here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
Zone in the iHeartRadio app,
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