October 23, 2024 • 11 mins
Steve Sarkisian discussed the speed of Georgia's defense last Saturday and if Texas needed to adjust to it during his weekly SEC teleconference.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We continue here on this Wednesday. Steve Sarkisian is an
old soul, but he's not that old of the dude.
And he took part in the SEC teleconference, the coaches
teleconference today and talked about a lot of different things.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Was asked several different questions about a bout this team.
But we were talking about and last hour we got
into this.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
The expansion of the college football playoffs, and I was
just running down what at least one set of projections,
those from ESPN Plus or ESPN from Heather Dinnach, the
set of projections that have Oregon number one, Georgia number two,
(00:46):
Ohio State or I think Miami number three Ohio State. No,
because Oregon is number one out of the Big ten,
and who am I missing out? Is the acc would
be my oh Big twelve be number four BYU as
I mentioned those, and then they eight below, it would
(01:06):
have Texas in as the number five right now, which
would mean they would host a playoff game, a first
round game against the twelve seed. If they were the five,
they would play the twelve and right now, that projects
out to be the highest ranked G five conference champion,
which at this point, according to these projections would be
(01:27):
Boyse State and they're outstanding running back and maybe now
the favorite in the Heisman race Ashton Genty from Frisco
lone star native Texan.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
We'll see how all of that shakes down as well.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So Sark was asked several questions about the college football
playoff and last time we heard him talk about how
it kind of has taken on a little bit of
an NFL style scope because of twelve teams giving more
teams an opportunity. So he was asked following in the NFL,
(02:01):
like playoff structure mean that it's a good thing? Is
that is that beneficial for the support of college football
to be set up like that? You know?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I don't know. I mean, I think time will tell.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I do think the popularity of college football right now
is at an all time high. I think the exposure
that it's getting not only from y'all but on television,
the fanfare has been tremendous. I do think the one
thing that is unique with college football as opposed to
the NFL. You know, the NFL, you only have thirty
(02:35):
two teams, you know, vuying for those playoff spots. College football,
what do we have one hundred and I don't know
thirty something, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And so it still the margin prayer is still not
very big in college football, and so I do think
there's still a real sense of urgency in college football.
I don't think anybody here is thinking, hey, if you go,
you know, I don't know eight and four that you're
probably gonna get in the player. Probably not, not realistically speaking.
And so you're still striving for perfection knowing, but you know,
(03:05):
and we do have a little bit of margin for
air to make it.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, that's that's the other key is margin for error.
How much margin forrer do you have? As long as
the log Worns were winning and staying unbeaten, they had
a seemingly wide path with a lot of margin for error.
(03:32):
That is considerably narrowed now with the loss to Georgia.
But that was the case last year for Texas, where
they only had one road into the playoff to be
a top four, and that was to win out after
losing to Oklahoma and win the Big Twelve championship, which
they did convincingly, and even then it took all of
(03:53):
that stuff is really really close. Remember, Gosh, that seems
like it's such a foreign thing now that Florida State
was actually that close to being in the College Football
Playoff and then they kind of mentally, emotionally and even
numerically checked out of their Orange Bowl game with Georgia,
got blasted and they're one in six this year, Florida State.
(04:14):
But that's somebody else's problems. Texas understands now that the
margin for error has narrowed. It doesn't mean they can't
get in the playoff, but they're probably looking at needing
to win the rest of their games, and if they
win the rest in the regular season, just getting into
the conference championship would probably get them into the playoff
(04:37):
regardless of the outcome. But if they were to win it,
then you're talking about getting that first round by which
would be very, very important. But for all that to happen,
they have to turn around and play well against Vanderbilt
coming off the loss to Georgia, And there were some
questions about how Sark expects and is looking for his
(04:59):
team to bounce back from the loss to Georgia. Part
of that is seeing what they went through in the
loss of the Bulldogs on Saturday night, So Sark was
asked about the Georgia defensive lineman Mikel Williams, what a
big night he had, and he was asked about the
impact that he had in the game against the Longhorns.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I mean, he's obviously an elite pass rusher that can
put stress on your tackles and can put stress on
your quarterback. And credit to Georgia, I thought they had
a really good plan of allowing him to rush and
flushing the quarterback and then using Walker as a spy
to go chase down the quarterback. He's got an elite
closing speed as well, So I thought that combination of
(05:43):
those two guys worked well in the game for them,
something that they were able to utilize getting the healthy
Michael Williams back, so he looked a heck of a
lot better in person than he had on tape throughout
the season. I know, he hadn't been healthy, you know,
really since the very beginning of the year, but they
got him healthy right in the naked time for our game,
so you know, but yeah, he's a really good player.
(06:05):
That both those guys had had excellent games, something that
you know, if we get another shot with them, we'll
have to prepare a little differently.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
For yeah, no doubt about that. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Speaking of preparing, fans like to talk quite often and
coaches bring it up as well, adjustments, making adjustments like
at halftime sometimes in game adjustments, however it might be.
And give them the fact that Texas trailed at the
half twenty three to nothing and then came back and
had the two touchdowns there to pull it within eight
(06:35):
at twenty three fifteen.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
By early fourth quarter, the question became obvious.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Did it take a half an entire half for Texas
to adjust to Georgia in a lot of ways, physicality,
the speed, things of that nature. And for that matter,
why in his estimation did Sart think Texas was better
in the second half.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Well, I think that was part of it, you know,
I think I think naturally, you know, we didn't take
care of the ball very well in all the first half,
you know, we were kind of I thought the field
position was a real issue in the first half. I
think Georgia's average you know, field position starting in the
first half was there at forty seven yard line. I
think ours was the twenty three. I think three of
(07:17):
our first four drives we started inside of our own
thirteen yard line. We were giving them short fields. You know,
I thought our defense played admirably in the first half
of trying to minimize some of the damage. But I
thought in the second half we started to find a
little bit of rhythm. But anytime you're playing catch up
like that, it's it's hard to find balance. And we're
(07:37):
at our best as a team when we have balance
on the offensive side of the ball, and we just
couldn't really create that because of the hole that we
dug ourselves in the first half.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, it's playing and simple arithmetic on some of that.
We'll hear some more from Sar coming up next hour.
Some specific thoughts on this matchup with the Vanderbilt Commodorees.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
We'll hear that coming up. I was looking at the
the schedule.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I mentioned that Notre Dame and Navy play this week
and that is without question the biggest G five matchup.
And I know folks don't really think about Notre Dame
in the G five realm if you will, because they
are Notre Dame and they operate as an independent they
do have that scheduling agreement with the ACC. But that
(08:25):
they've been playing pretty well since the loss in northern Illinois.
So they play Navy this Saturday, and they're playing them
in East Rutherford, They're playing them in the Meadowlands.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Navy, of course is undefeated.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Navy going into the game takes a six and zero
record into that and Army is also unbeaaten. Now Army
is off this week, they have an open date on
the schedule, and the Black Knights are seven and zero
and they have a week off. Then they play Air Force.
(08:58):
Then they're going to be in Denton to play North
Texas on November ninth. Then they have a second open date,
Then they play Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, and then
after they play then then they play UTSA at home.
Then they have an open date on the weekend of
(09:18):
the conference championship. The reason why it's an open date
is if they qualify, they got to play on that
weekend against Navy. And that's what's been brought up, the
fact that those two could could mathematically feasibly wind up
meeting for the American Conference Championship one week before the
regularly scheduled game, which would not factor in.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
There's good and bad to that.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
By the way, they don't get a data point an
extra data point for carrying a twelve to zero record
into a conference championship game, and if you're going up
against trying to show the committee that you belong instead
of Boise State, because only one of them is going
to get in as a G five.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I don't know. Maybe if Army is twelve with a
win over Notre Dame may be a shot.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I don't know, but definitely to get ahead of Boise
they're gonna need to be undefeated, and an extra data
point from having played Navy would certainly help.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Same thing for Navy if they are.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
If they're somehow able to beat Notre Dame this Saturday,
they have a shot to be eleven and oh and
qualify for the American Conference Championship. That's how bizarre this
whole thing would be. If Army and Navy wound up
both being eleven and oh and playing in the American
Conference Championship, which decides who gets in the playoff, and
then they play the regular season game the next week,
(10:35):
which let's just say your Army and you're eleven and
oh one in that game, and you play an eleven
and oh Navy and you beat them, they go to
twelve and Oh, you're in the playoff and then you
lose to Navy the next week, doesn't matter, You're already
in the playoff. That's the bizarre setup for how that works.
But we'll continue to monitor all of this and watch this.
(10:56):
We'll hear some more from him talking about Vanderbilt in
specific up next hour, speaking about getting ready for Vanderbilt.
Up next, you'll hear Will Matthews conversation with Longhorn's linebacker,
the six year senior David Benda. When we continue on
sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.
We continue here on this Wednesday. Steve Sarkisian is an
old soul, but he's not that old of the dude.
And he took part in the SEC teleconference, the coaches
teleconference today and talked about a lot of different things.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Was asked several different questions about a bout this team.
But we were talking about and last hour we got
into this.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
The expansion of the college football playoffs, and I was
just running down what at least one set of projections,
those from ESPN Plus or ESPN from Heather Dinnach, the
set of projections that have Oregon number one, Georgia number two,
(00:46):
Ohio State or I think Miami number three Ohio State. No,
because Oregon is number one out of the Big ten,
and who am I missing out? Is the acc would
be my oh Big twelve be number four BYU as
I mentioned those, and then they eight below, it would
(01:06):
have Texas in as the number five right now, which
would mean they would host a playoff game, a first
round game against the twelve seed. If they were the five,
they would play the twelve and right now, that projects
out to be the highest ranked G five conference champion,
which at this point, according to these projections would be
(01:27):
Boyse State and they're outstanding running back and maybe now
the favorite in the Heisman race Ashton Genty from Frisco
lone star native Texan.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
We'll see how all of that shakes down as well.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So Sark was asked several questions about the college football
playoff and last time we heard him talk about how
it kind of has taken on a little bit of
an NFL style scope because of twelve teams giving more
teams an opportunity. So he was asked following in the NFL,
(02:01):
like playoff structure mean that it's a good thing? Is
that is that beneficial for the support of college football
to be set up like that? You know?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I don't know. I mean, I think time will tell.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I do think the popularity of college football right now
is at an all time high. I think the exposure
that it's getting not only from y'all but on television,
the fanfare has been tremendous. I do think the one
thing that is unique with college football as opposed to
the NFL. You know, the NFL, you only have thirty
(02:35):
two teams, you know, vuying for those playoff spots. College football,
what do we have one hundred and I don't know
thirty something, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And so it still the margin prayer is still not
very big in college football, and so I do think
there's still a real sense of urgency in college football.
I don't think anybody here is thinking, hey, if you go,
you know, I don't know eight and four that you're
probably gonna get in the player. Probably not, not realistically speaking.
And so you're still striving for perfection knowing, but you know,
(03:05):
and we do have a little bit of margin for
air to make it.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, that's that's the other key is margin for error.
How much margin forrer do you have? As long as
the log Worns were winning and staying unbeaten, they had
a seemingly wide path with a lot of margin for error.
(03:32):
That is considerably narrowed now with the loss to Georgia.
But that was the case last year for Texas, where
they only had one road into the playoff to be
a top four, and that was to win out after
losing to Oklahoma and win the Big Twelve championship, which
they did convincingly, and even then it took all of
(03:53):
that stuff is really really close. Remember, Gosh, that seems
like it's such a foreign thing now that Florida State
was actually that close to being in the College Football
Playoff and then they kind of mentally, emotionally and even
numerically checked out of their Orange Bowl game with Georgia,
got blasted and they're one in six this year, Florida State.
(04:14):
But that's somebody else's problems. Texas understands now that the
margin for error has narrowed. It doesn't mean they can't
get in the playoff, but they're probably looking at needing
to win the rest of their games, and if they
win the rest in the regular season, just getting into
the conference championship would probably get them into the playoff
(04:37):
regardless of the outcome. But if they were to win it,
then you're talking about getting that first round by which
would be very, very important. But for all that to happen,
they have to turn around and play well against Vanderbilt
coming off the loss to Georgia, And there were some
questions about how Sark expects and is looking for his
(04:59):
team to bounce back from the loss to Georgia. Part
of that is seeing what they went through in the
loss of the Bulldogs on Saturday night, So Sark was
asked about the Georgia defensive lineman Mikel Williams, what a
big night he had, and he was asked about the
impact that he had in the game against the Longhorns.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I mean, he's obviously an elite pass rusher that can
put stress on your tackles and can put stress on
your quarterback. And credit to Georgia, I thought they had
a really good plan of allowing him to rush and
flushing the quarterback and then using Walker as a spy
to go chase down the quarterback. He's got an elite
closing speed as well, So I thought that combination of
(05:43):
those two guys worked well in the game for them,
something that they were able to utilize getting the healthy
Michael Williams back, so he looked a heck of a
lot better in person than he had on tape throughout
the season. I know, he hadn't been healthy, you know,
really since the very beginning of the year, but they
got him healthy right in the naked time for our game,
so you know, but yeah, he's a really good player.
(06:05):
That both those guys had had excellent games, something that
you know, if we get another shot with them, we'll
have to prepare a little differently.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
For yeah, no doubt about that. Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Speaking of preparing, fans like to talk quite often and
coaches bring it up as well, adjustments, making adjustments like
at halftime sometimes in game adjustments, however it might be.
And give them the fact that Texas trailed at the
half twenty three to nothing and then came back and
had the two touchdowns there to pull it within eight
(06:35):
at twenty three fifteen.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
By early fourth quarter, the question became obvious.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Did it take a half an entire half for Texas
to adjust to Georgia in a lot of ways, physicality,
the speed, things of that nature. And for that matter,
why in his estimation did Sart think Texas was better
in the second half.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Well, I think that was part of it, you know,
I think I think naturally, you know, we didn't take
care of the ball very well in all the first half,
you know, we were kind of I thought the field
position was a real issue in the first half. I
think Georgia's average you know, field position starting in the
first half was there at forty seven yard line. I
think ours was the twenty three. I think three of
(07:17):
our first four drives we started inside of our own
thirteen yard line. We were giving them short fields. You know,
I thought our defense played admirably in the first half
of trying to minimize some of the damage. But I
thought in the second half we started to find a
little bit of rhythm. But anytime you're playing catch up
like that, it's it's hard to find balance. And we're
(07:37):
at our best as a team when we have balance
on the offensive side of the ball, and we just
couldn't really create that because of the hole that we
dug ourselves in the first half.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Yeah, it's playing and simple arithmetic on some of that.
We'll hear some more from Sar coming up next hour.
Some specific thoughts on this matchup with the Vanderbilt Commodorees.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
We'll hear that coming up. I was looking at the
the schedule.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I mentioned that Notre Dame and Navy play this week
and that is without question the biggest G five matchup.
And I know folks don't really think about Notre Dame
in the G five realm if you will, because they
are Notre Dame and they operate as an independent they
do have that scheduling agreement with the ACC. But that
(08:25):
they've been playing pretty well since the loss in northern Illinois.
So they play Navy this Saturday, and they're playing them
in East Rutherford, They're playing them in the Meadowlands.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Navy, of course is undefeated.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Navy going into the game takes a six and zero
record into that and Army is also unbeaaten. Now Army
is off this week, they have an open date on
the schedule, and the Black Knights are seven and zero
and they have a week off. Then they play Air Force.
(08:58):
Then they're going to be in Denton to play North
Texas on November ninth. Then they have a second open date,
Then they play Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, and then
after they play then then they play UTSA at home.
Then they have an open date on the weekend of
(09:18):
the conference championship. The reason why it's an open date
is if they qualify, they got to play on that
weekend against Navy. And that's what's been brought up, the
fact that those two could could mathematically feasibly wind up
meeting for the American Conference Championship one week before the
regularly scheduled game, which would not factor in.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
There's good and bad to that.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
By the way, they don't get a data point an
extra data point for carrying a twelve to zero record
into a conference championship game, and if you're going up
against trying to show the committee that you belong instead
of Boise State, because only one of them is going
to get in as a G five.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I don't know. Maybe if Army is twelve with a
win over Notre Dame may be a shot.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
I don't know, but definitely to get ahead of Boise
they're gonna need to be undefeated, and an extra data
point from having played Navy would certainly help.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Same thing for Navy if they are.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
If they're somehow able to beat Notre Dame this Saturday,
they have a shot to be eleven and oh and
qualify for the American Conference Championship. That's how bizarre this
whole thing would be. If Army and Navy wound up
both being eleven and oh and playing in the American
Conference Championship, which decides who gets in the playoff, and
then they play the regular season game the next week,
(10:35):
which let's just say your Army and you're eleven and
oh one in that game, and you play an eleven
and oh Navy and you beat them, they go to
twelve and Oh, you're in the playoff and then you
lose to Navy the next week, doesn't matter, You're already
in the playoff. That's the bizarre setup for how that works.
But we'll continue to monitor all of this and watch this.
(10:56):
We'll hear some more from him talking about Vanderbilt in
specific up next hour, speaking about getting ready for Vanderbilt.
Up next, you'll hear Will Matthews conversation with Longhorn's linebacker,
the six year senior David Benda. When we continue on
sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.
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