Texas Depth and Composure after a Bye Week

The Longhorns are ready and rested after a bye week to take on Florida Gators at home. Coach Sark from his press conferece on Monday.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone Andrew Zimble filling in
for Craig Way as we roll on in our number
two on a Monday edition of The Craigway Show, Craig
and Cam in Las Vegas for opening night of college basketball.
The men's college basketball season opens in Las Vegas for
the Longhorns as they take on the Ohio State Buckeys.

(00:22):
Pregame begins at Day thirty, tip off at nine right
here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone and on
Cavet FM ninety eight one and on the free iHeartRadio app.
Steve Sarkisian spoke this morning as the Longhorns exit bye
week number two and enter into a week against the
Florida Gators. Now, this Florida team looked very good defensively

(00:49):
against Georgia this past weekend. We'll start here with Steve
Sarkisian's opening remarks to the media.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
You know, buys are always nice to get to get healthy,
get refreshed, get richard charged, to kind of yourself analysis.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
But it's also nice to get back to work.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know, we are a you know, routine oriented operation,
so to get back to work. We know the month
of November for US is one that's going to be challenging.
But as we say around here, the games in November
are the ones you remember. So we got to put
in a lot of work and it starts this Saturday
against the University of Florida, a team that is very talented,

(01:26):
really well coached.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
I know a lot of people are gonna look at the.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Record and so on and so forth, but you can
just look at their last three games. You know, they
lose an overtime to Tennessee, they win, and they're beating Georgia.
They got a chance to kick a field goal to
go up late in that ball game within kind of
muff a snap. So they've been playing good football. It's
gonna be a heck of a challenge. And so you know,
I think we got off to a good start today
from a preparation standpoint, but we're gonna need a good

(01:52):
week of work to get ourselves ready to go.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
And coach Starkeygen talks about that month of November for Texas.
Here is the last four games and Long Horns SEC
regular season schedule, all played in November. Two home games,
two road games, and it does not get easy. It's
versus Florida, a team that held the Bulldogs to thirty
four points on Saturday, going to Arkansas in a rivalry

(02:18):
game against Kentucky now Kentucky is of the four teams
left on the schedule, feels like the easiest that Longhorns
fans can put a w in the win column, and
then going to Kyle Field to take on the Texas
A and M fight fighting atkes on Thanksgiving weekend, the
last game of the season and a game that potentially
could decide the SEC. No pressure though the month of

(02:43):
November for the long Horns. It does not get any
easier from this point on, so yes games to remember now.
The Florida quarterback situation got very dicey over the weekend,
as a DJ Langwey's prognosis after the game did not
looked very good. The prognosis this morning, however, looks much better.

(03:05):
Florta's quarterback suffered what appeared to be a serious non
contact injury against Georgia in Week ten. Gators head coach
Billy Napier said that he could play as soon as
this week, though against Texas Now Langway came out in
the second half on crutches in street clothes, it looked
like the season potentially could be over for Florida with

(03:28):
that injury. However, if he's able to play this weekend,
that would be huge for the Gators and their chance
to win. But the player who stepped in for Langway
was true walk on Adrian Warner, a freshman transfer from Yale. Yeah,
seven of twenty two sixty sixty yards an interception in

(03:48):
the loss, but he looked pretty solid in that recovery.
And then, of course you remember starting quarterback Graham Mertz,
who suffered in acl that ended his collegiate career earlier
this season as well. So the quarterback situation is dicey,
to say the least for for Florida. Steves arccusion was asked,
how do you prepare for the multiple quarterbacks? How do

(04:09):
you prepare to scheme against a quarterback that you might
not know until game time?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, I think you prepare for the scheme. You know,
coach Napier has been doing it quite a while. You
know it's time at Lafayette and what he's done at Florida.
So they've got a very intricate scheme, a lot of shifts,
a lot of motions, a lot of formation adjustments that
they that'sy tax you with, you know, so I think
that's the first part.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Again, they're a little bit of limbo from a quarterback perspective.
But in the end of the day, I think, you know,
they're gonna run their offense and that's what we got
to prepare for.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
And the offense for for Florida this season has done
an okay job of scoring touchdowns. Again in that in
that Georgia game, they looked mediocre in the second half
without their starting a quarterback. Through their last four twenty
four points against UCF and win seventeen and a loss

(05:01):
at Tennessee, a rivalry game. But they put points on
the board against Kentucky and forty eight to twenty win
at home. So this is a team, like I said,
when they get the ball moving, they could potentially score
some points on you. My point has continued to be
though for Longhorn fans who are expecting a high flying
style of offense in this game against Florida, I would

(05:23):
say not so fast. The Florida defense against Georgia played marvelously.
They did a great job against the Bulldogs in preventing
them from getting into their uptap of offense, and they
picked off Carson back twice. I would say that Florida's
defense will be one of the better ones that the
Longhorns have faced so far the season, and they might
be the best defense they face in the month of November. Now,

(05:46):
the Longhorns haven't helped themselves in some situations when it
comes to curbing penalties. You don't want drives to start
further back than they have to, and that you don't
want your drives stalling out due to penalties. So how
does Sarkesian and the coaching staff for Texas going to
curb some of those penalties two.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Weeks in a row, I think there was eighteen penalties
of those two our last two ball games, you know,
some of which you know, we really try to minimize
the pre snap stuff, the stuff, you know, the lining
up off sides, the jumping off sides, and then and
then trying to look at our fundamentals and techniques on
some of the things that happened in play. And I

(06:25):
think we've addressed those things pretty well about you know,
hand placement from the offensive line perspective in the secondary,
getting our head around when we're in phase on the
deep ball.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know, we've been really good.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
As aggressive as we've been of getting after the quarterback,
we've been good about not targeting people and doing those
types of things. So we just got to get back
to our fundamentals, are our beliefs and how we go
about our business, and I think will be okay.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
It's interesting that he talks about the offensive line. The
line so far for Texas has done a good job
of opening up holes the Texas running back room before
where the season was one of those specialty positions that
many across the country thought of as the best in
the SEC. They thought the running back room for Texas
could be the thing that really gets the ball rolling. Instead,

(07:13):
due to injuries, it has been a kind of revolving
door of who is going to be the starting running
back and can Jayden Blue play and can he not play?
And what does the reps look like. This has been
a real deal breaker for the Longhorns is the fact
that the offensive line has been so good but still
suffers from some of those holding penalties that stall out drives.
But speaking of targeting, Vernon BroadOn he got a targeting

(07:37):
call against Vanderbilt and now he's gonna have to sit
out the first half of the Florida game this weekend,
and the question was asked, how do you practice like that?
Do you give Broaden normal reps or do you kind
of sit the reps? How do you work that? Sarkisian
had a very I thought insightful answer.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
I think about that all the time. I know that,
and You're like, why would you think about it? Because
it stills on your mind. You're like, Okay, how do
you do it? But yeah, Vernon's practicing as normal, you know.
I think it's a great opportunity. Jermaine Lay has really
come on here in the last month of the season,
and so we've been impressed with him. Bill Norton has
stepped up, Alex Januaries continue to step up.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Tia Savella. We're gonna need more out of him.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Like I said, the last two weeks, I think Sadier's
had his best two weeks since he's been here. So
we're gonna need these guys. They're all gonna have to
step up that way. And so again, and Florida is
a really good running football team. That's what they believe in,
and so we got to be able to stop the
run in this game.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
We're gonna need all those guys to step up.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
It's gonna be big for the offense or correction for
the defense to step up in this game. Now, the
Longhorns have had a lot of players on the defensive
side of the ball do their job well, one of
those being Anthy Hill. But it's not only Hill who
has been stepping up. It's guys like uh Lea Leah

(08:57):
for who has really helped him this season. Sarkisian was
asked about his linebacker duo.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Well, I think there's a level of versatility right to
to what Leonga brings. You know, he can play multiple positions,
He is extremely bright, He communicates well with Anthony.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
I think Anthony trusts him that way to go do that.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
But on the flip side, I'll say this about David
in the production that David has now maybe with some
limited reps, but when he goes in, his production has
been really high. And so I think it's been a
win on both lends for us. And you know, I
think it's been a good move and it was a
nice adjustment by our defensive staff to do so. And
I think all three of those guys are benefiting from that.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Now, a big thing that this longhornant team benefits from
this week is coming off a buy. Now a lot
of coaches struggle with figuring out how do you mix
in a buy, how do you give your guys some
little bit of time off but at the same time
instilled game plans and keep moving towards the Lsman goal,
which of course is go one to know every week
and then hopefully win an SEC championship and then later

(10:02):
down the road a national championship. But the way that
Sarkesian in this group has regrouped after the bye week
one was looking good. Now bye week number two. The
question becomes, do you do anything different? Are you happy
with the preparation? What is the first or what's the
difference between the first bye week and then now the
second bye week?

Speaker 3 (10:23):
For this Longhorned team, not a whole.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Lot changed from a format standpoint. I think naturally the
second bye you hold some guys a little bit more
who just are a little bit more nicked up. You know,
I've been impressed with a lot of our young players.
You know, Kobe Black continues to make strides. I think
Jared Gibson, you know, showed us a lot last week. Again,

(10:46):
you know that both young safeties. You know, Jordan Johnson,
Rebel and Xavier both are kind of on the come.
And so the good part is it's not always just
about on offense and deference. It's finding roles for them
on special teams as well.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
And so you know, a lot of those guys have
shown me a lot. I'll say this.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
I think Sadir Mitchell the last two weeks has had
his two best weeks of work here in quite some time.
So that stuff's encouraging to me that we've got a
group of players that are continuing to push one another
and push themselves to be the best they can be,
because that's how our team is going to become really good.
And like I said last week, we're not a finished product.
I think our best football still ahead of us. And
we're going to need all these guys. I don't know when,

(11:25):
but we're gonna need them all. So we've got to
keep coaching them to be the best they can be.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Which is important to think about that you don't want
your best game is played in the months of September
and October. You want your best games played in November,
December and then down the road into January. Now there
was updates on the injuries to Isaiah Bond and Andrew
mccubo and how those two players have been kind of

(11:49):
working their way back in after a bye week. Sarkisian
was asked about where mccubo and Bond are.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Both those guys practice today which was really coouraging and
they both, you know, look pretty good.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Again.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's a Monday of a game week, and and so
how do they respond each day? I think is important
for Drew and and Isaiah, but today was a good start.
And I think for us as a team. You know,
our mojo offensively is one thing I want to get back.
You know, our our our, whether you want to call
it our our sense of urgency, our intent, the way

(12:27):
we go about our business. You know, we've got a
talented group of guys that are very competitive, They're tough,
they work really hard, they want to play well. Sometimes
you can overtry, if that makes sense. And and to me,
that gets back into your mojo, that gets back into
our swagger a little bit, and I want to I
want to try to recreate that with the guys because

(12:48):
I know what we're capable of and if we can
get that clicking to go along with what we're doing
defensively and special teams wise, that would be a huge bonus.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Long Words play this Saturday eleven am at home against
the Florida Gators. That game kicks off at eleven am.
Pregame show network starts at ten. Longhorn Game Day early morning.
Gonna make sure you get your coffee for that one
eight am for Longhorn Game Day with Cameron Parker, Mike Harball,
Harsh and of course the world's strongest man, Mark Henry.

(13:17):
You're not gonna miss out on that. They of course
always bring on the best guests and get you ready
for a Longhorn game Day. That is right. We're gonna
keep the Craig Ways Show rolling as our two continues,
Gonna go over some of the big wins and loses,
big wins and losses over the weekend for NFL teams.
Are the Detroit Lions for real? Are they now the

(13:40):
team to beat in the NFC? And are we expecting
them to match up against the Kandidacy Chiefs in February.
We'll have that next on the Craig Waite Show. Andrews
and Will filling in for Craig Way on Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred at the zone