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December 2, 2024 • 14 mins
Hear the rest of Steve Sarkisian's comments on Monday as he talks about how the team has improved since the loss to Georgia.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Fradway Show. Have a message for Craig, share it by
using the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio AB.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
You can certainly do it that way. You can also
reach us on the text line. I have to do
is text the word Texas followed by your question or
comment to eight one five three zero. So again you
would text the word Texas follow by your question or
comment to eight one five three zero. Standard messaging and
data RH may apply. Somebody asked, what Oklahoma State ever

(00:34):
fire my Gundy?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Good question? Ever's a long word.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
I would say, I don't expect it right now, only
because there's a lot of money left on his deal
right now.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
He's pushing that theory to the test though he is,
isn't he? Like I said, what the world happened to?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Then? They were favored in the Big Field Championship last
year yep. And they were favored to either win it
or at least qualify for it again. Them along with
the Iowa State I think was one of in Kansas
State were probably the main favorites.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Was at the bottom. Yeah, Ny Dillingham has done in
his first season in ASU really has uh and to
think about.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I saw them back in September spotted for my Powell
tim Healey to play by play voice for the ASU
Sun Devils when they played in San Marcos and almost
lost to Texas State, whereas Matt Berry says, San Marcos,
San Marcos, Uh, they were down and the fourth quarter
came back to win that game. So and Texas State

(01:34):
has gone on to have a good season. By the way, congratulations,
the Bobcats are going bowling. They have a chance to
get to eight wins overall when they ever they find
out whatever bowl game they're headed. For the teams in
the state of Texas, quite a few were going bowling, obviously,
Texas obviously, Texas A and m Texas Tech got a

(01:56):
turnaround for Baylor to get to eight wins after where
they were around. Yeah, TCU has qualified for a ball.
I'm into Texas Tech, Sam Houston. Sam Houston was this close,
this close thumb and an index finger a quarter inch

(02:17):
apart to playing for a conference championship. I don't know
if you've heard about this in the conference Whosa Jacksonville State,
Rich rod Rich Rodriguez done a fabulous job there, has
them in first place and they're playing Western Kentucky and
they had I believe a seventeen to sixteen lead in
the final seconds, had they held on and won, they

(02:42):
would have gone unbeaten. Conference play. The number two seed
would have been Sam Houston. But Western Kentucky kick they
walk off I think a fifty four yard field goal
something like that, and won it. So Jacksonville State played
Western Kentucky Saturday. Jacksonville State will play Western Kentucky again
this week in the conference championship game for Conference USA.

(03:05):
But Sam Houston is going to a bowl. So you
have Sam Baylor, Texas Texas A, and m Texas Tech,
TCU Texas State.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
I think that's it. At seven.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
North Texas got there by winning at Temple over the weekend.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Eight. So n SMU makes nine nine.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Of the thirteen I think D one programs FBS programs
in the state are going to a bowl. UTEP didn't
make it, Rice didn't make it, Houston didn't make it,
and I'm leaving one out. But anyway, there's four. Pretty
sure there's four Division one FBS teams that didn't make you.

(03:55):
I say there's thirteen, and I think nine made it
from the state of Texas. So congratulations, it's a pretty
good deal. All right, let's here's some more from Long
Worn's head coach Steve Sarkisian from the weekly news conference
part of our Longhorns Monday presentation here on sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone. All Right, Sart was asked

(04:17):
about how much time he has to spend on two
point conversion plays. This really kind of became even more
evident because of that eight overtime game between Georgia and
Georgia Tech. How many can you stockpile? Do you have
enough in the playbook? How do you deal with that

(04:38):
given that you only have so many plays you can
prepare for?

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Sarks. So you've got to be prepared for about everything.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
The game, the length of games, they are what they are.
And college football is a very unique overtime format where
you get it at the twenty five and if you score,
you get to kick the extra point. When you get
into that second overtime. When you score, it's mandatory that
you go for two, okay, and then beyond that you're
just going for two the rest of the way. And

(05:06):
so we do do a lot of work in training
camp in relation to two point conversion plays on offense
and style of defense, and then we periodically do it
throughout the season, good on good, but always on offense.
We're studying, we're we're looking at two point conversion type
plays and I bet we carry between six and seven

(05:28):
of those plays every week. Knowingly, if that if that
situation were to arise in game when sometimes you have
to go for two or for overtime purposes when you
need to go for two, that you know, I think
our guys have a lot of confidence in going and
executing those calls. But again, you have to practice it
because is it a It is a little bit of

(05:49):
a different style of play, you know, and you almost
can see it when it gets to it that balls
on the three yard line of people kind of shifting
gears and there's a lot more gas and different things
that pop up. And that's why defensively, the discipline you
have to play with in two point conversions is really critical.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Now, for the light entertainment portion of the news conference,
our friend Terry Middleton from Wren's Illustrated asked sarka question,
but he prefaced it by quoting Bob Seeger's song like
a Rock and many of us, who if you followed
classic rock at all, or whether you're very familiar with
that and how slow it goes, and talk about I

(06:27):
was standing tall and free and all of those kinds
of platitudes. So he actually quoted from it and then
asked sark about that about Quinn Ewers and will you
have a heart to heart with him about taking this
team all the way?

Speaker 1 (06:45):
I don't know if I'll have that exact moment, but
but I do think we'll. We'll talk quite a bit
about being a steady see. You know, we talked quite
a bit about that. You know, a a lot of
things around us may be rocky and whatnot. You know,
our our minds, our hearts, our souls are a steady sea.
And I think Quinn is an epitome of that. You know,

(07:06):
he's he he the guy is right here, you know.
Uh and even Saturday night, you know, after a couple uh,
a couple turnovers there in the low red, I don't
think the guy wavered. You know, he had showed great
leadership in the huddle. The guys responded to him, and
so you know, I think he'll be ready to play.
You know, That's that's what he showed me over time.

(07:27):
You know that that the bigger the moment that guy
shows up and we need to play well around him.
You know that that's gonna be important. You know, we
can't just rely on number three. We needed We need
to block well, we need to run well, we need
to run good routes, we need to catch the ball.
We need to do all the things right and that generally
allows the quarterback to play even better.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Sark did mention we had the block well, and he
was asked about the pressure packages that Georgia can roll
in and what they did do very well in the
first meeting between the two.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, you know they you know, Kirby's a great coach,
humans a great coach. Will Muschamps a great coach man.
They got three really good minds on defense, not to
take anyway, three from their other coachings on that staff,
very good defensive staff. And and historically they've they've been
a very good third down defense with their pressure packages.
And and it's twofold. Part of it is, you know,

(08:18):
recognizing you know what they're doing, and then having the
ability to win your one on ones. You know, they
they create one on one situations and and and you've
got to you got to have the physical ability and
use your fundamentals and techniques to block them. And then
on top of that, you have to have the ability
to get open and you got to be able to
beat man coverage. And we struggled at all three of those.

(08:41):
In the first game. We didn't identify a couple blitz
as very well. We had free rushers, uh and they
we got hit. We struggled to block them at times
one on one when we had those opportunities, and then
we struggled to get open versus man coverage down the field.
And so there's layers to this that we have to
play much better at if we want to if we
want to be victorious Saturday. So a lot to work

(09:03):
on that front.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
On the opposite side, on his defensive front, he was
asked about Trade Moore's impact on the defense, especially over
these past few weeks.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
You know, I think Trey's had a heck of a year.
And that's I think sometimes the problem with with with
you all no offense and fans, we always want to
look at numbers and we want to look at production.
And I've been talking all season long about how much
of an impact he's had in the run game, how
much he's affected the quarterback it's just now now he's

(09:32):
starting to get some sacks and Tray's playing really good.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Now.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Well, he's had a really good year for us, and
I've been I've been proud of him of sticking to it.
And then sure there's probably been a level of frustration
for him that you know, he hadn't gotten the sacks
and the numbers. Well, all of a sudden, now in
the most critical games, in the most critical moments, h
those players are starting to show and he's starting to
make these plays for us. I think it's been a
great compliment with calling and our ability to have he

(09:57):
and Calling out there together along with Anthony Hill, where
we can give multitude of looks with those guys moving around,
and then you still have Vernon on the inside and
Alfred on the inside. That our rush is now can
create a lot of issues for opponents because of the
variety of people that can get to the quarterback. And so,
you know, his production now picking up. I'm happy for

(10:19):
him that way, But he's he's had a really good
year for us. But I do think he's playing his
best football for us right now.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Okay, And then he was asked about what he's learned
about his team since that lost to Georgia.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I thought we had good leadership. I found out we
do have good leadership. And those guys haven't waivered, they
haven't blinked from a leadership down. And you know, the
resiliency that you have to have as a team, I
think is mightily important. And you never know when adversity
is going to strike. But as I say, every year

(10:54):
a team takes on a new personality, there's new leadership,
there's new voices in that locker room. Who are they?
And I thought we had good leadership, but it was
smooth saleing there for a while. And then when you
when you get hit in the mouth and you stumble
and you fall, you know, as I touched on, we
had to get back up. We had to get back
up quickly, and we had to go compete again. And

(11:15):
I thought that this team did that, and I was
really proud of them for that, and that that showed
me resiliency, the metal toughness that this group has to
not let a lost linger and to get back up.
And as we said, hey, if we can do this
the right way, maybe we'll get an opportunity to play
them again. But we're gonna have to earn it. It's
not gonna be given to us. And we've had to

(11:36):
earn every game along the way, and these guys have
gone out and earned it. They've earned an opportunity to
play for an SEC championship, and I'm proud of them
for that.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Okay, Next, he was asked about how much the offensive
line has improved in preventing sacks. Remember, in the Vanderbilt
and Georgia games, combining the Lowrens allowed sixteen sacks. They've
only allowed six totals since then. What's been the big difference.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I think it's probably a combination of all. I would
say the first part is we're running the ball better
and we're not We're not a one dimensional team maybe
where we were at that juncture of the season. I
you know, I think with the running game, that allows
us to do more. It forces defensive linemen, It forces
defensive play callers to have to defend the run and

(12:22):
make sure their gap sound or we can hurt you there.
It allows us to play action pass and do some
of those things to maybe use a little bit more
max protection. And on the on the flip side, you know,
I think we've avoided some of the I guess call them.
I'd call nonsense sacks, like we're calling an RPO and

(12:42):
oh shoot, the guys not open and the offensive line
is blocking for a run and the quarterback gets sacked
because he's got nowhere to throw the ball. We've we've
kind of eliminated some of those too, to go along
with I think we're identifying fronts better. I think our guys,
our running backs are pass protecting better. We need to
be better than we even been that and that, you know,

(13:03):
that's got to continue down that path. You know, We've
got to continue to try to improve that to protect
the quarterback so that we can do the things down
the field that we want to do.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Then finally, Sark was asked about the vibe in the
locker room these days.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Our culture is so cool. These guys genuinely love one another,
and you could feel it. You could feel it when
we got off the bus in College Station. You know,
I don't know if that was intentional or not, but
they drove us through all of their fans and it
was probably the best thing that could ever done, quite frankly,
because at that moment it alerted us to what we

(13:39):
had to do and The biggest thing we had to
do was stay tight together. Is stick together, and that's
something that our guys are comfortable doing because of our culture.
And in the end, when you accomplish something like that,
everybody was just happy for the team. It wasn't about
one guy or another guy. It was about what the
team had accomplished. And we knew would be a heck

(13:59):
of a challenge to get to an SEC championship, and
it took all the way until the last game to
go do that and to get it done on the
road in a renewed rivalry with A and M. It
was a special moment. But that moment ended when we
got off the bus back here in Austin. It was okay,
we got to get back to work because the mission
is not done and there's more work to do.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
All right, So there it is more work to do.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
We have more log worns to discuss when we come
back here on Sports Radio AM thirteen Under the Zone,
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