December 16, 2024 • 16 mins
Hear more from Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian as he talks about Quinn Ewers' health this week, the challenge Cade Klubnik presents, and Clemson's ability to force turnovers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back to The Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns Craig Way. Follow Craig on social media
at Horn Voice.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Glad to have you with us on the Monday afternoon.
So the tax line, somebody asked me, are all the
state games on Bally Sports. No they're not. They're on
FanDuel Sports Network Southwest. I'm being cheeky there. That's what
Bally is called now. It's just a change in the
sponsor name. Remember before it was Bally Sports Southwest, it
was Fox Sports Southwest. Before it was Fox Sports Southwest,
(00:37):
it was Prime Sports. Before it was Prime Sports, it
was HSEE Home Sports Entertainment. And I'm just told enough
to say I've called state championship games on all of
those network incarnations, all those names, but it's the same one.
It's the one where you you know, where you watch
the Spurs, where you would have seen the Mavericks through
(00:58):
last year, where you would have seen the Rangers through
last season, and at Alas Stars. They've all gone different
routes with their deal now. But yes, it's on the
same place that over the past few years we knew
is Ballet's Sports Southwest. It's called FanDuel Sports Network Southwest,
and so the games will be on there and they'll
(01:20):
start Wednesday morning at eleven a m. The first one
will be the first six man game six man one
A six man Division two. Between the one A six
man Division two matchup is Jaydon against Oakwood by an
interviewing company. Where either those are right now without looking
(01:42):
them up, Oakwood and what's the other one, Jaydon? Nope, Okay,
no chance, Okay. Jaydon is kind of out like going
toward Lubbock towards South Plains. Oakwood is east of forty five.
It's like you're headed over toward Crockett Palestine area in
that area. So anyway, Jaydon Oakwa. That's the first game
(02:06):
at eleven am. And then at two o'clock is the
one A Division one state final Gordon and White Face.
Any idea about where those communities? At what point? I
did know? Gordon is in an area that a lot
of folks would refer to as the microplex. It's out
(02:27):
there west of Fort Worth, east of Abilene, where not
far from Straw and little old mining communities of Mingus
and Thurber and all that sort of stuff. It's all fout.
I twenty out west of minneal Welles. That's Gordon. They're
the defending state champions and one A Division one six
(02:50):
man and they're playing white Face, which is up South
Plains Panhandle area up that way. So that's that's that matchup.
So Granger Interest the six man Guru, will join me
for the call of those two games. I always enjoy
what you Have you seen a six man game live
in person? No, Nope, just just watching the state tout
(03:12):
of games on my TV. They really are they're really
It's funny. You know, some people refer to as basketball
on grass or basketball on turf. In the case of Gordon,
you can make a case that because they're also the
defending state basketball champions in one head, so you could
do that. Uh, they have track champions too, that are
a big part of what they do. So anyway, Uh,
(03:34):
those started off those two games and then two A
Division two is the first eleven man games on Wednesday
night Munster and Shiner. You know where Monster in Genera?
I don't know where Monster is. I know Shiners to
the south east of US, right, yep, yep, yep, you're right.
(03:56):
It's in like south central Texas there. Yeah, and that's
where the Spetzel Brewery is where they may China beer
shotterback and all that. Munster is just west of Gainesville,
way up by the Red River. So at some of
the people at the at FanDuel Sports now we're taken
to calling this the beer Cheese Bowl. There's a Shiner
(04:18):
brewer in Munster Cheese. But let me tell you something
that they have germanfested Munster year and they have lots
of beer there too. There won't be any beer sold
at that anyway. So that's the game Wednesday night one
A Division two one A Division one Stanford and Canado,
which could be a really good one that starts off
at eleven in the morning. The afternoon three A Division
(04:40):
two gunter against Woodville which was a big surprise. And
then the game I'm really really looking forward to calling
on Thursday night might be the best matchup of the
entire thing is Malakoff and Columbus, number one and number
two teams in the state. And Columbus of course has
the kid Grayson Rigden, who was the six man Player
of the Year and three straight years from freshman up
(05:02):
through his sophomore and junior years, and then of course
moved to Columbus and he's done a tremendous job there
at Columbus and in fact, Grayson Rigdan will we talk.
You know, he'll be good. How good might he be
playing for a three to a program. He's rushed for
nineteen hundred and fifty two yards, scored thirty five touchdowns,
has caught twenty three passes for two hundred and fifty
(05:24):
one yards and scored three touchdowns. Adam Shovel a quarterback
though son of the head coach Matt Shobel, yep, yep.
Connected to the restaurant there down there at Showbles. So
that's a big part of it as well. So anyway,
that's part of the state championship alignment. We'll talk more
about that tomorrow. Let's go back to hearing more from
Longhorn's head coach Steve Sarkisian. And this one is a
(05:47):
question about Kate Clubnick and does he view Kate Clubnick
differently from other dual threat quarterbacks the way he runs
and what makes him special. Start got a pretty good
answer to this.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, he's got weapons. He
got real weapons around him. The know, the Antonio Williams kid,
the the Westcoat kid, the tight end.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I mean, they spread the ball around.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
They've got a real running game with MafA, So it's
not all on Cad, you know, I think that they've
got weapons around him, they've got a really good running game.
But yet they've got scheme that allows the quarterback run
game to become a factor. You're starting to worry about
this receiver over here, this tight end over here, the
running back who's a thousand yard rusher here, and next thing,
you know, it's a quarterback direct run that that can
(06:32):
catch you off guard. And so you've got to really
be disciplined in this game. And you know, he and
his grit, you know, as we know, one of one
of one of Caid's you know, best strengths is his grit,
his toughness.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
You know, he's a he's a tough kid. He's a
tough minded kid.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And so it's not it's one that's gonna be challenging schematically,
but also we're gonna have to play well, We're gonna
have to play physical. We're gonna have to get him
on the ground because he's not just gonna run and slide.
You're gonna have to get him on the ground.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Question one back to that whole transfer portal thing, because
Sark mentioned that a couple of the guys to you,
so they I think it was one Justice Pinkly. They're
going to stick around and be with the program, uh
throughout the course of this postseason, even though they had
entered the portal, but they're going to continue to it.
(07:19):
So the question for Sark was, how do you decide,
you know, who do you keep engaged with the program
once they entered the portal? In which ones do you
shake their hand and say good luck and you're done
with them? On that?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I think I think you take each case on individually,
you know, you know, I don't. I don't think there's
one blanket answer to that.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I think every player is coming in that wants to
have that discussion for varying reasons. You know, where they're
at in their career, what you know, what year are
they in their career? Do they want to play do
they not? What does the depth look like at their position?
You know, what is what has history been for them
here today and yesterday, and what's it going to look
(08:04):
like tomorrow and moving forward? So every guy I think
is in a little bit different space. And again, it's
not really our decision, you know, ultimately it's their decision
if but what we have to do is be honest
and be upfront and make sure that we paint a
picture of here's what it would look like moving forward
in an ideal world. If it's not ideal, here's what
(08:25):
it could look like, you know, from a reality standpoint.
And when we can do that, I think we always
end on really good terms with the guys, you know,
whether they decide to move on or whether they decide
to stay that. I think that we've been really transparent
and honest with them and that allows them to make
a rational decision and not an emotional one.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You get the requisite questions about Quinn. You wers want
to asking about Quinn's health and you know, given that
he's had the swar ankle and and how would he
overall characterize how Quinn's season has gone.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well, the first thing I was encouraged by last week
was when went out to practice, he didn't have that
brace on. So I think he's continually getting better. You know,
he came out of that Georgia game, the SEC Championship game,
feeling better than he did going.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
In and that that was a positive.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That was a physical game, and so him without the
brace on last week running around was really encouraging.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think Quinn.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Kind of embodies a lot that this team has embodied,
and that's resiliency.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
You know we have. I said this in Atlanta after
the game, like.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I have no pause that our guys are gonna not
respond and be ready to go Saturday for the college
football playoffs. And because they've always responded to the adversity
that we've been faced with, whether it's been in game,
out of game, facing injuries, whatever that looks like. And
they've given me little things along the way to build
confidence in me that that's what they're capable of.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And that's what Quinn has done for me.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You know, through all the stuff that he's been through
from year one to year two to year three, I
still never forget sitting with him after that after we
were at Stillwater and what that was like for him
on the road, and the way he's responded throughout his
career to injuries, UH to playing great, to having to
find his way and fight through a game, to making
(10:16):
a critical throw at TCU on third down. Ad Mitchell,
there's been a lot of things in there to know
this guy is going to be ready to go and
he's going to find a way to put us in
position to be successful. And like I said, you know,
we all have to improve, we all have to be
better if we want to go achieve what what what
we're trying to achieve, which is go win a national championship.
We've all got to take our game to another level.
(10:37):
And he's no different, right, He's got to do it.
Coaches have to do it. Everybody's got to go to
a whole nother level. And we have to do it
for four straight weeks, and we have to do it
one game at a time. And the first first layer
of that is is a really good Clemson team on
Saturday who's extremely well coached. It's got a great defensive front.
And knowing that that, you know his performance that creates
(10:59):
a ton of turnover and so I think he feels that.
But he's also been exposed to playing against really good
teams too, and I think he's got a lot of
confidence in himself and the guys around him.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Okay, so with Clemson's defense being as good as it
is as Sark has talked about, and if you look
at the numbers, they kind of mirror Texas in the
way that they can force turnovers create turnovers. So what
makes this Clemson defense so good at that?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, Well, I think one is their ability to get
to the quarterback. I think they average like three sacks
a game on defense. You know, they can generate pass
rush and they can create force fumbles in that.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Aspect of it.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I think two, like us, you could tell they practice
attacking the ball. You know, it's one thing to like
I think about last year where we were we wanted
to create more turnovers. Well, you have to practice creating turnovers.
You have to work at it. And you can tell
they work at it. You can see the intent in
which they go after the ball. And so our intent
(11:55):
has to really be of protecting that ball, and sometimes
that's the play call, right to make sure that we're
not exposing ourselves too much to a high pressure defense,
to making sure that we're making good decisions at quarterback,
to making sure that we're protecting the quarterback, to making
sure that as a ball carrier I've got two hands
in traffic, that the ball is going to be so
paramount in this game that we're not giving up any
(12:18):
of these short fields and that hopefully our defense can
create a couple of these guys don't turn it over much,
but we've got to try to go create some and
then take advantage of those short fields and tournament to points.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And you know, we can ever drift too far away
from trans Transfer portal comes up quite a bit during
these news conferences. It's kind of sprinkled throughout, and a
legitimate question here. Somebody asked Sark if there was anything
he could do or would do to tweak the calendar
or the transfer portal window. It is constantly evaluated. What
(12:51):
might that be?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah, I mean I think what you know, again, I
don't pretend to be the guy that solves all the
answers here, Okay, but I'm going to give two cents.
I think one of the challenges is we have the
NCAAA and we have the presidents of universities and they're
operating on a school calendar and what that looks like, right,
and we're trying to solve a settlement and one oh
(13:14):
five number and revenue sharing and all this other stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And over here we have this.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
College football Playoff committee, right that it went from four
teams to twelve teams, and there's talk of it.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Going even even more.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
The issue comes into that college football playoff is overlapping
a fall semester into a spring semester, and so you
have this group of young men that we've allowed to
transfer that all want to be at their new school
for the start of the spring school year or spring semester.
The problem is we've got teams that are still playing
(13:46):
meaningful games, and not that bowl games aren't meaningful. They are,
and they're a reward for a successful season. But we're
still competing for a national championship. All the while, we've
got kids thinking about their future understandable there too.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And so whether whether we can.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Reset the calendar to some degree to fit what the
playoffs would look like, or we take a hard and
a real serious look at more of an NFL model
to where free agency doesn't begin until maybe the spring,
where players transfer to the spring. Maybe we don't have
spring ball anymore, maybe we have ota s and uh
in mini camps and and we adjust it completely. I
(14:28):
know that that's you know, we're at the beginning stages
of something that is brand new to us right now.
But I do think we're gonna have to take a
real look at you know, just just trying to put,
you know, a band aid over something. And that's the fix,
I think something We're gonna have to make a real
dive and a real look at college football in general
(14:48):
and what's in the best interests of the game in season,
for the players and at a season so that we
have a product that we're not dealing with all of
this all the time. You know, what is a salary
cap gonna look like? And how does that go about?
And you know, so much of like what we're dealing with.
Players are getting offered some crazy numbers and things going on,
(15:08):
but yet there's no there's no players union that then
monitors that, and what's the value at those positions. There's
so many things that we're operating kind of just however
we want right now. And I think the NFL, I
always say this, they've figured it out because they've they've
they've devoted so much time and energy to it that
(15:28):
I think at some point we're going to have to
look at that model of why do why is their
free agency when it is, and then how does that
coincide them with the draft?
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Refer to it as signing date?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And then what they've done with their off season to
build their teams to get them ready for training camp
and then the season. And I do think springball at
some point is going to become a casualty of this.
And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because I
do think there's something to be said for Phase one,
Phase two, phase three that the NFL utilizes in its
off season as coming out of free agency and the
(16:01):
draft as they build for the team. So I just
think this is gonna have to be a real overhaul
that's ultimately gonna have to take place. When and how
that comes about, I don't exactly know, But right now
we're just operating with too many things happening all at once,
and then we're gonna have all this dead time come
to the spring, and then we're gonna open free agency
(16:23):
up again after spring ball, and we're gonna do it
all over again. And so it just seems like it's
a little bit of a broken model, but it's the
model that we have right now, and so our job
is to try to navigate this model to the best
of our ability, and that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All right. There's some more from Long Orange head coach
Steve Sarkis, and we'll hear more from start coming up
next hour. Up next we changed into Long Horn Basketball.
We hear from Rodney Terry to Texas Men's head coach
following the Longhorns one twenty one to fifty seven win
yesterday over Arkansas Pine Bluff. This is Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred the Zone.
Welcome back to The Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns Craig Way. Follow Craig on social media
at Horn Voice.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Glad to have you with us on the Monday afternoon.
So the tax line, somebody asked me, are all the
state games on Bally Sports. No they're not. They're on
FanDuel Sports Network Southwest. I'm being cheeky there. That's what
Bally is called now. It's just a change in the
sponsor name. Remember before it was Bally Sports Southwest, it
was Fox Sports Southwest. Before it was Fox Sports Southwest,
(00:37):
it was Prime Sports. Before it was Prime Sports, it
was HSEE Home Sports Entertainment. And I'm just told enough
to say I've called state championship games on all of
those network incarnations, all those names, but it's the same one.
It's the one where you you know, where you watch
the Spurs, where you would have seen the Mavericks through
(00:58):
last year, where you would have seen the Rangers through
last season, and at Alas Stars. They've all gone different
routes with their deal now. But yes, it's on the
same place that over the past few years we knew
is Ballet's Sports Southwest. It's called FanDuel Sports Network Southwest,
and so the games will be on there and they'll
(01:20):
start Wednesday morning at eleven a m. The first one
will be the first six man game six man one
A six man Division two. Between the one A six
man Division two matchup is Jaydon against Oakwood by an
interviewing company. Where either those are right now without looking
(01:42):
them up, Oakwood and what's the other one, Jaydon? Nope, Okay,
no chance, Okay. Jaydon is kind of out like going
toward Lubbock towards South Plains. Oakwood is east of forty five.
It's like you're headed over toward Crockett Palestine area in
that area. So anyway, Jaydon Oakwa. That's the first game
(02:06):
at eleven am. And then at two o'clock is the
one A Division one state final Gordon and White Face.
Any idea about where those communities? At what point? I
did know? Gordon is in an area that a lot
of folks would refer to as the microplex. It's out
(02:27):
there west of Fort Worth, east of Abilene, where not
far from Straw and little old mining communities of Mingus
and Thurber and all that sort of stuff. It's all fout.
I twenty out west of minneal Welles. That's Gordon. They're
the defending state champions and one A Division one six
(02:50):
man and they're playing white Face, which is up South
Plains Panhandle area up that way. So that's that's that matchup.
So Granger Interest the six man Guru, will join me
for the call of those two games. I always enjoy
what you Have you seen a six man game live
in person? No, Nope, just just watching the state tout
(03:12):
of games on my TV. They really are they're really
It's funny. You know, some people refer to as basketball
on grass or basketball on turf. In the case of Gordon,
you can make a case that because they're also the
defending state basketball champions in one head, so you could
do that. Uh, they have track champions too, that are
a big part of what they do. So anyway, Uh,
(03:34):
those started off those two games and then two A
Division two is the first eleven man games on Wednesday
night Munster and Shiner. You know where Monster in Genera?
I don't know where Monster is. I know Shiners to
the south east of US, right, yep, yep, yep, you're right.
(03:56):
It's in like south central Texas there. Yeah, and that's
where the Spetzel Brewery is where they may China beer
shotterback and all that. Munster is just west of Gainesville,
way up by the Red River. So at some of
the people at the at FanDuel Sports now we're taken
to calling this the beer Cheese Bowl. There's a Shiner
(04:18):
brewer in Munster Cheese. But let me tell you something
that they have germanfested Munster year and they have lots
of beer there too. There won't be any beer sold
at that anyway. So that's the game Wednesday night one
A Division two one A Division one Stanford and Canado,
which could be a really good one that starts off
at eleven in the morning. The afternoon three A Division
(04:40):
two gunter against Woodville which was a big surprise. And
then the game I'm really really looking forward to calling
on Thursday night might be the best matchup of the
entire thing is Malakoff and Columbus, number one and number
two teams in the state. And Columbus of course has
the kid Grayson Rigden, who was the six man Player
of the Year and three straight years from freshman up
(05:02):
through his sophomore and junior years, and then of course
moved to Columbus and he's done a tremendous job there
at Columbus and in fact, Grayson Rigdan will we talk.
You know, he'll be good. How good might he be
playing for a three to a program. He's rushed for
nineteen hundred and fifty two yards, scored thirty five touchdowns,
has caught twenty three passes for two hundred and fifty
(05:24):
one yards and scored three touchdowns. Adam Shovel a quarterback
though son of the head coach Matt Shobel, yep, yep.
Connected to the restaurant there down there at Showbles. So
that's a big part of it as well. So anyway,
that's part of the state championship alignment. We'll talk more
about that tomorrow. Let's go back to hearing more from
Longhorn's head coach Steve Sarkisian. And this one is a
(05:47):
question about Kate Clubnick and does he view Kate Clubnick
differently from other dual threat quarterbacks the way he runs
and what makes him special. Start got a pretty good
answer to this.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, he's got weapons. He
got real weapons around him. The know, the Antonio Williams kid,
the the Westcoat kid, the tight end.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
I mean, they spread the ball around.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
They've got a real running game with MafA, So it's
not all on Cad, you know, I think that they've
got weapons around him, they've got a really good running game.
But yet they've got scheme that allows the quarterback run
game to become a factor. You're starting to worry about
this receiver over here, this tight end over here, the
running back who's a thousand yard rusher here, and next thing,
you know, it's a quarterback direct run that that can
(06:32):
catch you off guard. And so you've got to really
be disciplined in this game. And you know, he and
his grit, you know, as we know, one of one
of one of Caid's you know, best strengths is his grit,
his toughness.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
You know, he's a he's a tough kid. He's a
tough minded kid.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And so it's not it's one that's gonna be challenging schematically,
but also we're gonna have to play well, We're gonna
have to play physical. We're gonna have to get him
on the ground because he's not just gonna run and slide.
You're gonna have to get him on the ground.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Question one back to that whole transfer portal thing, because
Sark mentioned that a couple of the guys to you,
so they I think it was one Justice Pinkly. They're
going to stick around and be with the program, uh
throughout the course of this postseason, even though they had
entered the portal, but they're going to continue to it.
(07:19):
So the question for Sark was, how do you decide,
you know, who do you keep engaged with the program
once they entered the portal? In which ones do you
shake their hand and say good luck and you're done
with them? On that?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I think I think you take each case on individually,
you know, you know, I don't. I don't think there's
one blanket answer to that.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I think every player is coming in that wants to
have that discussion for varying reasons. You know, where they're
at in their career, what you know, what year are
they in their career? Do they want to play do
they not? What does the depth look like at their position?
You know, what is what has history been for them
here today and yesterday, and what's it going to look
(08:04):
like tomorrow and moving forward? So every guy I think
is in a little bit different space. And again, it's
not really our decision, you know, ultimately it's their decision
if but what we have to do is be honest
and be upfront and make sure that we paint a
picture of here's what it would look like moving forward
in an ideal world. If it's not ideal, here's what
(08:25):
it could look like, you know, from a reality standpoint.
And when we can do that, I think we always
end on really good terms with the guys, you know,
whether they decide to move on or whether they decide
to stay that. I think that we've been really transparent
and honest with them and that allows them to make
a rational decision and not an emotional one.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You get the requisite questions about Quinn. You wers want
to asking about Quinn's health and you know, given that
he's had the swar ankle and and how would he
overall characterize how Quinn's season has gone.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well, the first thing I was encouraged by last week
was when went out to practice, he didn't have that
brace on. So I think he's continually getting better. You know,
he came out of that Georgia game, the SEC Championship game,
feeling better than he did going.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
In and that that was a positive.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That was a physical game, and so him without the
brace on last week running around was really encouraging.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think Quinn.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Kind of embodies a lot that this team has embodied,
and that's resiliency.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
You know we have. I said this in Atlanta after
the game, like.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I have no pause that our guys are gonna not
respond and be ready to go Saturday for the college
football playoffs. And because they've always responded to the adversity
that we've been faced with, whether it's been in game,
out of game, facing injuries, whatever that looks like. And
they've given me little things along the way to build
confidence in me that that's what they're capable of.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And that's what Quinn has done for me.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You know, through all the stuff that he's been through
from year one to year two to year three, I
still never forget sitting with him after that after we
were at Stillwater and what that was like for him
on the road, and the way he's responded throughout his
career to injuries, UH to playing great, to having to
find his way and fight through a game, to making
(10:16):
a critical throw at TCU on third down. Ad Mitchell,
there's been a lot of things in there to know
this guy is going to be ready to go and
he's going to find a way to put us in
position to be successful. And like I said, you know,
we all have to improve, we all have to be
better if we want to go achieve what what what
we're trying to achieve, which is go win a national championship.
We've all got to take our game to another level.
(10:37):
And he's no different, right, He's got to do it.
Coaches have to do it. Everybody's got to go to
a whole nother level. And we have to do it
for four straight weeks, and we have to do it
one game at a time. And the first first layer
of that is is a really good Clemson team on
Saturday who's extremely well coached. It's got a great defensive front.
And knowing that that, you know his performance that creates
(10:59):
a ton of turnover and so I think he feels that.
But he's also been exposed to playing against really good
teams too, and I think he's got a lot of
confidence in himself and the guys around him.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Okay, so with Clemson's defense being as good as it
is as Sark has talked about, and if you look
at the numbers, they kind of mirror Texas in the
way that they can force turnovers create turnovers. So what
makes this Clemson defense so good at that?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, Well, I think one is their ability to get
to the quarterback. I think they average like three sacks
a game on defense. You know, they can generate pass
rush and they can create force fumbles in that.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Aspect of it.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I think two, like us, you could tell they practice
attacking the ball. You know, it's one thing to like
I think about last year where we were we wanted
to create more turnovers. Well, you have to practice creating turnovers.
You have to work at it. And you can tell
they work at it. You can see the intent in
which they go after the ball. And so our intent
(11:55):
has to really be of protecting that ball, and sometimes
that's the play call, right to make sure that we're
not exposing ourselves too much to a high pressure defense,
to making sure that we're making good decisions at quarterback,
to making sure that we're protecting the quarterback, to making
sure that as a ball carrier I've got two hands
in traffic, that the ball is going to be so
paramount in this game that we're not giving up any
(12:18):
of these short fields and that hopefully our defense can
create a couple of these guys don't turn it over much,
but we've got to try to go create some and
then take advantage of those short fields and tournament to points.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And you know, we can ever drift too far away
from trans Transfer portal comes up quite a bit during
these news conferences. It's kind of sprinkled throughout, and a
legitimate question here. Somebody asked Sark if there was anything
he could do or would do to tweak the calendar
or the transfer portal window. It is constantly evaluated. What
(12:51):
might that be?
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah, I mean I think what you know, again, I
don't pretend to be the guy that solves all the
answers here, Okay, but I'm going to give two cents.
I think one of the challenges is we have the
NCAAA and we have the presidents of universities and they're
operating on a school calendar and what that looks like, right,
and we're trying to solve a settlement and one oh
(13:14):
five number and revenue sharing and all this other stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And over here we have this.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
College football Playoff committee, right that it went from four
teams to twelve teams, and there's talk of it.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Going even even more.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
The issue comes into that college football playoff is overlapping
a fall semester into a spring semester, and so you
have this group of young men that we've allowed to
transfer that all want to be at their new school
for the start of the spring school year or spring semester.
The problem is we've got teams that are still playing
(13:46):
meaningful games, and not that bowl games aren't meaningful. They are,
and they're a reward for a successful season. But we're
still competing for a national championship. All the while, we've
got kids thinking about their future understandable there too.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And so whether whether we can.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Reset the calendar to some degree to fit what the
playoffs would look like, or we take a hard and
a real serious look at more of an NFL model
to where free agency doesn't begin until maybe the spring,
where players transfer to the spring. Maybe we don't have
spring ball anymore, maybe we have ota s and uh
in mini camps and and we adjust it completely. I
(14:28):
know that that's you know, we're at the beginning stages
of something that is brand new to us right now.
But I do think we're gonna have to take a
real look at you know, just just trying to put,
you know, a band aid over something. And that's the fix,
I think something We're gonna have to make a real
dive and a real look at college football in general
(14:48):
and what's in the best interests of the game in season,
for the players and at a season so that we
have a product that we're not dealing with all of
this all the time. You know, what is a salary
cap gonna look like? And how does that go about?
And you know, so much of like what we're dealing with.
Players are getting offered some crazy numbers and things going on,
(15:08):
but yet there's no there's no players union that then
monitors that, and what's the value at those positions. There's
so many things that we're operating kind of just however
we want right now. And I think the NFL, I
always say this, they've figured it out because they've they've
they've devoted so much time and energy to it that
(15:28):
I think at some point we're going to have to
look at that model of why do why is their
free agency when it is, and then how does that
coincide them with the draft?
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Refer to it as signing date?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And then what they've done with their off season to
build their teams to get them ready for training camp
and then the season. And I do think springball at
some point is going to become a casualty of this.
And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because I
do think there's something to be said for Phase one,
Phase two, phase three that the NFL utilizes in its
off season as coming out of free agency and the
(16:01):
draft as they build for the team. So I just
think this is gonna have to be a real overhaul
that's ultimately gonna have to take place. When and how
that comes about, I don't exactly know, But right now
we're just operating with too many things happening all at once,
and then we're gonna have all this dead time come
to the spring, and then we're gonna open free agency
(16:23):
up again after spring ball, and we're gonna do it
all over again. And so it just seems like it's
a little bit of a broken model, but it's the
model that we have right now, and so our job
is to try to navigate this model to the best
of our ability, and that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All right. There's some more from Long Orange head coach
Steve Sarkis, and we'll hear more from start coming up
next hour. Up next we changed into Long Horn Basketball.
We hear from Rodney Terry to Texas Men's head coach
following the Longhorns one twenty one to fifty seven win
yesterday over Arkansas Pine Bluff. This is Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred the Zone.
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