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February 7, 2024 • 47 mins
Catch up on all things Texas football with head coach Steve Sarkisian
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(00:00):
Good morning, everybody, and welcometo the University of Texas National Signing Day
press conference with Long Orange Head footballcoach Steve Sarkisian. My name is Craig
Way. Glad to have you withUS coach sark with this brand new signing
class announced, including those have addedfrom the transfer portal. Getting ready to
visit with the media and talk aboutthis signing class and also the upcoming plans

(00:22):
for the spring. So here wego, without further ado, Long Orange
Head coach Steve Sarkisian recapping the NationalSigning Day class. All righty, you
know, I think just as we'vehad to adapt to the kind of new
time and era of college football,that y'all have had to adapt a little

(00:43):
too. This used to be thatsigning day press conference where we talk about,
you know, all the all thegreat players that you sign, and
everybody signs the greatest class have eversigned, you know, a year in
and year out. And that haschanged. You know, that has changed.
You know, obviously we didn't signone player today, which is I
think indicative of how much college footballhas evolved and changed over the past three

(01:07):
years. Quite frankly is when thisall began. But there are some definite
players to talk about. There's somemovement on our staff to talk about,
and some kind of updates and greatthings. So I'll try to hit on
a few of these things and thenthen we'll open it up. But you
know, when you look at ourjust kind of what's gone on from a

(01:27):
recruiting standpoint and where we're at andus as we've started winter conditioning, we've
got thirty new players on our roster. When you look at you know,
twenty two high school players, uh, eight transfers. The bulk of those
players are already on campus, they'vealready started winter conditioning workouts with coach Beckton,

(01:49):
they've already started school uh and beendoing those things. And then we've
got we've got a handful of thoseguys still to come. I think there's
twenty four to twenty five guys alreadyhere today and another five or six that'll
be coming in June when when schoolwraps up. And so you know,
I know, we touched on alot of the high school kids, and

(02:10):
I'm sure we'll have some questions aboutsome of those guys as we go,
but most notably, it's a littlebit more about some of the transfers that
have come on board since since we'vegot going. Obviously, Isaiah Bond is
here from Alabama, an electric receiverfor us, a guy that we recruited
hard out of high school Buford HighSchool in Georgia, went to Alabama,

(02:35):
really had a tremendous year for themthis year. Great deep ball player,
deep threat, elite speed. Wethink there's more to his game than just
that, and so we're looking forwardto work with him. Amar Nyblack is
a tremendous past receiving tight end thatyou know, with the loss of J.
T. Sanders, how do wefill that void? Had a tremendous

(02:57):
touchdown against us where I think kindof opened the lot of our eyes to
what he was capable of. Tiasavea defensive lineman from Arizona, you know
guy coach Nansen coached at Arizona,six four three and five pounds. Naturally,
again, you you have the voidat the interior defensive line, you
get a veteran player to fill that. I think Trey Moore is the next

(03:23):
young man, a guy who youknow we've been talking a lot about how
do we improve our edge pass rushability. I think we did a lot
of that in the high school ranks. You know Colin Simmons, Xena,
those guys, but you get atrade more guy who thirteen and a half
sacks last season, Conference Player ofthe Year, guy who we played against
two years ago when you could reallysee the physicality and the intent of which

(03:46):
he played the game. So lovehaving Trey and his veteran experience. And
then Kendrick Blackshire, you know,coming back home from Duncanville Bull inside linebacker
where we just we got avoid atthat position. Jalen moved on to the
NFL, Jet Bush moves on.We had a couple of transfers. We

(04:08):
signed a great class a year agoof five high school linebackers, but you
still want some of that veteran leadershipon your defense, and so to bring
him on board was big. Andthen Silas Bolden is the other one who
is still at Oregon State. He'sgonna end up being a grad transfer.
He's gonna graduate this semester at OregonState and then he'll join us in June.

(04:30):
Another elite speed receiver for US.Veteran player, had a great year
last year at Oregon State. SoI think the one thing I'd like to
just hit on that is, youknow, in the end, the transfer
portal, I know there's a lotof you know, opinions on it.
Is it a positive, is ita negative? You know, for us,

(04:51):
it's a positive. You know,we are never going to major in
recruiting the transfer portal in a waythat that's gonna make up our roster.
We still want to recruit the bulkof our class from the high school ranks,
highly competitive, high character kids comingfrom great programs. Get him immersed
in our culture, develop them inour program year one, year two,

(05:14):
year three. But what the portaldoes for a school like us, it
can help you fill the voids whenthe voids happened. You know, we
lost two receivers that declared early forthe NFL Draft, and Xavier Worthy and
ad Mitchell. We had a fewother receivers decide to transfer on their own.
All of a sudden, after thatSugar Bowl, I looked up,

(05:35):
I had three scholarship receivers on ourroster. Okay, we had three receivers
committed out of high school. Thatleft us with six. So we went
and signed one more high school kidand Aaron Butler to get us to seven.
And then we went and took threetransfers that got us to the number
ten at the receiver position, whichis a more of an ideal number to

(05:56):
have on your roster. So thatwas really helpful and official for us.
We talked about the tight end position, we talked about the defensive line position.
Andrew mccouba coming on board. Allof a sudden, Yeah, you
have a couple of guys that graduate, but all of a sudden, Jaron
Thompson decided to transfer, Keaton Crawforddecides to transfer. We have got to
fill up our roster and we can'tgo into every season and me sitting here

(06:20):
in August telling you we're a youngfootball team, right, We've got to
have some experience, We've got tohave some depth there. So I do
think the portal has been advantageous tous. Now we've got to get those
guys acclimated to our culture, ourteam, how we go about our business.
Uh, And that's one of thefun parts. That's one of the
challenging parts that we definitely are lookingforward to. You know, one thing

(06:43):
we're really proud of here and goinginto year four, I've had the same
same coordinators on our football team forfor now going into four straight seasons,
you know, whether it's Pekwakowski,Kyle Flood, Jeff Banks, and and
that's that's critical for stability and continuityon your staff. I've had the same
strength coach now, Tory Beckton,going for four years. So I think
that's big for our players. Butnaturally with success comes opportunities for for other

(07:09):
coaches. Okay, and and andnaturally we're trying to find the best coaches
UH that fit us culturally, butalso that can develop players, that have
proven to develop players, and thatcan recruit at a high level. So
to bring in Johnny Nansen from Arizona, who was their defensive coordinator at Arizona

(07:30):
and a heck of a turnaround thatthey had last season, a guy that
has worked with me in the pastat Washington and usc IS is a huge
addition for us UH. And thento go identify Kenny Baker from the Miami
Dolphins to come and coach the defensiveline, a guy that every person I
call to ask about can't rave enoughabout the quality of coach that he is,

(07:53):
the way he can relate to theplayers and and be demanding but yet
still relate to them so they cancontinue to grow and whether you want to
call Mike McDaniel, Chris Greer,all all of guys that I respect in
the profession could be more excited tohave Kenny on board, uh for for
what he's for what he I thinkis going to bring to us, not
only on the field, but alsofrom a recruiting ranks. You know,

(08:16):
we made some we made some kindof adjustments in our recruiting department. Like
I said, you have to beadaptable in this day and age of of
college football, and I think nowmore than ever, we've got to make
sure that that we've got a strongfoundation in place in that department. Uh.
So, to promote Brandon Harris togeneral manager, John Michael Jones to

(08:39):
Director of Player Personnel, Taylor Cerealsto Director of Recruiting, and Kendall Perry
to Director of Recruiting Operations, Ithink keeps the foundation of our recruiting department
where it needs to be. Andwe're probably not going to be done in
that department, just so y'all know, there's probably going to be a couple
more additions uh to that department.I think now more than ever, because

(09:01):
of high school recruiting, the portalrecruiting the relationships we need to have with
the families is critical, but comingmore excited for for those four and what
they've given to the program and theirtime here, and that the opportunity to
reward them, I think is theway I would love to hire. I
would love to hire from within.I think that that's given people an opportunity

(09:24):
for growth in your program, andall of them have have definitely done that.
So a couple other just sidebar thingsbefore we open it up. I'm
just so fired up for what ourwinner in Spring Sports are doing right now.
I just feel like every every chanceI get I can turn on the
game or get to a game andwatch our people compete, our coaches,

(09:46):
our student athletes, is just it'sjust phenomenal. Uh. And I know
I sound like a broken record,been saying it for three years, but
man, it's inspiring. It's inspiringto watch the competitive spiritu that our that
our teams play with, that ourcoaches coach with. Uh. You know,
even last night, you know,watching RT and our basketball team really

(10:09):
struggle in the first half, butthe fight that they showed in that second
half to to give themselves an opportunityat the end of that game, and
I know they've they've that's been aheck of a journey. They've been on
that the six straight ranked opponents there, which is kind of unprecedented. But
they've they've got they've got work todo. And but but whether it's VIC
and just every sport, it's beenawesome to watch. And then just shout

(10:31):
out to Kyle Shanahan and uh gettingthe Niners to the super Bowl again.
He is a dear friend, guythat I have a ton of respect for
and the profession guy that I lovesharing ideas with and and to watch him
do his thing is is awesome tosee. And then also Charles Amene who
who I know was injured for theSuper Bowl, but what a huge play

(10:52):
he made in that game before hegot injured with the sac phone. Well,
So always cool to see Longhorse doinggreat things. And I'll just say
a couple of things on your radaras we look ahead. We've got starting
next week, we've got four moreweeks of winter conditioning where our coaches will
be back and now we'll fully beimmersed with a full coaching staff. Our

(11:15):
strength and conditioning staff will be big. We'll take off a week for spring
break, and then we'll come backand start spring practice on March nineteenth.
Okay, We'll do that for fiveweeks. We'll practice three days a week.
Our Pro day will be March twentieth, that Wednesday, and then our
coaches clinic will be that Friday Saturday. I think that's March twenty second,

(11:37):
okay, and then we'll wrap itall up on April twentieth for the spring
game. And I believe that's atone o'clock if I'm not mistaken on that,
So I know some housekeeping stuff there, but we'll open it up.
Steve, going back to Brandon's newjob, why was he the fit for

(11:58):
this? And can you explain whata general manager is in college football these
days? Sure? Well, Ithink one thing. You know, when
when I came on board, Brandonwas, I believe, like an offensive
analyst. And you know, you'retrying to assess the current staff, you're
trying to assess who were bringing in, and Brandon and I just kind of

(12:22):
hit it off. I don't knowif it was the quarterbacks in US,
you know, we were kind ofspeaking the same language. His perception of
players, I thought was very impressivefor a young guy. His perception of
character I thought was very impressive fora young guy, you know. His
ability to communicate, I thought wasreally incredible. And it was a guy

(12:46):
that we've just grown. Our relationshiphas grown over three years now, and
so I felt like the time wasright for him to assume this role.
I think so many times in football, in college football used to always be
director of player personnel, and that'sfair and that's what John Michael got elevated
to that role. When you're reallyassessing talent, looking at talent, looking

(13:09):
at your roster and things of thatnature. The general manager is so much
more now when you when you starttalking about transfer portal, you start talking
about n I L, you starttalking about you know, relationships with players,
you start talking about really managing theroster at a little bit of a
higher level. I wanted to makesure that I had somebody in that role

(13:30):
that that I was connected to ona on another level, and I think
my time with Brandon has allowed meto do that. I think he thinks
a lot like me, which isimportant. As much as you know,
I try to, you know,kind of oversee it all. I want
to make sure if I can't bein a meeting that that somebody's thinking and
speaking on my behalf that is onthe same lay wavelength as me and uh.

(13:54):
I just couldn't be more excited.I think he's a rock star in
our profession and he's gonna be He'sgonna be in high level roles for a
long time. Coach. Last seasonwas a culmination of a three year plan
that you put together when you cameto Texas. Can you share what how
you amended your plan for the nextseason, the next three seasons that we

(14:18):
could take hold of and get awindow into your thinking. Yeah, you
know, not to you know,just dive into like the plan of it.
But I do think there's something thatis important that hopefully our players really
recognize. Okay, I'm a firmbeliever team success is what ultimately then provokes

(14:41):
individual accolades, awards, and honors. Okay, So in year one we
go five and seven, and thatwas a difficult season for everybody. What
was needed, right, it wasneeded. But at the end of that
year, that that that resulted inzero players getting drafted in the NFL draft.
Okay, we can back in yeartwo, we make some improvements,

(15:01):
we make some adjustments, we goeight and five, we had five players
get drafted into the NFL Draft.Okay, we continue to try to evolve
and improve and get the right piecesto the puzzle, the culture, all
the things that we've talked about.We go twelve and two, we win
the conference championship, we make theCFP, and now we're staring at what

(15:24):
could be ten to twelve players draftedinto the NFL Draft, some of those
leaving early to go to the NFLDraft to get drafted. And so I
think that that just speaks to ourplayers, like man if I can really
commit to this team and commit tothe developmental process, whether it's in the
weight room, whether it's in theclassroom, whether it's in the community,

(15:46):
whether it's with my position coach,and the more that the team has success,
the better opportunity I might have ato win a championship, b fulfill
my dreams of playing in the NFL, and see having a life after football
with some of the resources and thingsthat we have here at Texas. That's
the plan that we're on, right. How do we keep putting a team

(16:08):
together that gives us the best chanceto be successful and then getting all these
guys to buy into that team,and every year, each team takes on
an identity of its own. Igot thirty new players in that team meeting
room this morning that we're talking aboutthe things that are going to be necessary
where we're at a few weeks inwhere we need to be a month from

(16:30):
now as we go to spring break. And so that's always the challenge,
right And as I said before,I think teams a lot of times take
on the personality of the head coachof where he's at in his progression with
the program. And for me,it's pretty simple, you know. And
we came here. I came here, like I said before, I didn't

(16:52):
come here just to be a headcoach. Again. I didn't come here
to say that I'm the head coachof the univer Texas Like, I came
here to win a championship. Andthen if I can get one, I
want to get two. And I'mborder line obsessed with it at this point.
I know what it tasted like lastyear. I know how close we
were and I couldn't wait to getback and and and hopefully that's what our

(17:18):
team really starts to exude, isthis obsession with being the best because we
have a locker room full of youngmen that are driven, that are focused,
that that want to be the best. They want to be the best
students that that Texas football has everhad. They want to be the best
team. They're they're totally going forit. But that's the challenge day in

(17:38):
and day out. And so youknow, September is gonna come quick enough.
You know, we've got a lotof work to do between now and
then to get ourselves in position tostart that journey. But quite frankly,
the journey started two weeks ago,right as we were getting them up at
five forty five. And we're inwe're in DKR and we're starting conditioning and

(18:00):
that's that's part of being in college. And that's part of that process of
of what it looks like Steve,how big was it to get Quinn back
for at least one more year?And at the same time, look,
you have Arch behind him. Wheredoes Arch kind of go from here now
that Quinn is coming back for anYeah? No, I think it was
big for Quinn. You know,I think pretty easy to see from the

(18:22):
naked eye the development that Quinn madefrom year one to year two. I
don't think that Quinn was was afinished product yet, and I think there's
there's plenty of room for growth andimprovement and development in his game going into
year three. And I think naturally, you know, and when you turn
on you get into the college footballPlayoff, and you look at the team

(18:48):
that beat us, that was asix year senior quarterback, right that that
played at a really high level inthat game. And so I do think
his experience, his maturity are allgoing to be things that he can benefit
from. We're gonna need his leadership, right, We've got we've got some
new faces on the offensive side ofthe ball, especially at the skill positions,
where his leadership is going to bevery important, and assuming the real

(19:14):
face of of Longhorn football, rightfor for a year where we lost a
lot of the faces, right,a lot of the faces, a lot
of the names we've been talking aboutfor a few years now have moved on,
and and so now you know him, him kind of taking those reins
and and and understanding what that isis going to be big. I think
for Arch is continuing on the paththat he's been on. I've referenced it

(19:37):
last year kind of middle of theseason about the growth that he really started
to take there in the second halfof the season, all the way up
until uh, you know, thethe Sugar Bowl there. So again my
my idea, especially at the quarterbackposition, I just don't want to hurry
up and get a guy on thefield. I want to make sure when

(19:59):
he gets on the field that heplays great football. And that's a little
easier to do as you start tomove and you get into year four of
your program as opposed to year one, and you're just trying to get the
best guy out there to give yourselfa chance. But I think Arch has
got an extremely bright future. We'revery fortunate to uh to have him on
our roster. He's got great leadershipskills, got a great skill set.

(20:21):
So those two guys are going tobe big for us next ball now,
Quinn, Quinn's our starter more thanSteve. Just two part question on the
defensive tackle position. One, justeven though it's early in the process,
how are guys like TSA A andmaybe some of the younger freshmen coming along?
And the second part of that question, you know, how crucial is
it to really develop death even thisearly in the process, given it's probably

(20:45):
unfair to ask that position to performas highly as Tavandra and Byron did last
year. Yeah, you know alot of these a lot of these new
faces on the defensive line have youknow, Melvin Hills isn't here yet,
and we'll get him here in June. Naturally, Having Alex January here now

(21:06):
is very beneficial, having Tsve herenow, having some of our younger players
watching, monitoring their growth, asCedeer Mitchell Aaron Bryant of the world.
We still have Alfred Collins back,we have Vernon Broughton back. I'm sure
I'm leaving somebody out here, butin the end, that group as a
whole, that's the process that we'reunderway. And it's probably a little early

(21:30):
to comment on exactly where each guy'sat, but I do think that that
room's going to be a strength ofours. You know, those those two
guys were so good a year ago, and we're talking about two potential first
round picks, you know, Imean, how many how many teams have
that. We've got some really talentedplayers in the room now, and that's
part of building a program and developinga program and not having to throw a

(21:55):
guy out there as a true freshman, but letting him develop as the other
guys are playing. But I alsothink depth is now more than ever in
college football paramount. The reason beingwith the expanded college football playoff, you're
looking at sixteen seventeen game schedule,right, you're closing in on an NFL

(22:17):
schedule, and so to make surethat we have the depth in place at
numerous positions, not just the defensiveline, and playing some of these guys
earlier in games, earlier in theircareer, something that we evolved to last
year. We were playing upwards ofthirty thirty two guys in the first half
of games. I think it's goingto be big for us because the last

(22:38):
thing we want to have happen isyou're in the second round of the playoffs,
if if we're fortunate enough to makeit there, a guy gets injured
and now you've got to put akid out there who hadn't played all year.
And so we're going to have toadapt to that, and we're going
to have to adapt to playing morepeople and what that looks like and how
we develop those rotations in the rightway. He stayed several times last year

(23:03):
you said, you're finally you gotyour culture that you've been looking for.
But this game never stops, andyou lost a lot of leaders. How
important is that trickle down to theseguys that are back, and especially with
the expectations that never change. Yeah, No, I think that that's big,
you know. I think complacency islike the devil man. I mean,

(23:25):
I just I cannot afford anybody inour ability to feel like we've arrived,
right, because this is a newteam and this team now has to
develop their culture. This team hasto develop their strengths. This team I
have to identify their weaknesses and howwe can improve upon those things. We
are fortunate though, to have aQuen you Weres back, to have a

(23:49):
Jake Major's back, to have aKelvin Banks back, to have an Alphad
call Is back, to have aMaurice Blackwell back, to have a Jaday
Baron back, to have a ohDavid Benda back. I mean, we've
got a lot of players who havebeen with us now for two and three
years that really get our culture right. I mean it's ingrained in them now.

(24:14):
It's their responsibility to get that ingrainedin these thirty new players, right,
as much as it's the coaches.Man, it's way more impactful when
it comes from you know, theleaders on the team, and so that
that's always the challenge of empowering thoseguys and then and then taking responsibility of
it, and then growing this teaminto the team that we want to have

(24:34):
as quickly as possible. Right withthe guys at front line on wide receiver.
This past year, you know,Ad was often on the boundary Waitnington
slought where they would move around,but often on the field. Now you've
got three guys with pretty similar profiles. Do you feel like you can maybe
be I know it's before spring,but do you think you could be more
variable with how you deploy receivers?Yeah, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful of

(24:57):
that. You know, again,we we are gonna have to figure this
whole thing out. Uh. Andthat's the fun part as a coach,
right, you know, how farhow much growth can can the three kids
coming back? You know, howfar can they take this? You know
from from Niblett, DeAndre and Johnteand and and what are they going to

(25:18):
look like? And they they allthree last year we trained them at all
three positions, and so we didn'tever want to make them one dimensional player.
So they got trained that way.Uh. The three transfers coming in
are really versatile guys. You know, Matthew Golden is probably a little bit
more physical uh than than Isaiah Silas, but again, all playmaking ability,

(25:41):
all kind of a ton of balls. Uh. And then we've got the
high school kids coming in that thatI think are all unique in their own
way. Obviously, you know,the size of Wingo and and Parker is
probably a little different than the otherguys, but you know, the athleticism
of Freddie and the speed of Aaron. I mean, I think that that
whole group that room is going tobe really solid. And again, we've

(26:04):
just got to find that right groupof guys by the time September rolls around.
And so you know, Coach Jackson, myself, Coach Millwie, you
know that we're the three kind ofprimary guys that work with that group of
identifying strengths, working on weaknesses,and then and then field in a unit
that that can play at a reallyhigh level that I think they're capable of.

(26:30):
Coach Oh, I know you haven'tbeen around him that much. You
know, the new guys in theprogram, but what's kind of been your
first impressions of specifically Andrew mccuba becausehe's from here and know some guys in
the locker room. Yeah, Imean I think, you know, especially
for for mccuba. You know,you don't you don't be a three year

(26:51):
you know, frontline starter at aClemson decide to come back to Texas if
you're not serious about coming back toTexas and being part of our program and
what we're doing. I think it'shelpful that that he and Jaday Baron have
a really good relationship and Jaday haskind of gotten him up to speed quickly
the things that are important in ourprogram. But man, when you can

(27:15):
get a guy with that experience andthat type of playmaking ability is big for
us. But again, I thinkhe's he's serious about his approach. That's
probably my biggest observation of him earlyon is he came here for a reason,
you know, and I think he'sdialed into to what he's working on
and how he's trying to get tothe you know, everybody wants to focus

(27:38):
on the result, but I thinkhe's dialed into the process of it,
knowing the result that he's looking for. In the end, Hey, coach
wanted, does just get your evaluationof the edge position, and how do
you see the guys like the TrayMoors and Colin Simmons kind of fitting in.
And also are there any guys froman injury perspective there are either limited

(28:00):
or not participating in winter conditioning atthis moment. Yeah, I mean,
I'm hopeful those guys, you know, the edge guys, contribute in a
way to where we can have alot more impact with our pass rush off
the edge. It's really early,I mean, we haven't we haven't done
anything football with these guys yet,so it's a little hard to tell.
I know, what the film lookslike, and then how we can kind

(28:23):
of get them ingrained into it andhow that goes. We'll see. I
don't I don't think it's fair tocomment on our injury stuff right now that
we always have stuff coming out ofa season, right everybody's got things that
we're trying to get cleaned up on. That's why we don't practice until March
March nineteenth. Okay, So everybody'sworking in the capacity that they're capable of

(28:45):
working at right now, but Ianticipate it's being fully healthy by spring practice.
Yeah. Steve with the makeup ofthe roster that you've defined and laid
out, Is there any reason thatyou wouldn't have a drop off next year?
And what would say your top couplepriorities are for the spring? You

(29:06):
know, I think if we doit right, I think we'll be a
pretty good game. You know,I think that we've got the leadership,
we've got the skills at the variouspositions and the depth of the various positions
to have a pretty good team.But the process of getting ourselves to that
point is going to be is goingto be the most critical of it all,

(29:27):
because we've got to recreate right.And then not only do we need
to recreate, we need to doit better right. And so the twenty
twenty four version of Texas Longhorns footballis going to look a little different than
the twenty twenty three version. Myjob, like I said, is to
identify the strengths of this team andthen play to the strengths. You know,

(29:48):
who are we what are we bestat? How do we play to
it? Okay, where are someareas of weakness that we can turn into
a strength and identify those things.But now, truly, you know,
the first thing to me is rapportwith with Quinn and arch with with our
skill players, you know, andthen there's I feel very comfortable about the

(30:11):
runners. I mean, CJ andand and Jayden played plenty of football for
us. We're aware of that.We know we've got some really good players
behind those guys. I think gunnerHelm and the offensive line to feel very
strong about that unit. But nowhow finding that rapport with those receivers is
going to be big. And thenon the flip side, I think an
area that that you know is findingthat right combination of players in the back

(30:36):
end and finding a way to beeven more sticky in coverage, especially from
the safety position to defend some ofthese high flying offenses that you have to
defend. Uh, especially if youcan get into the playoffs. You know
that the most teams don't get intothe playoff on accident. You know,
they can score points, and soyou've got to be able to try to
defend those people. And so thoseare probably the two biggest areas to to

(30:59):
monitor. I just wonder if youcould touch on some of the emotions y'all
expressed after the loss to Washington,because I know when you get back,
all those guys are going to preparefor the NFL Draft and some of those
things. What were those The messagefrom some of those seniors, juniors and
seniors that are leaving, well,I think one thing, you know,
my one of my biggest things inthe locker room was I understood the disappointment.

(31:22):
We were all disappointed, but atthe end, we came into the
season to be champions and they were. They were. They were big twelve
conference champions, something that hadn't beendone here for a long long time,
and and something every time they comeback to dk R, you know,
they're going to see twenty twenty threeup in the stadium and they're gonna know
they were part of that team,and they're gonna have a ring and those

(31:44):
types of things. And I wasvery grateful and thankful for them for what
they gave to this program for thetwo or three years that they that they
were part of it with us.And then it was some tough decisions.
Some of those guys had some difficultdecisions to make to to stay or to
go, and some decided to goand some decided to stay, you know,
and then you just try to supplythem with the with the best information

(32:07):
that you can and guide them asbest that you can, and then where
they feel like they're making a rationaldecision and not any emotional one. And
I feel like they all they alldid that. But but in the end,
it's nobody likes to lose, rightAnd nobody likes to lose when it's
the last play, you know.I mean, everybody wants to win their

(32:27):
last game. And uh we uhwe had an opportunity. Did not play
our best game that night. Uhbut it was almost good enough, you
know, And but it wasn't goodenough. And so I think everybody took
their twenty four or forty eight hoursto to feel a little sorry for themselves
and myself included. And then youget back to it, you know,
and and the competitor in you getsyou, gets you up off the mat

(32:52):
and and gets you, gets yourcompetitive juices and your drive going again.
Of Okay, I got I havea responsibility to to these players who are
trying to decide what to do.I have a responsibility to our staff to
help them through some decisions. Becausejust about every coach on our coaching staff

(33:12):
got offered a job this offseason legitimately, and so managing those guys through that
of what's in the best interest forthem, their families, the commitment they
made to us. And grateful forthose guys for all that they've they've done.
But that comes with success, rightwhen you when you play well,
you're gonna have more players thinking aboutgoing to the NFL. When you play

(33:34):
well, you're gonna have other schoolsor the NFL coming and trying to hire
the coaches off your staff. That'sa good thing, right, and that
those those are problems that man,I would have loved to have had in
year one. That wasn't quite sofortunate in year one. But now to
have those problems, man, that'sthat's those are those are the good problems.
And and so you just try tomake sure that you're there for them

(33:57):
on every level that you can be. Going back to the big picture of
signing day, from your perspective,what's recruiting going to look like in the
future of Tennessee and Virginia prevail inthis lawsuit against the NCAA and the band
on using nil and recruiting. Fromyour perspective, how do you size up
the potential impact. I mean,Texas is one of those programs that was

(34:20):
one of the first to have alarge affiliated collective pop up. Yeah,
I don't. It's I don't know, you know. I try not to
forecast too too much because I knowhow important the now is for what we're
doing. But I think that's whyyou see a little bit of kind of

(34:42):
the adjustment that we're making, evenour own recruiting department, of what that's
going to look like. So I'mnot totally naive to where this thing could
go. But I also know,man, I don't want to. I
don't want to be thinking about twentyfive, twenty six, twenty seven when
I think we got a chance bea pretty good team in twenty four.
And so you just try to,like I've said it all along, you

(35:06):
just got to have the ability toadapt and to grow with the changing times
in real time as they come atyou. And there's a lot of things
moving at us fast right now incollege football, and I just honestly I
try to be aware of it.Okay, there's a change, how do
we adjust, how do we benefitmost from it? And then keep moving

(35:30):
forward. But I you know,I think it's a slippery slope when when
you're talking about building a culture andbuilding a team of how much you pour
into that other side of this thingand how much nil and all that,
because the reality of it is,I, like I've said this all along,

(35:52):
I want players to want to cometo the University of Texas because of
all of the right reasons, thehistory and tradition that the campus Austin,
Texas, the power of the degree, the quality of players around them,
the coaching staff, all those things. If you're not coming for those reasons,
you're not gonna You're not gonna behappy. It's not gonna work out

(36:14):
for you. And and really,quite frankly, any school you choose for
not the right reasons, it neverworks out. And then you look up
a year or two from now andthey're the same guys that are in the
transfer portal. And so we haveto be mindful of that, and we
have to really see the signs andlisten for what's important to them, whether

(36:37):
it's the high school recruiting or thetransfer recruiting. To keep our culture as
sacred as we want to keep itright, We've we've worked so hard to
get it to this point. Man. I just I'm very cautious of of
of relinquishing that right just to signthe next best player, because the next

(36:59):
best player might not be the nextbest player for Texas, right. We
have to be mindful of those thingsas we keep moving forward. Coach kind
of on Jimmy's question, how doyou balance your day with the transfer portal,
with the recruits, with the nilAre we now at a situation where
it's professional college football for you?And do you think that's one of the

(37:21):
reasons Coach Saban is retired because hedidn't want to mess He just wanted to
be a ball coach man. Hewas pretty good at balancing a lot of
stuff. I'll give coach saving thathe was the best. I don't know
that's a that's a question for him. I do think this. You know,
I've tried to surround myself with reallygood people. I think that's why

(37:42):
it's so vitally important that we havethe continuity from our coordinator standpoint, I've
got the utmost you know, faithand trust in Pee Kwakowski, Jeff Banks,
Kyle Flood, AJ Millwey like thoseguys. Hey, if I can't
be at a meeting that day,I know that meeting is going to get
ran the right way and things aregoing to get accomplished. That's why having

(38:05):
the connection with Brandon Harrison that rolefrom the other side that he's thinking like
me, that I know if he'sgoing to a meeting, how that meeting
is going to get ran and whatthat's going to look like. And so
in the end, you know,you try to balance it and you try
to focus on the things that arethat are paramount in the moment, uh,
and then trust on the other sidethat things are going to get done

(38:28):
as still at a really high level. And so you know, I I
kind of welcome the challenge. Ikind of think I'm pretty equipped for this
thing, uh and looking forward toit and enjoying it. And UH,
I think that we're benefiting from someof the change in college football because I
think we've kind of been built forthis thing and been building towards it.

(38:52):
Coach, you know, Jahday andJake you know, they had some difficult
decisions to make on whether to leavefor the NFL or coming back. How
do you kind of guide them throughthose decisions? What were those conversations like
whenever they were discussing with you,well, all the guys when they you
know, when they when they're tryingto decide to stay or to go,

(39:14):
we try to look at it fromkind of the ten thousand foot view,
and we get all the we getall the draft grades from the NFL,
from team specific, you know,all present them with seven to ten teams
of real write ups for them,and then where they're at, where they're
projected, where maybe their deficiencies are, and can they improve upon those deficiencies.

(39:37):
We look at where they're at froma graduation standpoint or a master's standpoint.
We look at where they're at inbranding themselves in Austin, this is
a great city for a life afterfootball and what that looks like. And
we look at a potential role onour team next year and what that would
look like. And so whether itwas the guys that decided to go to
the NFL or the guys that decidedto stay, it was really the same

(40:00):
process to remove some of the emotionand really make a high level rational decision
and what would in the at leastin their eyes, feel like is in
their best interest for their future.Yeah, coach, a wide number of
the twenty four class came from outof state. Obviously, maintaining control in
state is a big objective, Butcan you talk a little bit about Coach

(40:22):
Baker and Coach Nansen and the tiesthat they have not only to the West
Coast but also to the Deep Southwhere you know, recruiting is going to
become a more prevalent issue there.Yeah, I think historically, you know,
for me, having a lot ofthe ties in California has been beneficial.
You know, the idea that wecould go to California last year and

(40:42):
get a Brandon Baker and continue tobuild upon that, and the idea that
that footprint in California now is movingeast with some of those schools, you
know, moving to the Big Tenand to the ACC that now pretty much
every kid in that state is goingto be apt to willing to go out
of state. And so, uh, Coach Nansen and I have a great

(41:05):
history together. I know that hethat he is an ace recruiter on the
West Coast in California. I knowwe just touched on. My time is
getting pulled a little, you know, thinner of that I can just get
to California. So to get someonewith a strong footprint in California was big
for me. But I also knowwe're adjusting and we're moving out of the

(41:28):
Big twelve where the majority of theteams are in the state of Texas and
we're all here, we're moving eastand we're we're going to Louisiana, Alabama,
Georgia. Uh, that's now becominga little bit more of our footprint
and so having to shard Choice andthe work that he's been doing in Georgia
and Florida. Now to add coachBaker with his ties to to growing up

(41:52):
in Georgia and starting his coaching careerin Georgia, but also having worked with
it with the Dolphins again, we'regonna make our hay and recruiting in the
state of Texas and that that goeswithout saying. But the idea that we've
got a brand now that nationally isviewed upon as one of the top teams
in the country where you can geta player too from from those states that

(42:15):
are quality players. You know,I think it's worth our while to to
to dive a little deeper into that. And Steve, you're just touching on
recruiting in the state of Texas withwith the addition of Andrew. Uh,
your your numbers as far as localguys being key contributors to this program are,

(42:37):
I mean, you're you know,those those numbers are climbing. Whenever
you're trying to sustain a culture andbuild a culture, how important is it
to have key contributors or how muchof a plus is it to have key
contributors who are also local talent?Well, it's helpful. I mean,
it's a lot easier for me torecruit locally. I don't have to get
on a plane every every day,but uh I can. I can jump

(42:58):
on the thirty five or so somethingand and head up to you know,
Flugerville or round Rock or Manor orbast Drop or wherever. Right, I
mean, we've got some local playershere that have been high, high quality
players. We've also done a realanalysis on a lot of quality players from
this local area that went and playedat other places that have gone on to

(43:19):
have great careers and are in theNFL doing really good things too. And
Okay, well why didn't they cometo Texas And how do we avoid that
in the future. And so theidea that that John A's having success,
Mcooba's back, Alfred Collins has hada having a good career, is looking
forward to a great senior year.Ethan Burk's having success from West Lake,

(43:39):
so those are just to name afew guys that that that that's beneficial.
We our backyard has got really goodfootball players in it. There's been a
lot, Like I said, there'sbeen a lot of other players from our
backyard that didn't come to Texas Andwould we have recruited them? Would we
not have? You know that thatyou know that's playing Monday morning quarterback,

(44:00):
which I'm not going to do inrecruiting because I don't like when you guys
do it with me on Mondays.But point being, point being, we
have to do a really good jobin Central Texas. We have to do
a really good job in our backyardof maintaining that the high quality players that
are here, you know that thisis one of their top options if if

(44:21):
they're not coming to school here.Hey, Steve, obviously, you guys
brought in a lot of experienced receiversfrom the portal. What does that mean
for the receivers this year that we'refreshmen. Well, I think it's this.
I think that, Hey, we'realways trying to field the best team
we can we can field. Again, every player we recruit onto our roster

(44:46):
here, we have an expectation thatthat they're going to contribute to our team
and to our team's success. Howfar they take it remains to be seen.
But the three guys that are comingback in John Ta Cook, DeAndre
Moore, and Rye Nibott are areThey are all very very talented young players,

(45:07):
or we wouldn't have recruited them.They they've got size, they've got
speed, they've got ball skills,and their future is very bright. And
but but to think I was goingto go into a season with three scholarship
receivers, that that would have beenmalpractice. Okay, So I've got to
I've got to try to fill ourroster up with enough depth at that room

(45:31):
at any position, and then thatcase that room to where there's competition because
of me, in my opinion,competition brings out the best in all of
us. But also having some experience, I think we were returning eight career
catches at the receiver room as well. So the idea that I was able
to go get three high level startingreceivers from good programs that can come and

(45:57):
contribute to make up that room,I think is that's going to be beneficial
for us in the fall. Sothere it is. The National Signing Day
Press conference from long Orange Seat footballcoach Steve sarkisian the unusual nature of not
having actually an actual signing today,but the totality of the signing class,

(46:17):
including the December high school football signeesand then those who arrive via the transfer
portal, and then of course thechanges with the recruiting dynamics, the elevation
of staff members to further recruiting spots, and the calendar for the off season
work as they continue with their winterconditioning and getting ready for the spring football

(46:43):
practices, ultimately culinating in the springgame, the Orange White Spring Game on
April twentieth, which we'll have foryou at one o'clock in the afternoon there.
So it's going to wrap up fromhere. A reminder, will have
highlights from this news conference coming atthis afternoon on the Craigway Show at two
o'clock and will have my exclusive sitdown with coach Sart so at the opportunity
to visit with coach sark just priorto the start of this news conference,

(47:07):
So all that coming up this afternoonfrom two to five on the Craigway Show.
We will return you to Colin Cowardcoming up next on Sports Radio Am
thirteen hundred. The zone
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