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October 16, 2023 • 45 mins
Coach Sark previews Texas vs. Houston
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
But the adjusters have made extremely generousdiscounts on everything. All are now ready
for inspection and immediate delivery. Comingto you live from the forty Acres,
It's the Texas Football Weekly Presser withhead coach Steve Sarkisian and welcome to our

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live coverage of the weekly press conferenceat the University of Texas this morning on
Warren's wrapping up the morning workout ofCoach sark will be along here in just
a few moments to talk about theupcoming matchup at the University of Houston this
coming Saturday afternoon. That is athree o'clock kickoff from TDECU Stadium on the

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campus a University of Houston. That'llbe this coming Saturday, So and of
course our coverage on the someone willbegin at one o'clock Saturday afternoon with the
Texas Tailgate Show, the network pregame of two, and then at three
o'clock will be the kickoff. Wehave not as I speak to you at

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the moment, have not heard akickoff time yet for the contest the following
week at home when Texas host BYUon Saturday the twenty eighth, and that
we will probably hear something on that, in fact, we should hear some

(01:38):
sort of announcement I would say withinthe next hours. Is checking just in
to see if we're going to hearsome sort of an announcement, even if
it does involve the television networks utilizingthe first of their three optional six day
selection windows. In other words,instead of twelve days out prior to kickoff,

(02:00):
announcing the kickoff times for the gameswith their television selections, instead going
with a six day window. Theyhave three of those optional six day windows,
and they have not yet utilized anyof those, so it's certainly possible,
but we have not yet been givenany indication of what's going to happen
with that yet and when we do, and I would imagine that we may

(02:23):
well have it before we leave airfrom these proceedings by around the noon hour.
If we don't, we'll certainly haveit coming up on the Craigway Show
this afternoon at two o'clock. Fromtwo to four pm here on AM thirteen
hundred zign long Worns, we'll enterthis week's matchup with the Houston Cougars not

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only five and one coming off theopen date on the schedule of bye week,
but they actually moved up one spotin the Associated Press Top twenty five
college football rankings, up to numbereight from number nine. The reason for
that, in large measure had todo with Oregon's loss to Washington because it
dropped the In fact, Texas andOregon just wapped places in the poll number

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nine for number eight. But theway that the AP Top twenty five rankings
read, Georgia captured forty three ofthe sixty three first place votes in the
AP poll, so Georgia is stilla clear number one in the rankings.
Michigan at number two, and thetop four positions in the poll held their

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spots from the prior week. Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, and Florida
State all by the way, gotsome first place votes out of it as
well, and so it is Georgiawith forty three first place votes and fifteen
hundred and forty one total points overall, a clear number one. Michigan is

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a clear number two, by theway, in fact, almost one hundred
points ahead of Ohio State, whichis the number three slot, Michigan getting
sixteen of the remaining twenty first placevotes, and the Wolverines at seven to
oh overall and fourteen hundred ninety twopoints. Ohio State did get one first
place vote and held on to itsnumber three position following its forty one to

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seven win over Purdue on Saturday,but again clearly behind Michigan, which had
been Indiana fifty two to seven.Georgia, by the way, while holding
on to the one spot, didslip a little bit in terms of its
total points accrued because they were givena little bit tougher time from Vanderbilt that
many folks thought Bulldogs ended up winningit thirty seven to twenty. But Georgia

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is still number one, Michigan numbertwo. Ohio State thirteen hundred ninety three
total points, and they are sixand going into their huge matchup this week
with Penn State. Florida State heldonto the number four spot and one first
place ballots. The Seminoles like OhioState at six and oh and only five
points behind the Buckeyes in the totalpoint accrued in the rankings of Florida State

(05:01):
on the rise and held on tothe number four spot but gaining ground on
Ohio State. So we'll see howthat's affected by the outcome of the Florida
Ohio State Penn State game. Thisweek. Washington made the biggest move during
the week, moved up two spotsfrom seven to five, and I say
biggest, biggest in terms of thetop ten. And the Huskies with that

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thrilling come from behind winnever Oregon aresix and oh now they picked up actually
two first place votes and jumped twospots in the poll from number seven to
number five. There were two voterswho actually gave the Huskies a first place
vote on the basis of that lastsecond went in over Oregon and Washington at
thirteen hundred and fifty five points.Oklahoma actually dropped one spot from number five

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to number six as Washington leap froggedthe Sooners. The Sooners, like the
Loghorns, enjoyed an open date onthe schedule, so the bye week actually
wound up costing Oklahoma one spot inthe poll. They dropped down to number
six, and they have twelve hundredand seventy seven points in the ranking,
but a good chunk behind Washington,which supplanted them in the number five spot.

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Penn State also dropped one spot asWashington leapfrog both Penn State and Oklahoma.
Penn State fell one spot to numberseven. Like Oklahoma, like Washington,
like Florida State, and like Ohiostate. The Nidney Allions are six
to oh twelve hundred and fifty threepoints, not that far behind Oklahoma for
the number six spot, so that'swhere it is. And then the number

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eight spot belongs to Texas. Texasat five and one and moved up one
spot to number eight in the pollwith one and ninety eight points. Number
nine is Oregon, dropping one spotafter that close road loss at Washington that
propelled the Huskies to jump up tonumber five in the rankings and Oregon at

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number nine in the poll and fallingone spot in the pole there. And
then North Carolina also jumping a coupleof spots like Washington did. Mac Brown's
Tar Heels now six and oh andtheir best start since his last season in
his first go around in Chapel Hillin nineteen ninety seven. North Carolina started

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that season eight and oh. They'resix and oh right now coming off that
forty one to thirty one win overMiami on Saturday night in Chapel Hill,
and so North Carolina moved up twospots and the Tar Heels are into the
top ten at number ten, sixand oh and one thousand and eleven points.

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Alabama held on to its number elevenspot after its close call win over
Arkansas with Crimson tides till six andone. They're only lost coming at home
to Texas. There in the secondweek of the season, Oregon Statement a
nice move up three spots to numbertwelve. That was after the Beavers won
on Saturday night at home against UCLA, and Oregon State is at number twelve

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eight hundred and thirty four points inthe rankings. Ole Miss held its spot
at the number thirteen ranking at fiveand one. Utah is up two spots
in the rankings. The Utes arefourteenth in the polls six hundred ninety five
points on they're well behind ole Miss, which is just behind Oregon State,

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which is well behind Alabama. Soit's a significant drop off from Alabama at
eleven to Oregon State at twelve interms of the total balloting points, and
Oregon State and ole Miss are onlyseparated by nine points. And then there
is another drop off by more thanone hundred points to Utah at fourteen.

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Even though the Utes did move uptwo spots in the rankings, and of
course the big matchup this week Utahand USC more on USC in a moment
Notre Dame, which beat Southern Californiaon Saturday night, moved up six spots
in the ranking. Remember, theFighting Avers were five and two prior to
that dominating performance in the win ofour Southern California on Saturday night in South

(09:09):
Bend, and so USC fell quitea bit and Notre Dame now at six
and two, the highest ranked twoloss team in the polls. Notre Dame
at number fifteen and six one hundredand sixty four points, moving up six
spots in the rankings. Duke movedup one spot following its twenty four to
three win over North Carolina State onSaturday night Durham. It's interesting there were

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two big time matchups separated in Divisionone FBS college football in a Power five
league seven miles apart on Saturday nightplayed concurrently basically the North Carolina Miami game
in Chapel Hill, and then sevenmiles up the road on US fifteen and

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five oh one, you had Dukein North Carolina State playing on Saturday night
in Durham. Duke won that matchuptwenty four to three, and the Blue
Devils moved up one spot from numberseventeen to number sixteen in the rankings.
Five and one Tennessee after Saturday's winover Texas A and M climbed two spots
in the poll to number seventeen.The volunteers like Duke utah Ole, miss

(10:18):
All and Texas all at five andone Tennessee beating Texas A and M defense
largely carrying the day for the volunteerson Saturday in that twenty to thirteen winter
for Texas A and M rallying backto get the win in that one and
Tennessee gets the win. So Tennesseeis now five in one and moved up
two spots in the poll and gettingready for their huge matchup against Alabama.

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USC fell eight spots. It wasthe first loss of the season for the
Trojans, but largely dominated by NotreDame in the game on Saturday night in
South ben and so USC suffering itsfirst loss of the season, but they
had already slipped a little bit threespots and in the polls with some close

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call victories, all the while remainingunbeaten. And then the other shoe dropped
on Saturday nights when they were summarilybeaten by Notre Dame and as a result
of that, to USC is numbereighteen in the rankings. Then they fell
eight spots in the poll. Numbernineteen is LSU. The Tigers moved up

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three spots in the rank and that'sanother two loss team, the second of
the two loss In fact, inthe top twenty five, there were three
teams with two losses. Notre Dameis the highest ranked at number fifteen.
LSU checks in at number nineteen withthe tigers victory over Auburn on Saturday evening,
So LSU at four hundred ninety threepoints and they're at number nineteen.

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Missouri back in the rankings at numbertwenty. Remember, the Tigers had fallen
out of the top twenty five butgot back into it with Massoos went over
Kentucky on the road on Saturday evenings, So Missouri went from being ranked to
falling out of the pole and nowback in, climbing in at number twenty

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with that road win at Kentucky,and the Tigers are six and one.
Louisville is six and one. Butthe one happened Saturday night, a shocking
loss on the road at Pittsburgh pitbeating Louisville on Saturday night in Pittsburgh,
and that first loss of the seasondropped the Cardinals some seven spots. The

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second tide Tide, I should say, for the second most precipitous drop in
the rankings, exceeded only by USC'sfalling of eight spots in the poll.
From ten to eighteen. Louisville fellfrom number fourteen to number twenty one in
the rankings. Louisville at six andone. Air Force in the rankings for
the first time this season, andthis is a little bit of an interesting

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note for Texas Longhorn fans because ofwhat air Force did on Saturday night.
They won an airtight contest, ahigh scoring affair at home over Wyoming.
Going into that game, Wyoming's onlyloss had been here in Austin to the
University of Texas back on September sixteenth. That was the only loss, a
game that's probably been better known forthe drone show that happened on Saturday night

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here on the forty Acres as muchas anything else. But air Force is
at number twenty two and unbeaten andon top of the Mountain West Conference standings,
which are basically right now a fourteam race between air Force, Boise
State, Wyoming and Fresno State andAir Force with the win on Saturday thirty

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four to twenty seven. So theFalcons make their debut in the top twenty
five pole at number twenty two.At six and zero, Tulane is back
in the top twenty five rankings aftertheir Friday night come from behind road win
at Memphis, and the Green Waveis now five and one on a big
win for TWU Lane to win onthe road down double digits in the second

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half at Memphis, a Memphis teamthat had only lost one game, and
Tulane came back and got the win. So now the Green Wave are five
and one and they are back inthe top twenty five and we're starting to
get to this point where we getinto some real important college football matchups and
in conference play, and that's thecase. Tulane is another one of those

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teams that is having to deal withthat. They've got North Texas this week,
and then they'll play at Rice inEast Carolina and Tulsa, and then
they have Florida Landing and then perhapsthe big show down with UTSA. If
UTSA is indeed still in position totry to play for an American Conference championship,

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but two lane at five and oneon top of the American Conference standings,
and they are number twenty three inthe rankings. Iowa checks back into
the poll at number twenty four.You know, there were a lot of
jokes made about the Hawkeyes matchup withIoming I mean, excuse me, with
Wisconsin on Saturday. So Iowa playedWisconsin, and for those who were into

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the whole betting line thing, justas a footnote on this, the quote
unquote over under on this was Ibelieve thirty four and a half points,
which for Division one Power five collegefootball is an extremely low number. And
yet the joke was going around takethe under, and if you had taken

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the under, you know won Thefinal was fifteen to six. In that
game, you talk about a rockfight between Iowa and Wisconsin. And the
Hawkeyes back in the poll. They'reat six and one, and then the
top twenty five finishes out with UCLA. Ucla comes off that loss to Oregon
State, and I mentioned that thelargest drop in the top twenty five this

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week was USC falling eight spots fromnumber ten to number eighteen, and then
I said that two other schools fellseven spots Louisville from fourteen to twenty one
in UCLA from eighteen to twenty five. So there it is. There's your
top twenty five college football rankings.The Long Warns up one spots to number
eight in this week's poll. Gettingready for the matchup with the Houston Cougars.

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It's time now for Long Worns headcoach Steve Sarcasian, fresh from the
practice field and in position for thisweek's news conference to discuss the open date,
preparations and getting ready for the matchupwith the Houston Cougars, a Saturday
afternoon kick off at three o'clock.Here all its own peer. As they
head coach, I think you're tokick it off. One, just to
go back to the buy. Ithink the bye week was very good for

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us. One to really hone inon some of the areas where we want
to improve as a team. Two. Naturally, we had had some guys
that were a little banged up afterthe first half of the season, so
to get them as healthy as wecould get them that week I thought was
good. I think Three for alot of our younger players. You know

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that you were really highly competitive throughouttraining camp and the first part of the
season and then had kind of beenon the scout team there for for a
couple three weeks to refuel their competitivespirit and to do a lot of a
lot of their work competitively. Ithought was great to see. I was
proud of those guys and that andthat aspect. But I think inevitably for

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us, we're back to game weekand we're playing a really good Houston team
on the road, and that's different. Right, We've got to now reset
again, right where bye week wasone thing. We can't let the bye
week kind of trickle into game week, and so it was important for us
today to go out and have agood practice with the right mental intensity,
the right focus, which I thinkthe guys did, because that's what it's

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going to take. You know,this football team we're getting ready to play
has an experienced quarterback which we allknow all too well, Donovan Smith in
the transfer from Tech and how heplayed against US a year ago and the
challenges that he presents. You know, obviously two great returners you know,
with with Golden and Fleming and thekick return game and the punt return game.

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A very active defense on the defensivefront with what they do with Caesar
coming off the edge, and soall in all, we know, we
know this team presents a lot ofchallenges. I think one thing I've been
impressed with with with col Person's teamis how they've improved throughout the year.
Obviously, had a great game Thursdaynight, had a very exciting game which
we had a chance to watch,one that they had in hand kind of

(18:33):
slipped away and then we're able tomake the play at the end to win
it. So we know we've gota confident football team we're gonna play against
in a sellout game on the road, and so we've got to prepare for
the opportunity that lies ahead, whichI think our guys are well underway with
that starting this morning, Steve,do you have injury updates for the major

(18:56):
major guys. Yeah, all ofthe guys practice today, Okay, So
I think that's probably the first partthat's really positive. Where you know,
last week we really limited a lotof guys. You know, we limited
you know, Jake to all aboutnothing. We limited jt It all about
nothing, We limited Ryan all aboutnothing. We really wanted to try to
get them healthy. Today we cameback, everybody practiced, probably the most

(19:21):
limited of the group was Cole Hudson, but they all practiced. Now,
as the week goes on, I'mgonna have to make that decision later in
the week of who is really readyto play. I don't think to be
fair to them, that's probably youknow, to give them that chance to
really practice on Tuesday and Wednesday inour physical practice to see to make sure
that they're in position to perform andto do it at a high level.

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But I was encouraged today that theywere all out there going. But again,
as the week goes on, I'llhave a probably a very cleaner update
of who's really going to be availableSaturday. But today was a really really
good sign back and off that withthe line in particular, it seems like
there's probably some moving parts. Howimportant was it to have maybe two weeks

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to cross train and get everybody readyto figure out how that's gonna go.
Yeah, no, I think itwas. It was huge, you know,
I mean, what what great experienceConnor got a couple of weeks ago
in that ballgame, and then obviouslylast week of just kind of being that
that that primary center. We dohave players that are really versatile guys,
you know, Hayden Connor is extremelyversatile guy that can move around. Nato

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got a lot of good opportunities lastweek to wrap things out Cam Williams again,
he's a versatile guy that can movearound. So I think that's one
thing, you know, one ofthe reasons why coach Flood and I have
such good rapport. We're very comfortabledoing those things, and so you can
take a week like last week andmove some guys around knowing there might be
some growing pains there. But ifwe need to get to that down the

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road, it won't be the firsttime guys have been exposed to a couple
different spots. I don't know ifyou did a more serious evaluation of your
own team here a bye week,did you learn anything maybe really good about
your team that he didn't really expectand anything you need to fix a little
bit? Yeah? You know,I think one thing that sometimes I take

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a little bit for granted is thatyou know, we're we're moving the ball
at a really high clip offensively rightnow. I mean that we're our average
arts per play, the efficiency inwhich we're doing it. We've really improved
kind of our third down. Andthen the one area that that jumped out
to me is how efficient we've beenon fourth down, which is something that
we knew we wanted to be aggressivethis year, but the effectiveness of the

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aggressiveness is something that has stood outto me, and so that definitely is
something here in the second half ofthe season. Hopefully we can lean into
more to take advantage of that,because I do think we're executing at a
high level. I think naturally offensively, I'll stay there for a minute.
You know, our red zone execution, uh is an area where if we
want to be the team that wethink we're capable of being, we have

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to take that to another level.And so that evaluation was not just of
the players, that was of thecoaches, that was of the game plan,
that was of the play caller.What are we calling when, why,
what are our players good at,what do they execute at a high
level, and what have they shownus throughout training camp and in practice that
we should have confidence in them togo do So that is something that that

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I'm glad we were able to diginto and areas where I think we can
improve. I think defensively, youknow, we've played really good football on
the defensive side of the ball.But naturally, as I as I look
at ourselves defensively, an area whereI know we can improve is we've got
to take the ball off of peoplemore. And we've got to attempt to

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take the ball off of people more. You know, we we've created some
interceptions, but we really haven't knockedthe ball off of people and created turnovers.
And I know we're more than capableof doing it, but sometimes it's,
like anything, things can get lostthroughout the season, and we're trying
to defend the run and defend thepass and all the different things. But
we've got to continually as at emphasizegetting the ball off of our opponents,

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so that that for sure is somethingthere. I love the fact that we're
we're attacking the kicking game the waythat we are on special teams, and
you know, we blocked the puntlast week. I really think we should
have blocked the second one. Wejust kind of slipped and our angle got
off. We've been really close onthe field goal game of blocking kicks there.
So I like that. But man, I think we can be even

(23:25):
more effective on special teams, andso that's, like anything, we're constantly
trying to push our guys. Butto push our players, we have to
push our staff, right, Ourstaff's got to keep working towards those things
as well. So all in all, I'm pleased with where we're at at
this point in all three phases,but also know we can be better and
that's our job then to motivate theguys to continue to improve now in the

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second half of the season. Steveonce, if you talk about saveon Red's
role in the offense house, wesaw it in the wildcat past couple of
weeks ago, and also if thatrole could include some of the goal line
and red zone stuff that you talkedabout. So Save has really grown into
this. You know, it's it'salways a little difficult when you when you
change positions, right, just kindof a high school quarterback, wildcat quarterback.

(24:08):
We got them this freshman year.He plays wide out, then we
transition him to running back, andthere's a lot of nuances to play and
running back. You know, Ithink it's it's easy just to think get
the ball and run, but butunderstanding blocking schemes, understanding fronts, understanding
protections, uh, and all thatgoes into it. And that's a that's
a really good room there's a lotof talented people in there, but to

(24:30):
find a niche for him in someof the short yardage running that that he
was able to do, I thoughtwas very effective. And again, you
know, hopefully there's more opportunities forhim that present themselves in the second half
of the season. Right, comeon to coach. You talked about the
twos and threes getting a little bitmore run this past week. Can you
tell me about ange those guys mayhave stood out to you? And and

(24:52):
for old time sake, how's Archdoing, how's Elite doing? How those
guys progressing? Yeah? So,I mean, I think inevitably when the
twos and the threes go. Theone thing that I'm constantly looking for.
We have a lot of really goodplayers and they make a lot of highlight
type plays, and the area wherewe're really challenging that group is consistency,

(25:15):
right, because that's what it takesto be an every down player on a
championship caliber team. There's got tobe a level of consistency. We can't
have three really good plays and thenone catastrophic busting coverage or a wrong route
or a drop a ball or ablown protection. And I think that's something
that our frontline guys do really well. We also can use examples from last

(25:40):
week's game of when you're in thereand whether you're a frontline player or a
new player, and then you havethat bust. It becomes catastrophic when you're
in a game because that's how youlose. And so I think that was
something that we were really trying topress upon those guys last week about a
level of consistency, whether it wasrun game, pass game, you know,

(26:00):
on either side of the ball,Special teams is trying to get that
done. So there were a lotof guys and that wouldn't be fair for
me to single out a couple thatwould do it. So, but that's
something that we're really trying to emphasizeto them of having a level of consistency
in your play. I think Malikand Arch have again just continue to grow
systematically in a real sense and understandingof what we're doing. I mentioned a

(26:22):
couple of weeks ago, I thoughtArch probably had his best practice that he
had had since he had been here, And again, there's a level of
consistency in that play, right,how do you carry that practice to the
next one and the next one andthe next one. So that's always a
challenge at the quarterback position for us. But there's been great intent in that
room with those guys working hard andworking with coach Millie to take their game

(26:44):
to another level because there's going tocome a time, you know, knock
on wood, when their number isgoing to get called on and we're going
to need them to play a highlevel of football to win a ball game.
Coach, when you said don't wantthat bye week to cle into this
week, is that about keeping theedge that you guys had to have for
six weeks. Then the guys getto a little break to go home.

(27:06):
Meantime, Houston does still get alittle extra time and they've got that emotional
win they're coming off of. Yeah. No, I think for us,
you know, inevitably, we're we'reat our best, you know, And
I said this coming in the seasonwhen we do play with an edge,
you know, when we when wedo play with a chip on our shoulder,
when we do, when we playlike we've you know, we've got

(27:27):
something to prove. And I thinkit goes without saying we've got something to
prove in the second half of theseason, and we know They're all going
to be very challenging games, likeI said, and it starts this Saturday
at Houston. They're going to beexcited for the ball game that was a
big win for them, and likeI said, I think they've improved each
game as they move forward. Sowe got to make sure that we get

(27:48):
our mental intensity right and that startsin practice, that starts in our meetings
that we're really dialed into the detailsof the plan of what we're doing so
that we can on Saturday at threeo'clock go cut it loose and play our
our style, our our brand offootball, which is loose, which is
confident, but you can get youget that way because of your preparation.

(28:08):
And we got to make sure thatwe have that edge starting this morning and
then carry it on throughout the weekso that we can perform that way on
Saturday. Hey, Steve, howdo you walk that line as a coaching
staff maintaining that edge off of byeweek? Because I know you got to
you gotta get guys healthy and youalso trying to keep that connectivity at the

(28:30):
same time. Yeah, you know, our thing was I wanted to create
that edge with our twos and ourthrees last week. I felt like they
needed that. You know, sometimeswhen you're on scout team and you're you're
given the look of the opponent andyou know, and you're getting told kind
of what to do sometimes and maybethey wouldn't play it a certain way if
it was if they could just playthe play. Last week, I wanted

(28:51):
to make sure that I kind of, you know, respark their competitive spirit
and what that looked like. Andso practice remained highly competitive last week.
It just wasn't our frontline guys.It wasn't our ones. It was our
twos and our threes. And thenwe made it a big point this morning
that okay, now it's your turnto come right back. So we never
really lost the energy at practice thatway. It still stayed at a high

(29:12):
level. It was just different people. And so now as I just got
done talking to the players again aboutwas, hey, it's game week,
let's make sure that we maximize thisopportunity. Right, Opportunities are only great
if you sees them, and we'vegot to seize this opportunity. And so
the competitive spirit at practice has gotto be right for us to perform.

(29:32):
Who did you watch the game withthe Houston West Virginia game and was at
a teaching tool that he'll Mary foryour guys. Well, I was actually
with Coach Banks. We were recruiting, and so as we were bouncing around,
I had my iPad out and Ikind of had your kind of driving
and watching it all all at onceand getting back to the hotel there at

(29:53):
the end. Ironically, it's itfelt a lot like our game two weeks
ago, quite frankly. You know, West Virginia scored with whatever it was
twelve seconds. You know, Fortunatelyfor Houston, they got the unsportsmanlike conduct
foul and got the kickoff, movedback, but then it came down to

(30:15):
the hail Mary from the from theforty five and and Paul was able to
bounce to him. You know,we executed ours pretty well a couple of
weeks ago. It just fell ina spot that we weren't there. And
so I think the lesson learned isyou got to play all sixty minutes until
until that last tick on the clock. And so but a credit to Houston
for for getting themselves back into thatposition and getting the completion and then and

(30:40):
then taking that shot at the endand being where they were supposed to be
to uh to make the play.Steve, How's how's Anthony Hill progressing at
week side linebacker? And what ifanything did you learn or tweak about your
two minute defense? Anthony has reallycontinued to grow. He's not a finished

(31:00):
product yet, but he really worksat it. He loves football. Like
I said, you know, we'vewe've asked a lot of him here in
the first half of the season atmultiple positions in different styles of whether it
was rushing the quarterback, spying thequarterback, playing normal linebacker, and I
think he's continued to improve. Uh. He's definitely got playmaking ability. He

(31:23):
plays the game of football the wayit's supposed to be played. He plays
with fanatical effort. So you know, hopefully we see we continue to see
that growth out of him and utilizehim, uh in a way that can
help the football team. Uh.You know, from a two minute standpoint,
You know, as I went backand watched that that that last drive
and a couple of these drives,and I think one we have to we

(31:45):
have to improve our tackling in twominutes. You know, I think it
was the second play of that drive. Two weeks ago, we had an
opportunity to get the receiver down andbounds, and we we don't leverage the
ball very well. You know,we don't get him on the ground.
You let the receiver get out ofbounce. Well, when you get out
of bounce, you can stop theclock. Now teams can run whatever play

(32:05):
they want to run. So Ithink one thing is to zone drop right.
Another is to is to keep yourpass rush lanes clean, which is
something that we've talked about. Andthen the third component to that is you
have to tackle well. And soall that added up to in the end
of that drive, which I thinkis modily important, and it kind of
came up in the middle of thedrive too. Our communication has got to

(32:25):
be on point. So all thosethings add up to them. Not that
as coaches we always want to makethe perfect call and the best call,
and I get all that, butat the end of the day, we
still have to execute the call.And there's a lot of levels to execution,
one of which is communication. Everybodyon the same page. Two is
doing our job man zone coverage,pass rush lanes. But then three we

(32:49):
still have to continue to tackle.We can't relax. And I thought that
those were a couple of areas whereI think we can improve Coot, why
do you think this? This likeoffense was just so like Jacob has struggled
in the red zone and kind ofwhat are some areas that you think you
can how do you improve that?We just we have to game plan better
and we have to execute better.It's not you know that there's no you

(33:14):
know, secret sauce to this deal. You know, I mean I think
that our players buy in and trustand believe in what we do, and
clearly it shows when we can createexplosive plays and move the ball and execute
and in the end, you know, I think ultimately you kind of do
an audit on yourself there halfway throughthe season at different aspects of the game,

(33:37):
and we just need to make surethat from a game planning perspective and
what we're asking of our players ingame, and then ultimately what I'm calling
that everybody has the utmost confidence inthose things to go do that, which
I don't doubt that everybody does.But ultimately it comes down to the execution
of it all. So I thinkit's three levels to it. You know,
what what are we putting in eachweek and what are we gain planning

(33:59):
what are we to sing in practice? Two? Then what are we calling
and are we giving our players thelooks in practice for the potential looks that
they could get in game. Andthen three the execution of those plays in
the moment. So it's no differentthan any other aspect of the game,
and sometimes we can make a littlemore out of that than it is.
It's just about trusting who we areand then going out and executing it and

(34:22):
doing it at a high level.A lot of your explosive plays is here
have been runs. What's kind ofthe ingredients to making a run play and
turn into an explosive play? Well, I think one, the plan,
right, I mean, we've gotto make sure that the runs that we're
calling, predicated on the defenses andthe fronts that we're getting, are playing

(34:42):
into our strengths, but also hopefullytaking advantage of maybe a weakness in theirs,
whether it's a personnel weakness or aschematic weakness. I think two,
our RPO game is really effective,and so that the fact that people have
to defend our RPOs because you know, whether it's it's Xavier Jordan a d
even our tight ends have gotten involvedin our RPO game to create explosive plays.

(35:07):
Three, the threat of those guysin the in the pass game,
the play action pass game, andpeople are obviously very concerned, but with
us, you know, throwing theball over their heads and are playing a
little bit more of a conservative approach. In turn, if you put all
that together and you block the front, well, that's creating space and running
lanes for for our runners, mostnotably Jonathan, and he's taken advantage of

(35:29):
it. I think the last piecethat sometimes our guys don't get enough credit
for. Not every run play wecall is an RPO and we ask a
lot of our receivers and blocking downfield, and that block is really the one
that creates the explosive play, rightthat block on the safety, that block
on the corner backside might be.That might be that block that's that springs

(35:51):
a long run. So I thinkit all comes together and there's a lot
of value to that of if wewant to be a complete offense here in
the second half the season. Wegot to run it. We got rpo
people, we got to play pastpeople, we got to throw it.
We've got to do all those thingsto make it really difficult to where hopefully
a defensive coordinator feels like, man, I got to pick my poison,

(36:13):
right, how do I want thisto go? And then we execute and
we call the plays that in atimely fashion and that the quarterback makes good
decisions to take advantage of those things. Hey, coach, kind of piggybacking
on the anthony, he'll question earlierHill Muhammad, Derek Williams, I've all
played a lot of snaps. Howmuch might their roles expand in the second

(36:34):
half of the season, if atall? Well, I mean, I
think they'll expand to some degree,but that degree is a lot of going
to be dictated on how do theycontinue to improve. You know, where's
their level of understanding week in andweek out, their mental preparation, their
practice habits to a lot of that'sgoing to depend on some of the guys
that they're competing for playing time with. How do they practice, how do

(36:57):
they prepare? I want a highlycompetitive team, want guys that are fighting
for snaps and doing all the thingsnecessary to earn to earn playing time and
to earn snaps, because we're abetter team when we play more players,
Right, That's how you're fresh inthe fourth quarter and you can play that
style of football for sixty minutes.And so, but they're going to earn
those things, you know, predicatedon, like I said, their mental

(37:21):
preparation in the game plan, theirability to exhibit that in practice to give
us the confidence to put them outthere more, and then ultimately when it
comes down to time to play,how they play in those moments and so.
But again, all those guys haveearned it up until this point,
They've done a good job and hopefullythey can continue to progress. Coaches,

(37:43):
you watch football this weekend, whatwas the most impressive thing you saw from
a college football game? And doyou ever find yourself watching an offensive formation
or a play and say, oh, we're going to take that, We're
going to put it in this weekDo coaches do that? Do you steal
from other coaches? I'm a reallyhonest person. I do it all the
time. I don't. I donot pretend to have invented football. Okay,

(38:04):
I think you know, first ofall, I'll answer that part.
First, I watch football, likeI said, as a fan. First,
I think it's we have a beautifulgame. It's a great sport,
especially college football. The the thepageantry of the game, the excitement of
the game. And to watch theWashington Oregon game, to watch the you
know, Notre Dame SC game,and to see that the excitement in those

(38:25):
stadiums. I mean, that's whatit's all about. But two, I
watch it from a lens of acoach, of just trying to get ideas.
You know, it may not bethe exact play, but it could
spurn an idea. And like Isaid, I don't pretend to walk in
here, like you know, everythingcomes to me with with this cloud in
my head in the morning. Alot of times it's watching somebody else do

(38:45):
something like, oh, we coulddo that, but it would fit us
better if we did it out ofthis personnel or this formation. So I
do watch the games like that.But it was great watching football this weekend.
We've got a great sport. Ithink college football right now is as
popular as it's been in a longlong time. You can feel it in
the fans, you can feel itin the excitement. I think this is

(39:07):
going to be a great half tothe second half of the season of college
football. I think there's more parodynow than there's been in a long long
time, and so a lot ofpeople are probably looking at the second half
of the season thinking we've got anopportunity to do something special. We're no
different, but everybody's got to gohandle their business accordingly, you know,

(39:28):
one week at a time. Steveon that note, can you describe the
feeling you get when you watch yourformer players excel in the NFL, specifically
with what Bijon has been able todo this year? Yeah, no,
it's amazing. You know, wehave an idea as coaches of maybe how
guys will translate to the NFL.It's a little bit of a different game

(39:51):
obviously, but his skill set isso unique, you know, and when
you can make people miss in aphone booth and then get to top speed,
it doesn't matter what league you're in. He doesn't lose that skill set
that he has. And so Ithink the one thing every time I bumped
into a couple of scouts from theFalcons who have been at practice is they

(40:13):
say the same thing I used tosay for the last two years here,
he's a better person than he asplayer. And you know, so Bijon
is still being Bijon, whether it'soff the field and or on the field,
and I think that that's as excitingas ever, but seeing all those
guys go out there and compete ata high level. The NFL games are
a little bit more difficult for usto see and to watch because we're game

(40:35):
planning on Sundays. But you know, they always make sure they make me
a little bit of a highlight ofthose guys so I can I can see
him and get a chance to reachout to him and checking on him.
Sark, you mentioned getting out onthe road to recruit. How was it
just getting back out on the roadand then what changed to your recruiting plan
if any does the elimination of theinitial counter limits going forward to Yeah,

(40:57):
you know, so they did changethe rules for us with the number of
days that we get to go outand fall and that's probably affected me as
much or more than anybody where.You know. You guys know, I
like to go to games on Thursdaynights and get out and see guys play.
But you know, the NCAA hascut those days in half, and
not just for us, I'm talking, you know, for the entire country.

(41:17):
So for us to be able toget out this weekend, I loved
it. You know, I lovegetting the games. I love watching guys
compete when they're ahead. When they'rebehind, how do they warm up?
And I got to see some reallygood football players this weekend that I'm excited
that we get to continue to recruit, so hopefully I get a few more
chances, you know what our recruitingteam tells us. But it really is

(41:38):
a lot more difficult now. Youjust can't get out and go to a
game. Because you want to goto a game. We have to be
it has to make sense for tosend a coach or to send me to
a ball game to go watch.It really doesn't affect us that way as
much. You know, they kindof had pseudo last year and now they

(41:59):
just made it per it. Ithink it makes sense now with the transfer
portal, let's just it's eighty five. Let's just be at eighty five and
whatever you got to do to fueldyour roster, because it gets difficult when
you have guys going in the portal. After spring ball, there's no more
high school kids to sign, andso if you need to fill voids on
your roster through the portal, itgives you the opportunity to do that.

(42:22):
On the Hail Mary question for howcan you practice it and do you teach
your guys to knock it down orgo for the interception? And as it
worked against you, yeah, youjust like spurning my side. So we
do practice it. Every Friday.We go through the hail Mary scenarios,

(42:45):
end of the game scenarios, whichare a lot of them. Sometimes it's
a mustad of bounds for a fieldgoal, different things of that nature,
you know, the hurry up fieldgoal kick, all those kinds of things.
We do that on every Friday.We obviously we implement them throughout training
camp and then every Friday we gothrough those situations. We do teach our

(43:05):
guys to knock that ball down inthat situation. I have I've caught one
hail Mary as a coach in mycareer, not me personally, but our
team. And I've lost a gameon a hill Mary in my career Arizona
State against USC in twenty and fourteenand might have cost us a chance to

(43:27):
win a championship. So I'll neverforget that one. The hail Mary we
caught happened to be at the endof the half against Oregon State when I
was there, So you never know, man, those plays, you just
try to execute them the right way, and you know, our guys offensively
are trying to get to their spotsand then defensively, you're just trying to
knock that ball down and get toyou know, preserve the win. No,

(43:52):
right now, normally it's Ryan Wattsand he's a little bit down,
so you know, Derek Williams getsback there now, he can go get
it. When I was in theNFL, Julio Jones used to actually go
in on defense and he was thatguy. So it doesn't have to be
necessarily a defensive player, but aguy who's got a high football IQ that
can go high point that ball.Olry guest, thank you. Long Orange

(44:14):
head coach Steve Sarkshan from the weeklynews conference here on the UT campus the
best news coming out of about it, saying that the injured players, including
Jake Majors and Ryan Watts and ColeHudson all have practiced and other players as
well. Hudson might be the furthesta while out from returning, but that
they all practiced, they were allable to practice throughout the course of this

(44:38):
morning, and that they will continueto practice, and not only that that
they will also continue to evaluate thoseguys over the next two days, the
heavy days, the loading days onMonday and Tuesday are excuse me, Tuesday
and Wednesday of the practice days.And he said he'd have a what he
called a cleaner view of which playersmight be available on that. All right,

(45:05):
coming up this afternoon, we'll alsoon the Craigway Show have more details
on the matchup with BYU Texas Basketball. By the way, the AP preseason
Paul just came out this morning,number eighteen in the preseason
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