Sark interview replay with Craig Way

Craig interviews Head Coach Steve Sarkisian at SEC Media Day!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
One. Thank you guys for joiningus on the free iHeartRadio app or listening
on AM thirteen hundred Zone. Craighad an exclusive interview with head coach Steve
Starkesian earlier this week. I wantedto replay it here on a Friday in
case that you missed it played earlierthis week. If you didn't hear it
on the podcast yet, here itis. This is Steve Starkesian and Craig

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Way exclusive video video or interview righthere on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred hundred,
one hundred of the Zone. Ohlet's get it col. Obviously,
the first question for anybody around Lostinthat has seen you at work want to
know did you get any time atall? At all? I did take
a little time off. I probablyhave a little better TAM this summer than

(00:43):
I had last summer, But uhI did. And uh you know,
I think that comes from the leadershipon our team. You know that that
I was able to take about tendays or so and trust that the leaders
and the culture that we have.I feel so strong about that those guys
continue to work. And when Icame back, I was like, man,
it's like they didn't they didn't missa beat, you know, and
that and that's a real credit toTory Beck and our strength and conditioning staff,

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but it's real credit to the youknow, the Quinn Yewers of the
world, the Kelvin Banks of theworld, the Jahda Barons of the world.
That those guys have a real goodgrasp. And from a leadership standpoint,
on this team, you had realgood leadership last year. Did you
notice the discernible difference in what you'reasking your leaders this year to do and
at this time of year with thesegirls, what I noticed about the leaders
on this year's team is this,I felt like they appreciated the leadership on

(01:32):
last year's team, and there wasalmost there's almost a sense going on right
now that they don't want to letthose guys down, that now it's their
turn to lead, and they don'twant to let those guys down, and
they want to see how well theycan do it, if they can do
it even better. And h youknow, I think of a Baron Surrel
h and Alfred Collins, I meansome really high level people, David Bends

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of the world. And not tomention the Jake Majors, I mean,
we have a lot of really goodleaders Gunner Helm, that these guys want
to assume this role and assume thisresponsibility. And for me as a coach,
it's almost like as a proud dad, you can sit back and watch
of all the stuff you tried toinstill over the past three years, these
guys are exuding naturally on a regularbasis. You had that quote about now

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that everybody's had a taste, you'rekind of obsessed with it. You get
that feeling from your leadership as wellas your younger guys. I really do,
And I think you know what standsout to me is just watching these
guys work. You know, asmuch as I go watch them throw the
ball around and do some individual Ilike to go watch them work out.
I like to watch them run,I like to watch them compete. And

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the competitive spirit of this team isshowing me that they are working with an
obsession to be the best that theycan be. How good that is we'll
find out. But there's definitely nota There hasn't been many days where I
thought, man, we didn't squeezeevery ounce out of that lemon. These
guys know how to work. Theywork hard, and we've made it hard
on them. This summer because weknow what it's going to take and they've

(02:58):
responded really well. Up Collins broughtup sorell Or that those are two of
the areas longer. Defensive front isthe defensive front in general the biggest curiosity.
I think that a lot of folksare going to have about what you
have to go with and how theygo back about it. You know,
I don't know that. I thinkEthan Berk's a great football player. I
think bearonsrel is a really good footballplayer. I think Alphad Collins has a
chance to be a phenomenal player.I think Vernon Broughton has got a chance

(03:21):
to be a really good football playerfor us this fall. Then we have
some really cool additions, right,I mean you start talking about Bill Norton,
Jermaine lay Tia savea, Trey Moore, Colin Simmons, not to mention
some of the youth that's coming upin a Jera Bledsoe, Sadir Mitchell.
I mean that group is really deep. That's as deep as we've ever been,
or probably deeper than we've ever beenon the defensive front. And so

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maybe you don't have the high levelfirst round pick right now in there.
But I don't know a year agotoday, if you would have told me
is Birah Murphy going to be afirst round pick? Nobody in here would
have said that. So point being, we got to let these guys play.
But it is a very deep groupand we're excited about it. Interestingly
enough, what you said at thistime last year about Byron Murphy is nobody's
working any harder. Nobody's working there. You see that from these guys,

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no question. But what Baron Sorellhas done has been incredible. I'll say
this is another name that has stoodout to me. Justice Finkley's had a
great summer. You know, SadirMitchell's got his weight down, He's worked
really hard. And so these guysare all working really hard. And that's
because a guy like a Byron Murphycan set a standard in a room.
And this is how we work.And now as you go into the next

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season, okay, we know whatthe standard is. The standard is a
standard. We got to go towork just like that. Now, the
flip side of this would be youroffensive line, which has all of these
platitude teeped upon and everybody's talking andrightfully so, and that people will automatically
think about Calvin, they think aboutJay, but I know you've been pleased
with what you've seen out of someother guys like Cam Williams and some other
guys. I love where Kim Williamsis at. I mean, he's in

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great shape. You know, hehad one start for us last year,
played really well outside of a couplekind of flinches pre snap, but he
is a very talented guy. He'sa massive human, great in past protection.
I love that we have a healthyCole Hudson back to create a healthy
competition with DJ Campbell. I lovethe versatility of a Hayden Connor, Janke

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Majors. I mean, what canyou say. I mean, the guys
is steady, Eddie Forrest, butwe got some other young guys that have
watching them grow. The Connor Strows, the Trevor Gooseby's, the Andre Cojo's,
the new addition of a of aBrandon Baker, Danny Kruzman. We
have some really good young players aswell. And so you know, Coach
Flost done a great job of assemblingthat group but also developing that group.

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And we haven't had to rush manyplayers that we've been able to take our
time with them, and they're buildingtheir confidence and we're gonna need some of
those young guys at some point thisseason. Now you have some guys back
with the experience a tight end.But is it a little bit of a
different world now and the more JTit is a little bit different, you
know. JT was such a almostlike a crutch in some aspects for us,
you know, and I hated itfor him that in the season when

(06:00):
he had the high ankle sprain,he was trying to fight through it and
maybe wasn't playing his best football.But what we learned at that time gunner
Helm was more than adequate to bea really good player for us. And
to watch his growth and maturation.Jan Davis has been a real pleasant surprise
from spring and in the summer he'splaying better than he ever has. I
love the addition of Amar and IBlack and so now you have kind of

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that three headed monster. And thena young guy who I've been impressed with
has Ben Spencer Shannon, a guywho really kind of going into year two,
a big physical tight end that couldkind of work behind Gunner. I
think we're very comfortable with those four. And then a sleeper just a guy
to watch who I think that thisguy's alemits Jordan Washington, and that guy's

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a fit going to be a fantasticplayer for us. How instrumental and crucial
was to have guys like CJ andJaden have the quality reps that they needed
to have last year to be inthe position that're in now for that group,
well, I think it was ahuge for him. You know,
CJ going into the season was ourstarter a year ago, you know it
as a true freshman, got injuredor injured his foot. Jonathan Brooks,

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you know, Wally pipped him andtook off and had the year that he
had, gets hurt and now CJhas to assume that lead role again.
Jayden Blue now is getting more reps, and they made some phenomenal plays and
some huge moments for us. Theylearned the value of the football in that
last game, right, And that'sthe life lessons that you learn when you
have to get those real life experiences. Couldn't be more excited from Trey Weisner

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what he did for us on specialteams as a true freshman a year ago,
and now what he showed throughout springas a runner. I think He's
going to be a great asset forus. And then we've got two young
backs who I couldn't be more excitedabout as true freshmen in a long time
in Christian Clark and Jared Gibson.So that room is really strong. But
at the end of the day,you know, four and twenty three are
going to make us go and ifthey play the way I think they can,

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and then we got a chance tobe a pretty good offense because they
provide a lot of versatility to us. You talked about Quinn's leadership as well
as the productivity that helps ramp upthe rate of improved for Arch doesn't and
everything that he's seeing, as wellas his own general improvement. I think
the biggest thing about that, youknow, and I know I'm gonna get
asked about that all day to day. Right What an awesome relationship those two

(08:11):
guys have. I think there's alwaysthis narrative outside of our walls that Arch
and Gwinn pitted against each other,those two guys get along is good or
better than any two guys on ourteam, and I think that's what helps
them improve because they can push oneanother. They can see what a guy's
working on and where he's getting betteror oh, well, he executed that

(08:33):
play maybe a little different than Iwould have and they can learn and bounce
things off of each other. AndI do think with Quinn's development and his
growth and the way that he's beenplaying, it has helped Arch feel like,
let me just focus on me,and let me keep getting better and
appreciate what Quinn is doing. Andin the end we see the result of
how Arch played in that spring gameand how I've seen him perform all summer

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long. I always ask you aboutthe timetable from here to let fans don't
little bit about how it goes fromhere and getting ready for fall camp and
season. Well, two weeks fromtoday will be practicing one. So we've
got about another week of summer conditioningand then the guys will get about four
or five days off and then they'llreport on Tuesday, and we'll start practice

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Wednesday, and away we go,you know, and they're all waiting to
look at the calendar see how manytimes we're practicing in the afternoon. I
can promise you that because we domix it up, you know, we
go great, we go in summercamp, we go morning afternoon and night
practice, and so everybody's just kindof waiting to see the calendar. How
many two thirty practices do we havein that Austin heat, so we'll find
out. Final think here you readyfor all of this, this SEC st

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I think this is so awesome.This is really cool. You know,
it's funny when we landed, whenwe got in the sprinter van, I
mean, had a police escort comingover here, and it just when they
talked about the SEC, it justmeans more. I think that was just
a prime example of the type ofleague and the type of conference that we're
going into. That is head coachof the Texas Longhorn, Steve Starkesian talking

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to the man whose names on theshow, Craig Way. That was earlier
this week at SEC media Day.And you can see how poised, how
excited Craig. And also I guessthe head coach of the Longhorn, Steve
Starkasian work joining the SEC the bestconference in college football. Now. The
thing that caught my attention, Coleand because you texted me during the interview

(10:26):
and I thought it was funny yousaid no mention of arch and then they
slipped it in there right at theend. Because these two guys quitting arch
are like they, like Coach Starksaid, pitted against each other in some
sort of rivalry. This might bethe first time that I can remember where
there's two quarterbacks and there isn't thattype of rivalry, There is that type
of infighting. Do you do youremember anything like this? No, nothing

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really comes to mind. Usually it'slike a mutual respect of yeah, I
get a you know, I'm hisbackup or I'm gunning for his job.
But from what Sark says, itsays they have He mentions they have great
relationship and you know, hopefully youcan learn a lot from Quinn. The
only thing that I can think ofthat's similar to this was Chris Simms and
Major Applewhite. But even then therelationship was fine. I don't think that

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they were the best of friends.And maybe somebody can correct me on that
and say, like, no,these guys were the greatest of pals.
Again a little bit before my time. But that's the only time I can
remember in Texas history, at leastLonghorn history, that there was a situation
like this. And then maybe Jalenhurts into a tongue Aloa at Alabama when
Hurts was very open to the ideaof taking a bench roll, taking more

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of a back seat. After twoit comes in at a National championship game,
wins that game against Georgia on afourth down play or a third down
player, I should say, inthe National Championship, and then the whole
next year he's the backup, comesinto the SEC Championship game, helps Alabama
win that game, and then ofcourse goes to Oklahoma and as a Hetsman
contending quarterback. That's the only othersituation I can vaguely remember that is similar

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to this one, where you havetwo guys who are legit number one quarterbacks
on the roster. Now, it'sgreat for arch It's great for Archie Manning
that he can sit behind a guylike Quinn. He can get this offense.
And really know, because I hateto break the news to people,
I don't imagine that Archie Manning playshis entire career Texas. I imagine that

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he plays one season and then goesto the pros like a lot of quarterbacks
are doing. Because he has satfor two years now, and Melo,
maybe he does play two seasons,but I right now I would hesitate to
put money on that debt that Ithink that he probably plays a season,
gets that under his belt, andthen moves on to the NFL, potentially
after his junior year. But again, Quinn is quarterback one Archie Manning look

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good at the spring game. There'sno rivalry. Sarkisian excited to join the
SEC. Craig Way is excited forthe SEC season to be again. I
can speak for myself and the LongCorn fans. I think we're all pretty
amped up for August thirty, firstwe come back. NFL players have gone
from looking for second jobs just fiftyyears ago to now looking to not pay

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taxes. Well, loophole in thetax code. We'll get to that in
a moment right here on AM onSports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone