Sark's Signing Day Comments, Sean Miller's Prep for Virginia

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello Wednesday, a yacht rock Wednesday, a National Signing Day Wednesday.
That's why we're on the UT campus this afternoon. Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
under the Zone and where you can always listen to
us for free on the iHeartRadio app. My name is
Craig Wake, glad to have you with us, And back

(00:30):
at the iHeartRadio compound is our producer, Jay Carman. How
you doing today, Jake?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Not too shabby myself.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm feeling well rested, finally back in a routine here
after Thanksgiving, which was all that driving back and forth.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
But you know, a couple of things are still sticking.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
In my crac Craig from last night's college football playoff rankings.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Pray tell tell it, because we're gonna we're gonna hear
from Hunter Eurochek the or the inserted committee chairman. What
with mac Rohades stepping down from that? What is sticking
in your crawl in specific, because we're gonna hear from
Hunter your check, but I want to hear from you first.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
I know we'll get to this later, but I still
don't understand how the head to ahead is not placing
Miami ahead of Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff
rankings as far as the bubble team stack up, and
as I look further down the rankings, I feel as
though there's a couple teams included that maybe shouldn't be
from the Big Ten, namely Michigan and Iowa. And there's

(01:36):
a couple teams from the SEC that had some big falls,
Tennessee and Missouri, And I'm just not really sure what
the differences are, Craig between those resumes.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well, certainly Tennessee would fall into that category because they
got fumped by Vanderbilt, so certainly, you know, I could
see with them of falling off. But you make a
good point about some of the other things as well,
so it does make sense. I mean, we've heard Sark
speak eloquently about this and at length about this and

(02:05):
why you know, why things are how they are when
Texas has put up the numbers and the resumes and
the things that they that they have done. But some
of the other movie, and to your point about Miami
and Notre Dame, I don't know. You know, by the
time I got home because traffic was just a beast
and I had to stop and pick up broadcast charts

(02:28):
and things like that. But it was just an absolute,
you might say, very strong hint that from Hunter Eurochek
last night that maybe the Miami Notre Dame thing isn't
a permanent as folks seem to have seen it be

(02:48):
in the past. Let's put it that way. So let's
hear from him here a little bit. And we've got
a lot of things to get to on the program.
We're on the UT campus because today is National Signing Day,
and so I went on at linked about it yesterday.
How it used to be always be the first Wednesday
in February was the big day, but now it's here

(03:10):
in December, the first Wednesday and December, and the Long
Warns have their signing class coming up at the top
of the hour at three o'clock live right here, and
from what I understand, it's not being televised anywhere, so
this is the place to hear it live coming up
at three o'clock. Steve Sarkesian's National Signing Day press conference.

(03:30):
We'll bring it to you live here at three o'clock.
So there's those things. We're also going to hear from
Vic Schaeffer, Texas women's head coach. We'll hear more from
Seawan Miller. Because of long worn men. They play first
in this acc SEC challenge that both the Texas Men
and Texas women are involved in. And the Texas men

(03:50):
will be playing tonight as they'll be in action with
the tip off right around eight fifteen, eight twenty. They
play the Virginia Cavaliers and our airtime here on thirteen
under the zone and on ninety eight point one FMK.
That will come your way at seven thirty tip off
at eight fifteen, eight twenty ish right in that area
for Texas in Virginia. That's tonight. So the men play tonight,

(04:15):
the women play twelfth rank North Carolina tomorrow. We heard
from Rory Harmon yesterday who Rory of course was named
the AP National Player of the Week for that amazing
two game performance she had in in Las Vegas, As
Texas won the players Era Championship, beating previously unbeaten and

(04:36):
third rank UCLA and previously second rank South Carolina. They
won that and then she played on Sunday and they
won again on Sunday, came back and won their contest
on Sunday afternoon, they beat Penn and they played twelfth
rank North Carolina tomorrow. Now we'll hear from Vick Schaeffer
a little later on in the program as well. So
we've got a lot of things to get do. We

(04:56):
do have inconceivable, so we'll get to that and inconceivable.
I guess it's come down to a lot of folks
and I feel the same way. Apparently I didn't know
this as I was putting together my inconceivable list for today,
that Lane Kiffin is falling into such topics of conversation

(05:17):
like inconceivable and also the bottom ten, which we'll get
to in a little bit. But let's jump right into
the college football playoff in talking about where it stands,
and also hearing from Hunter Yurochek, the committee selection chairman.

(05:39):
First of all, he was saying, now, this is on
the conference call that happened after. This was not in
the you know, the one on one he had with
Reece Davis last night. This is on the conference call
with national media, and right out of the gate, he
was asked about Texas A and M and how he
and the committee evaluate the Aggie's resume now and what

(06:00):
the discussions were like about them dropping four spots.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, you know Texas A and M.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
With that loss, they fell into that group of five
really strong one loss teams Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, Ole Miss,
In Texas A and M, Georgia.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
It's got the nodded.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
They're just based on purely their strength to schedule and.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
And the wins they've had over ranked teams.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
Texas Tech again a really strong team. They've won eleven
games by twenty or more points. With that, they leave
the country in margin of victory at thirty five. Oregon
has continued to improve. Their strength to schedule has gotten
so much better. They're in the top five and most
of the metrics both offensively and defensively. And then of
course you know Old Miss, a team that's in the

(06:45):
conference with Texas A and M both both very closely matched.
I think Old Miss is a little bit better offensively.
It looked on by the committee as Texas A and
M is. But Texas A and M is a really
good team, as are all of those teams that are
eleven and one where they wouldn't be ranked at seven.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
All right, So the follow up to that was, what
was the conversation like surrounding Texas A and M's strength
of schedule relative to other SEC teams.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
We look at everyone's strength to schedule and text A
and M obviously got one of the best wins, a
road win at Notre Dame earlier in the season, in
the entire season, but you know, the luck of the
draw sometimes in your conference schedule, they haven't played many
of the teams that teams like A Georgia and Alabama
had played within the SEC.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Now, a couple of other things, and one will speak
to what Jake was talking about. First of all, the
whole business of if you're idle, can you move up?
Can you move down? Could you move around? In the
past it was you really have no position to move
upward down, But he kind of hinted at it in
the conversation with Reece Davis. So on the conference call, Hunter,
your check was asked, can an idle team, in other words,

(08:00):
a team not playing in its conference championship game this week,
could it move into the field following the results of
this coming week.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yes, idle teams can move based on the results of
the championship games. And there may be something that happens
in a championship game that impacts an idle team whether
that's their strength of schedule, is some other data point
that we use, or there could be a team that
suffers a significant loss in a title game. You know,

(08:30):
we don't try to predict what's going to happen, but yes,
idle teams can move within the rankings, as we reranked
them one last time this weekend.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
All right, which brings us to one more point and
then we're going to hear more from Hunter Eurocheck in
the next hour, in the four o'clock hour as well.
But Alabama beating Auburn in the Iron Bowl, they won
by a touchdown. They got up seventeen nothing, then it
became a competitive game, It was tied at twenty, and
then they ended up winning. That fourth and two touchdown
was big. So if you noticed, that pushed them ahead

(09:03):
of Notre Dame in the rankings. So what about Alabama's
win over Auburn moved them ahead of Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
That debate between Notre Dame and Alabama has been one
of the fiercest debates for the last three weeks and
it really has split our committee room.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
We've got people that thought highly of Alabama.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
We all think highly of both of.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
Those teams, but some are very much in Alabama's camp,
some are very much in Notre Dames camp, and just
Alabama in a rivalry game on the road. Auburn has
been an extremely tough place to play for many teams
this year, such as Georgia and Vanderbilt, and the committee
gave Alabama a little respect.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
For winning that game, getting.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Out early seventeen nothing the game got tied again in
Alabama gutsy call there late in the game to go
forward on fourth and two and then getting the turnover
again late in the game. The committee just felt that
was enough of a win of a metric to push
Alabama ahead of Notre Dame.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Okay, so now you've seen where there are other things
that impact it and can move a team ahead of another.
You also heard Hunter your check saying yes, an idle
team could possibly move into the field. And I know
what many of you are thinking coming up next hour, Hunter,
you're a check specifically on Texas, specifically on other teams

(10:26):
that are right around there. So it's gonna it'll be
interesting to hear those comments as well, and we will
get to those coming up. Of course, this being National
Signing Day, we're gonna bring these Steve Sarkisian's news conference
coming up at the top of the hour at three o'clock.
Up next, some basketball. We'll hear from Sean Miller, the
head coach of the Loghorns, as they get ready for
tonight's acc SEC Challenge at Moody Center, just down the

(10:51):
street from US as the log Worts will take on
the Virginia Cavaliers. That's up next. We're here on the
UT Campus on a yacht rock Wednesday, a National Signing
Day Wednesday on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone
and the iHeartRadio app. Were here on a yacht rock Wednesday.
The great Jackson Brown. All of us feel this time

(11:15):
of year. Maybe were running on MK a little bit,
but it's okay. You know, I heard the song for
so many years. Jake always appreciated it. Sault Jackson Brown
a concert, worked Jackson Brown concert in the past, and
this was always part of it, obviously, And now it's
difficult for me to hear the song without thinking of

(11:35):
Forest Gump.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Oh is it is this the run across America song?

Speaker 6 (11:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, yeah exactly, that's that's that's what he was doing.

Speaker 7 (11:45):
Not bad.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, I like this. Yeah, that's a great hot rock.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Maybe this time next year Craig yacht Rock will make
my Spotify Rapped, which came out today.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
We can all only hope right that we drag you
kicking and screaming to the yacht rock universe at some
point again. We're on the ut campus, coming up at
the top of the hour long worn head football coach
tief Sarkeasian's National Signing Day news conference. We'll bring that
to you live from here on campus here on thirteen

(12:15):
under the Zone. In the meantime, some other things to discuss,
including basketball Tonight just down the street from us at
Moody Center, as Texas will host Virginia and that will
be in the ACC SEC Challenge. Last year, it's funny
the visiting team is always their conference name is put

(12:37):
before the other team. Last year when Texas won in
Raleigh over North Carolina State, it was the SEC ACC Challenge.
The game was in Raleigh, but here in Austin the
ACC SEC Challenge. Virginia six and one coming in. Good
basketball team Longhorn and first year under Ryan Odam as
head coach. And one thing that in listening to what

(13:02):
Sean Miller had to say about this matchup and his team.
It's at this point, they always say in November, and
even now early December, because after all, we're only on
December third, So even now, teams are still trying to
establish their identity and who they can be. I mean,

(13:27):
this goes back. I remember Rick Barnes talking about it.
I remember Shaka Smart talking about it. I remember Rodney
Terry talking about it, Chris Beard talking about it, and
Sean Miller as well. This whole thing about establishing your
identity as a basketball team. In the first few weeks
of the season, they haven't even played a full month

(13:48):
of the season yet they've played a total of eight games.
So coach Miller was asked, has he been able to
see his team establish an identity and how can they
build on that? Think?

Speaker 8 (14:00):
Are our identity is still a work in progress. I
think we're starting to establish things, you know. I think, Kirk,
what you want to be and who you are doesn't
mean it's the same thing.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
You know.

Speaker 8 (14:11):
I can give you this is who we are, but
you got to be that like and I think your
performance dictates your identity. So I think a couple of
things on the offensive side of the basketball, I think
we've established ourselves that we can get to the free
throw line. You know, that is a big factor. That's
a stack. We do it in a lot of different ways.

(14:31):
We could do it in the low post, especially with Modish.
One of one of the keys to his game is
just you know, he draws a lot of fouls. We
have the ability to offensive rebound, which a lot of times,
you know, that's the fuel behind getting fouled. Usually a
good offensive rebounding team shoots free throws. And then we

(14:52):
also have guards who can attack the basket, whether that
be in transition or in the half court.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Kendall Weaver, Dalan Swain, you know, Tremaon and Mark.

Speaker 8 (15:02):
You look at those guys like they're wired to be
able to drive the ball in a straight line. So
free throw attempts is a big deal. I think we've
established ourselves there. You know, I think our pace it's
getting better. It's not where we want it to be,
but we're on the right track there. And then from
a defensive perspective, you know, fouling the gates a lot

(15:22):
of our good work. So I can't really speak to
our defense. Obviously, we want to be a tough, minded, physical,
together group. On defense, and I do believe that at
times we've shown that. But if you foul, no different
than in football getting penalized, you know, it's just it
sets you back. You can't see the good things you're

(15:43):
doing because you're always, you know, serving time for your penalties. Right,
Fouling is the same, and there are just too many
fouls early in the second half of games. If you
look at our NC State game, you know, two players
I'm sorry on Arizona State, two players on a SU
team shot twenty eight free throws.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
We fouled them twenty eight times.

Speaker 8 (16:04):
So we have to improve our fouling before I think
our identity defensively can go. In terms of the overall part,
I do think we have a team who competes. I
think we have a team that wants to win and
fight for each other. And as we keep moving forward,
that will continue to be tested.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
But I like the direction we're headed in that area.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Okay, Next, he was asked about fast breakpoints because those
have been you know, you might say trending up more,
but coaches always want more. So are their fast breakpoints
in transition where he wants them to be and the
other details as they continue to find tune.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
I do like that we teams in transition.

Speaker 8 (16:52):
You're right, and I think that we in particular against
NC State, we were clearly the most efficient transition and
that you know, the play resulted in a great shot
or a foul, And we had very limited turnovers. In
the NC State game, we played twenty minutes and we
had one turnover. That turnover came on the last possession

(17:15):
of the game. So if you think about, you know,
how that game felt, the quality of the opponent, the
pace of play for us to play, you know, in
late November, third game in three days and go wire
to wire, first play the second half to the end
of the game and basically play error free in terms
of turnovers. You know, I thought that was the highlight

(17:36):
of the trip. So fouling on defense, how how do
we foul? Why are we fouling? What are the things
from a discipline perspective we can clean up? You know,
what do I and our staff have to do on
an every single moment daily basis get better at in
terms of coaching our team, so we don't foiul. Fouling
kills your defense and a lot of times impacts winning.

(18:00):
So we're trying to get better at our fouls and
then on offense our turnovers. Like there's always things in
a game and you can clean up, you know. Sometimes
a turnover is the result of we called a set
play and we didn't run the play. We didn't execute
the play, and the rest of the possession is like uphill,
like guys aren't in the right spots, the ball didn't move,

(18:22):
you know, we weren't able to change sides with the ball,
and because of that we end up turning it over. Well,
the turnover came because quite frankly, we called a set
and we didn't execute, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
So I think the execution.

Speaker 8 (18:34):
Of what we're trying to do to limit our turnovers
and to be able to play hard, nos tough minded defense.
Yet don't foul, you know, don't put the player at
the free throw line, don't put them into bonus with
ten minutes to go in the second half. You know,
those are things that I think really are going to
be important for our game against Virginia.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Okay, so they have Virginia, then on Monday night they're
going to play Southern University and then is a huge
challenge a week from Friday. At fifth rank, Yukon. I
don't know if you watched it last night, Yukon at
Allen Field House came from behind and beat Kansas. Pretty
impressive stuff that they've had to come back and win

(19:15):
that game. So he was asked, how do you prepare
on down the road for a team like Yukon without
overlooking what you have in this game against Virginia and
the next game against Southern.

Speaker 8 (19:25):
Yeah, I mean you just really in college sports have
to take it not just one game at a time,
but like every day matters. You know, you hear the
word process a lot in sports, and it's everything you know,
who you are every day will be reflected in the
game itself. And that doesn't matter if you're playing Virginia

(19:46):
or Southern or Yukon.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
You know, it's about that. You have to have a
great day today. We have to improve.

Speaker 8 (19:52):
We have to have a practice where everybody's on time,
everybody competes. You know that we create a learning environment
where our team continues to get smarter and better at
the things we're emphasizing. And then the game itself, the score,
the score is taken care of. You end up playing
and performing, you know at a level that you're proud

(20:13):
of not because you are ready for the game on
game day, but you you're ready every day. So that's
our approach. And when we get to you know, our
preparation for Yukon, uh, well, we have to have a
great three or four days before that game.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
So that's also about getting your system operational. And he
was asked how important it is to have success quickly
in implementing that system.

Speaker 8 (20:36):
Yeah, I think what you're getting to is just, you know,
credibility right where you just you know, you have to
earn the respect of everybody. And one of the things
that I've talked to our team a lot about, and
this goes all the way back to late March when
I first came here, is you know, the University of
Texas is a world class place. Our athletic department is

(20:57):
about one thing, and that's high achievementchampionships, great success, and
that's the expectation. And it's foolish for any of us
to not acknowledge that and understand that this is the
environment that we work in and that we live in.
But in terms of our program, you know, performance dictates
our success. Our performance not things that have happened in

(21:20):
the past, but what we do and who we play
and who we beat and how we play in big games. Right,
So I think that you know, from a credibility perspective,
you know, the games sometimes reflect who you are every day.
Kind of what I just said, And I think where
we're trying to get on the same page and just

(21:40):
earn each other's respect, is that what we do every
day is the thing that matters the most, our process,
our practice environment. You know, when we watch film, it's
not just white noise film. Now, this is how you
learn about your opponent and that you respect your opponent,
and that you come out of that film session and

(22:00):
more familiar and having the opportunity to be more successful
when that game happens. So I think from a credibility
you know, us scoring back to back one hundred points
and us maybe making shots, that's awesome. But I think
in our locker room or within our team, what I
hope we feel is that our way of doing things
on an everyday basis works, that it allows players to develop,

(22:25):
to achieve their individual goals, and to have a style
that we're all proud of and we want or get
better at. So that's what we're really trying to build
and it takes time to your point. You don't just
snap your fingers and say I'm the new coach.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Here we go. Everybody ride with me, you know.

Speaker 8 (22:42):
I think there's just some trial and error, there's some
learning and then, as we've all know, time time is
not on our side early. But the more we're together,
I think the more that it will reflect that we're
on the same page.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, good stuff there from Sean Miller, and I continue
to say as I have been to practice and watch
this team work as well as in the games, the
teaching element is pretty cool to watch to watch how
he and his staff really continue to ramp these guys
basketball IQ up even more, especially the younger guys are
just coming in, the freshmen and the REGI freshmen or

(23:16):
sophomores that haven't had much playing time. The learning curve
gets shortened, I think a bit every day with what
they're doing with that, and I think they'll continue to
improve during the course of the season. They're gonna have
mumps in the road, no doubt about it, and they
have a heck of a challenge tonight at home against Virginia.
But daily improvement, I think is what the coaching staff
is looking for and daily improvement I think has been

(23:37):
pretty apparent so far. And Longhorn's head coach, te Sarkishan,
will have his news conference for National Signing Day coming
up here in a little bit. We may also get
an opportunity to visit with sark here coming up in
a few minutes or shortly there afterwards, depending on the schedule.
Usually we've been able to do that, so we'll see

(24:01):
if that is in the case. Okay, So to let
you know, Jake, we were talking about the bottom ten
and Lane Kiffin. What do they have in common? Well,
we can tell you what they have in common. The
common the final bottom ten of this regular season, number ten,

(24:23):
Boston College or as they call it, Boston call c
a w L College. Two and ten the Golden Beagles,
he calls them number nine u tepid utep finished to
and ten. Of course, one of those losses was to Texas,
number eight, as he calls it, Oregon trail state, you
have died of dysentery to in ten. Of course, they

(24:44):
have a new head coach now number seven, the Charlotte
one in eleven ers because you know their team name
is the forty nine ers. But the one in eleven
ers there. Number six Colorad Duh State is two ten.
Then you get to number five the lane train, he said. Marty.
Marty Smith said, if I didn't have Kiffin in the

(25:05):
coveted fifth spot again this week, he would beat me
over the head with the turkey leg. He wasn't able
to eat with his family on Thanksgiving because he had
to go to Oxford and hold a microphone instead. Number
four Georgia State, not Southern at one eleven. Number three
Oglahoma State, he calls him Oglahoma state. Of course, they

(25:28):
now have new head coach. They've got Eric Morris coming
over from North Texas. Number two Sam Houston. We have
a problem at number two, and then number one with
the perfect season. You miss, as he calls you, mass
you miss, oh and twelve, he said. The Minute Men
had their wet hay in the barn a full week early,

(25:49):
having played their final game of the season on the
Tuesday afternoon prior to Thanksgiving. Once they got that hay
into the barn, they remembered that the Salem Witch Trials
took place in Massachusetts and immediately burn that barn down
in an effort to exercise their bottom ten demons, so
we'll hope for the best. All right, it's gonna do it.
For hour number one, we are going to bring you

(26:14):
Steve Sarkisian's press conference and it'll come your way from
the UT campus where we are right now. Don't forget,
there's Long Worn basketball tonight seven thirty pre game start
time at eight o'clock with the tip as Texas. Actually

(26:34):
a tip off will be between fifteen eight twenty, So
that'll come your way tonight Texas and Virginia and the
acc SEC Challenge. But we do have press conference coming
up for National Signing Day. We may also get an
opportunity to visit briefly with him, either before or after
that press conference starts. So we continue here from the
UT campus, a cold, dank, gray early December afternoon. Glad

(26:58):
to have you with us this afternoon. Stay tuned a
lot to come in the next two hours of the
program right here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, the
Zone and the iHeartRadio app. We welcome you back here

(27:21):
to our National Signing Day program here on sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone. Craigway with you, and we've
been telling you we're gonna bring you long worn head
coach Steve Sarcasian's weekly news or the National Signing Day
news conference, and we are. But prior to that, we
have the benefit and the privilege of having the head
coach join us for a few minutes. Been busy what
forty eight seventy two hours for you of late?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, I've been pretty busy.

Speaker 9 (27:44):
You know.

Speaker 5 (27:44):
We've obviously doing a little uh Paul ticking right for
our for our team and opportunity to try to get
in this playoffs, and also closing out this signing class.
As we all know, the you know, forty eight twenty
four hours up to signing can get a little crazy.
Uh so doing that and and then kind of closing

(28:05):
out the regular season as from a staff perspective, and
kind of set in the calendar of what we're what
we're poised to do here in the month of December.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Were you encouraged in any way by what Hunter Yurchik
said last night that there could still be movement by
idle teams at following the conference championship games. It sound
like he left a crack in the doorway open.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
No, because I'm not you know, I mean they said
things a week before too, you know, and so it
is what it is. You know, I guess we can
agree to disagree on the topic like I've like I've
said before. You know what they said the principles of

(28:48):
the College Football Playoff and what they were going to
measure as as things that were important headed off starting
with the strength of schedule. We have the number one
strength of schedule of all the teams being considered for
the CFP when you talk about head to head competition.
We have two wins over top top ten teams that

(29:08):
are right now part of the CFP, and we have
a third win by a top fifteen team. But what
where the value comes into it? And the more I
continue to look at that's not in the metrics is
I think they take into account losses more so than wins,
And so that that's something for us to really examine

(29:30):
and look at and what it tells me at the
end of the day, we got to win the games
that are in front of us, regardless of the opponent,
regardless of how good, not good, whatever that looks like,
because the record matters. And you know, no three loss
team has ever been an at large bid in the
College Football Playoff. And as good as our resume looks

(29:52):
they're going to find every reason to say why we
shouldn't be in the field as opposed to why we
should be in the field and so, and that's Hey,
that's their perspective, and I respect the job they have
to do. I don't think it's an easy job that
the committee has. I think it's very difficult. There's a
lot of really good teams. Like I said before, I
feel like we had a really good case. I felt

(30:13):
like it was important for me to try to express
that when when you don't get to sit in front
of a committee and make your case, you have to
do it in a variety of ways. And I tried
to do the best job that I could do. And
I still advocate. I do believe we are one of
the best teams in the country, and I do believe
if we were in that tournament, we would have a
great opportunity to go win it. But unfortunately, we didn't

(30:34):
handle the business that we needed to handle throughout the
season to where it wasn't even in their hands that
it was such a no brainer. And I think that's
the lesson learned. And and you know, we've been fortunate
to be in that tournament the last two years, and
and to and to be in the semi finals, and
and to play really good football. And if, for some
crazy reason we get in there this year, over the

(30:56):
next week, I think we'll be right there again. If not,
you know, lessons learned throughout this season that I think
we can you know, we can get a little different
point across and a little different perspective on what we
need to do as a team to handle our business
when we can control it on the field as opposed

(31:16):
to putting it in the hands of a committee in
a hotel room.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Sure, one more thing before we Visabella signing class. What
will the regardless of whether you're in the playoff or not,
does it change or alter how you begin to prepare
your team for the postseason, whether it's Citrus Bowl or
whatever it might be.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
I think it varies obviously.

Speaker 5 (31:36):
You know, if it's a Citrus Bowl, you're looking at
not playing until December thirty first, and you're back into
that traditional bowl game model where you have essentially a
month to get in anywhere between fifteen eighteen or so.
Practices of timing that out to where the players are
energized every day at practice, but yet they're getting some

(31:57):
time off and getting a little time off around Christmas.
If you're in the CFP, that's that's a different turnaround.
Here you're playing the nineteenth or twentieth and so your
turnarounds a little bit different. But really that was how
it was for us our first couple of years of
going to bowl games. Last year was the different year
where we were playing every week because we were playing
this week in the in the SEC Championship game, and

(32:18):
then we turned right around and played in the first
round hosting here against Clemson. So last year was different,
and I think, like anything, you just adapt and evolve.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Like what we've done this week.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
Our guys have been working out with coach Becktin, they're
lifting their running, and then they're focusing on this is
our last week of school and so they're focused on
finishing up papers, exams, projects, things of that nature. And
then we'll get back on the field next Monday.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
So how we're excited? Are you about this signing class?

Speaker 2 (32:43):
I love this class.

Speaker 5 (32:45):
This class to me when you look at what we've
done the last two years in recruiting, because I think
you kind of have to look at it in a
sense of that's going to be the bulk of your roster,
a really a really deep class and a really versatile class.
And there's some highlight players in here for sure. There's
a lot of players that that we can look at. Man,

(33:07):
this guy is going to be a really good player,
maybe two years down the road from a developmental standpoint,
but I think we we address some things on both
sides of the ball.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Now.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
Obviously you get a quarterback of the caliber of a
d Bell, Uh, we couldn't be more excited to get
a running back the caliber of a of a Derek Cooper.
That that receiving corps with Cohen Brown and Chris Stewart
along with Jermaine Jermaine Bishop, and what what he's been doing.
And he's gonna be a guy that's probably gonna be
a two way player early on for us to see,
you know, how he can help us on both sides.

(33:37):
But man, he's a he's so dynamic. Watched him phenomenal player. Uh,
you look at the line of scrimmage and with John Turntine,
that what we think he can be as a tackle
as he continues to grow and and and Nick Robertson
and Caden Sure and then on the defensive side of
the ball, uh, you know, at the line of scrimmage
with James Johnson, and then and then what you're able

(33:59):
to do with the Richie Wesley and then to go
along with Jamari and Carlton, those are some really good
defensive front players. And then at backer is probably the
room where we were like, man, we got to make
sure we hit this right.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
And Tyler Atkinson is a phenomenal player.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
We really Then you look at the senior film of
Rocky Cummings and the versatility that this guy has to
go along with the cozy Akpaula, the length that that
group has, the speed, the athleticism, the violence they play with.
And then I really think we hit it right with
the secondary again, length, the physicality of our conference. You
got to have that on the perimeter to go along

(34:37):
with the specialists. And so all in all a really
versatile group, but a great group of young men too
that I think character wise, culture wise, are going to
fit right in with what we what was a very
young football team last year. That these guys can come
in and can kind of build and grow with this
team as we move into next season.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Final thing here did before and I know you'll probably
get to ask this in the press conference. Is it
too early to tell right now what you and the
staff need to address through the portal based on what
you have coming in.

Speaker 5 (35:08):
Well, I don't know if it's too too early, you know,
I think naturally we're gonna get into the running back market.
I think we're gonna get into the offensive line market.
You know, when you look at just needs right where
it needs two needs there. I think depending on you know,
who decides to stay or go on the defensive side
of the ball. You know, are we going to be
into the you know, a line the linebacker market, possibly

(35:32):
dB market, possibly defensive front, maybe a nose tackle market.
We're losing two you know, really big players in Colbovard
and Travis Shaw. But a lot of that depends on
all right, this is a great opportunity here in December,
we talked about fifteen to eighteen practices.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
We get a really.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
Good look of how much has Josiah Sharma developed, how
much has Myron Charles developed? Okay, all right, how much
of a need is that at nose tackle or are
these guys are gonna be we think really ready to
go next fall. So I think December is gonna determine
some of that with some of our younger players from
a developmental standpoint, but just sheer numbers wise, we have
an idea of where we need to attack.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
I appreciate you doing this. I'll let you get to
those who are waiting on you in the other round.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Thanks Greg. Hey one more time, Longhorn Nation.

Speaker 5 (36:17):
I've had a chance to watch our game from Friday night,
and you know, I watched the coaches film, but I
had a little more time this weekend, so I actually
watched a TV copy, which was fun.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
It was DKR.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
I mean, it was so much those for those that
didn't get to be there, those that were there, it
was a special night to be part of that night
in DKR. But watching on TV, and I know there
were so many long Horns around the world watching that game. God,
it was electric and uh man, I'm just so grateful
and thankful for all of you and your support. It
was a great night and what a way to cap

(36:51):
off the regular season. So hook them Horris to everybody
out there, appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Most vibrant. I've seen it, and I know John Bianco
and I Boath did. Our first game in the press
box was the same night in nineteen ninety two and
it's in thirty four years. It's the most vibrant I've
ever seen.

Speaker 5 (37:05):
You know, it's been five years for me now, right,
and I will say like that was the best it's
ever been. And I think part of it. And again
this isn't, this isn't. This is no knock on Longhorn Nation.
But I think them seeing what some of the other
environments have been like where we've gone to at night
in the SEC and to be as good or better

(37:27):
than those, I think that speaks to we're all growing
into what this life is like in the Southeastern Conference,
and that was that was an SEC rowdy, crowd, loud,
tough place to play, and they were a factor in
the game for.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Sure, no doubt. Thanks so much to the I appreciate
you great US buddy. That is Longhort's head coach, Steve Sarkisian.
We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll
bring you Sarks National Signing Day news conference on thirteen
hundred the zone.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
I thought we hit a home run at the linebacker position. Obviously,
Tyler Atkinson is a fantastic football player for US. You know,
you look at jose Ak Paula, a very versatile guy
who can play off the edge and at linebacker with
great length.

Speaker 10 (38:05):
UH.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
And then we're really pumped about Rocky Cummings. You know,
it's again, everybody's recruiting process is different, but this guy's
growth and evolution into his senior year, the length that
he has, his ability to play off the ball, linebacker
and off the edge was big for us.

Speaker 10 (38:21):
UH.

Speaker 5 (38:21):
And then in the secondary, a pretty common theme when
you look at these guys six one six two six
one six foot right, the length that you have to
have in the secondary and the physicality and speed you
have to have in the secondary. In our conference, I
think those guys all hit that, you know, with with
Tory Davis and Hayward Howard, Samari Matthews and Yehem Riley.

(38:44):
And then naturally, you know, solidifying some things from a
specialist standpoint, building some depth out there I think is big,
you know, and I think I think ultimately for us,
you know, one of the challenges that we're faced with
right now in the Southeastern Conference, so that every bud's clear,
we're we're still operating at eighty five scholarships, and there's

(39:05):
some other conferences around the league that are operating at
one hundred and five scholarships, So that's twenty more scholarship players.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
We may get to that in the sec we may not.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
There's that we're discussing that we're voting on that, and
that you know, if we're operating at one o five,
this number is probably a bigger number. But we have
to assume for the moment that we're gonna be at
eighty five.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Well, that then gives.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
Us a little more wiggle room if we do go
to one o five to where we can we can
be a little bit more aggressive when it comes to
the transfer.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Portal that way.

Speaker 5 (39:36):
So all in all, I'm very excited about this group.
I think there's some guys that'll have immediate impact. There's
some guys that are gonna be great developmental players for
us that that we may not you know, hear their
name next year, but man, in two years, boy, these
guys are gonna be a good player for us. And
I think, you know, when you look at a couple
of key positions, when you look in long term for
our program of being a championship caliber football team year

(40:00):
in and year out, there's guys in here that're gonna
help contribute to that. And I think at the end
of the day, for us, like we say all the time,
we never sacrifice character for talent around here, and our
and our culture is so important to us, and I
think we saw our culture shine through this year at
some really critical moments that we never want to lose
sight of that. And this is a high character group

(40:20):
that's going to fit right into our culture and continue
to grow and keep keep this this Longhorn Football organization
in a place that is continuing to grow to be
on the forefront of championship level caliber play year in and
year out.

Speaker 7 (40:34):
If you have a question, hey, Steve, just to start,
what excites you about quarterback Dia Bell.

Speaker 5 (40:43):
Yeah, you know, I think the thing about dia he
is a natural passer of the football and you watch
him play. We've had him in camp, We've been around
him in person. Uh, He's a natural passer. He has
a great feel for the game. The other thing we
really love about him is his competitive spirit. And you know,

(41:06):
both of his parents were athletes. His mom was a
collegiate soccer player obviously, his father, you know, was a
was a multi year NBA player and great player in
the NBA and he got he got it from both
his parents. You know, he's a highly competitive young man.
He's a he's a football junkie, he's a sport junkie.
He works out, he works his tail off, and so

(41:28):
I just think his leadership, his personality, his his his ability,
but probably most importantly his competitive spirit are things that
we're definitely very excited about.

Speaker 11 (41:40):
Coach, can you maybe talk about the challenge or recruiting
goal offensive lineman you know in today's you know, college football,
because it takes, as you know, several years for those
guys to develop.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
But then there's nil so you don't want dead money.
There's a transferporter.

Speaker 11 (41:53):
Like, how challenging is it to determine which guys you
go after?

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Say pay all that?

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Yeah? I do.

Speaker 5 (41:59):
You know, you've hit the nail on the head on
a lot of issues that we're dealing with, right. You know,
you want to recruit high school players, and you want
to develop those high school players, and you want them
to grow in your program.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
As they go.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
But like anything, like, we have a cap let's call it,
that we have to operate within. And just like I
think any good organization, you allocate a percentage of your
cap to certain position groups on your roster, and you
try to stay within the confines of that cap by
position so that you can balance your roster out to

(42:37):
be as effective as you want to be. And to
your point, when you allocate a lot of money of
your CAP into high school offensive linemen and when they
get on your team and they don't play, you know,
the easy term is to use dead money.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
It's not necessarily dead.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
They're in that developmental stage of their career that takes
away from money that you could then maybe allocate to
the transfer portal, maybe to players that can come in
and have an immediate impact in your program. And so
it's a fine line there to do that, and there's
a threshold with every player. And the difference is, you know,

(43:17):
there's schools that are willing to allocate more money to
the high school player and maybe they're going to play
them early, maybe they're not. That's up to their discretion
to do that. But we have certain thresholds that we
have to stay within the parameters of or that's how
we will get out of whack, and that's how you
end up putting players on the field maybe too early

(43:38):
on their career to where maybe they don't perform the
way we would like them to perform up to the
level of maybe the rest of the roster, and they
can lose confidence and there's a lot of issues.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
That can come with that.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
And that's no different than maybe the quarterback position. There's
some positions like that that it can happen in and
so we just we have to be mindful of that.
Like I said, I really like the three kids we signed,
but it goes without saying. You know, we're going to
be active in the portal when it comes to offensive
line recruiting, and we need to make sure that we
have the resources in place to go recruit some of

(44:13):
the best offensive linemen in the country when it comes.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
To portal recruiting.

Speaker 12 (44:18):
Steve, look at this list, I think only one of
these players isn't going to be here in the spring.
Is that something that you as a program request says something?
These guys pretty much have lined up anyway because they
want to get to campus early. Do you have to
like make an special exception if a kid's not going
to get here until the summer. How does the early
enrollly part of this kind of play out. It's become
the norm.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
You know, in this this process of the players coming early,
we've kind of seen the evolution of it happening in
my time here.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
You know, when I was you.

Speaker 5 (44:47):
Know, when I was at the last place, you know,
you were maybe getting a handful of guys midyear. And
when I first got here, you know, there was probably
eight to ten or so that we're maybe mid year.
Now we're looking at twenty two mid years coming in.
I think last year we were right around the same number.
It's really the norm now, and it's really what the
high school counselors, the high school coaches are doing with

(45:10):
the young men in their in their program. They're they're
a lot more active in summer school, a lot more
doing you know, taking double loads their junior year to
get them in position to do this. So this really
is the norm nowadays. We have to be mindful of that, uh,
for a lot of other issues that aren't really for
this for this press conference, but when you think about

(45:32):
you know, space and the dorms and and and and
roster limits and different things, we have to be mindful
of that of managing that. And again I think Brandon
Harris and his team have done a great job of
managing that those numbers and balancing that out. But it's
really the norm nowadays. And when a guy doesn't, we
don't have to make any special accommodations for him. It's

(45:55):
just he's going to be coming in June and that's
gonna be okay. We're gonna work with him and he'll
be ready to go. And like, for instance, we had
a bunch of guys come mid year last year. One
of the guys that didn't was Nick Townsend. Well, Nick
Townsend was one of the freshmen that played for us
this year, and so it doesn't always depict he's going
to play early or not. Like the one year we

(46:16):
signed seven offensive linemens, six of them were mid year.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
One was not.

Speaker 5 (46:19):
That one was Calvin Banks. He came in June. He
started as a true freshman. So I think a lot
of it is more about the mindset of the young
man when he gets here, and if he's focused and
doing the things he needs to do, we'll make sure
that he's got everything in place to put himself in
a really good position to compete.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Steve with Jermaine Bishop Junior.

Speaker 13 (46:39):
I know it's day one, he's tap in here yet,
but do you have an idea of where you envision
him playing. And also it's kind of follow up when
you have an athlete type. Is that a staff decision
say hey, we want to start you here and then
it goes to the player or does it start with
the player and go to the staff.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
How does that work?

Speaker 14 (46:53):
Well?

Speaker 5 (46:53):
I think it starts in the recruiting process, and Jermaine
obviously from a high school snapshot is more has more
than enough ability to play on either side of the ball.
And you know, the good thing for me is it's
not totally.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Foreign to me.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
You know. When I was at the University of Washington,
we signed a young man by the name of John
Ross who today had the fastest forty time ever at
the combine and Xavier Worthy broke it, and his true
freshman year, he was primarily a wide receiver that we
would play on third down at nickel when we were
going to play a man coverage, and he had the

(47:33):
ability to do both. And obviously then he returned punts
and kickoffs for us. When I got to USC, we
recruit a young man by the name of adri Jackson,
and a Dory started for us at corner as a
true freshman, returned punts and kicks, and then I played
him about depending on the game, five to ten plays
a game on the offensive side of the ball and
so But for both of those guys, one, I think

(47:57):
John Ross wanted to kind of be a receiver and
that's what he ended up being in his career and
getting drafted as receiver a Dorri at the end of
the day, you know, dB was his love and that's
what he wanted to do, but it grew into that.
And I think the same is gonna have to happen
for Jermaine and we're gonna have to get a sense
in a feel for him.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
He has the ability to do either.

Speaker 5 (48:17):
I'm not so consumed with is he better at one
than the other, but somewhere in his heart which one
is it going to be for him? We're gonna give
him the opportunity to do that, and I'm gonna give
my honest assessment. You know, I've got to see him live.
I gotta work with him and feel where he's better
suited early on in his career and navigate him down

(48:38):
one road to do the bulk of what he does
and then offset that with some of the things he
does on the other side.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Of the ball.

Speaker 5 (48:44):
Obviously, he's an electric player with the ball in his hands.
The guy scores touchdowns like that's it's almost like that's
what he does for a living. But yet you watch
him play dB he can guard people. You know, he
can guard people, and he's physical and he can play
the game. So it's a good problem to have.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
When you recruit.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
We can recruit a player of his caliber and we'll
find our way through it. The good thing is, like
I said, this isn't totally foreign to us. We've been
down this road before.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Your left coach sark Well.

Speaker 14 (49:12):
First, y'all expect Corey Wells to sign today or send
in this letter. But really, from a recruiting perspective, does
all the CFP discourse have any impact on these guys?
Do they ever bring it up?

Speaker 1 (49:23):
No?

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Not really. You know, I think this.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
I think one thing they know about our program today,
I don't have to speak about what we're going to be.
You know, we've been to the CFP semi finals two
years in a row. We're in the midst of this
discussion here over the last you know, week, forty eight hours,
twenty four hours, and so whether if we don't get in,

(49:46):
if we somehow find our way into this thing. I
don't think that that's, you know, manipulating their choices and
or decisions. I think they know we're a playoff football
team and we're going to be year in and year out.
Some years, you know, we'll be right there, and it
might be a year like this year where we're right
on the bubble of what it looks like. And but

(50:07):
but I think they know what our program is about,
and I think that's the most important thing.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I can't speak on him because he had.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
The sign.

Speaker 15 (50:16):
Are there any needs that you're trying to address before
the early signing period closes and any other needs that
you think you will have in the portal when it
opens besides offensive line, maybe defensive tackle if that fits
into one of those boxes.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
Yeah, I would say, I would say from from a
need perspective, I don't know if we necessarily have needs
before the early signing period closes.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
But we're not done.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
You know.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
There's obviously some some players that are still out there
that are high level players that we're going to continue
to recruit until they do sign, and so that again
I don't know necessarily that those are needs. Some of
them could be depending if they hit it right. But
for the most part, it's recruiting high level, elite plays

(51:00):
and not settling because again, we have other needs that
we need to feel it fill immediately, and that's what
the portal's for, right And as I touched on, I
think I think the offensive line is something that we're
going to address in the portal. Uh An interior defensive
lineman is something we'll address in the portal. Potentially a linebacker,
potentially something in the secondary, potentially a running back. I mean,

(51:22):
so there's there's needs there that that we're gonna address.
But again, do they fit us? Do they fit us
physically and in the style in which we want to play?
Do they fit us culturally? From a character standpoint? And
that's the homework that we need to do to get
that done and so that you know, again the transfer
portal is is is great and like I said, it

(51:45):
fills needs for us. But at the end of the day,
when you really look at us year in and year out,
the bulk of what we do is in high school recruiting.
And like going into this year, we were we were
one of the younger football teams in the country. We
knew that going into the season and we knew there
was gonna be growing pains and going into next year,
I think we're gonna reap the benefits of that. We

(52:06):
had a lot of young players, first and second year
players play for us this year that are gonna be
a lot better players next year. So we're gonna grow
up again and we'll become a veteran football team again.
You're just gonna have years like this when maybe you're
a little bit younger and that's okay.

Speaker 9 (52:21):
You're right, Hey, Steven, going to see Jet Walker and
for school long start in the playoff game and athleticism
jumps off the screen. Is he a full time running
back or can he play somewhere else because athleticism looks
like he could be.

Speaker 5 (52:37):
Yeah, we we love jet And again here's another guy
and I'm remiss for not touching on him. Six one,
two ten, very athletic, great hands, tough, smart, a guy
that I think we think can be very versatile. You know,
whether it's utilizing and tradition at the traditional running back position,
whether it gives us a little more flexibility to get

(52:59):
in some of our two stuff where you can use
him there. Naturally, he's gonna have he's gonna should be
great for us on special teams and utilize him in
some different aspects of that. And so all in all,
you know, I think that his versatility, but yet his athleticism,
those two things combined and the competitive spirit. I mean,
what a run they had at Georgetown and what they

(53:20):
were able to do to build that up and him
being one of the core leaders of that group to
go along with Cayden, I think just speaks to the leadership,
the character, the culture piece and fit for what we
want to be here and continue to be here.

Speaker 6 (53:35):
Hey, coach, with Connor robertson walking on senior Day, can
you tell us if you're expecting him back? And then
also you've talked about the offensive line in the portal,
are you planning on attacking that with the same level
of aggression that you did with the defensive line last season?

Speaker 5 (53:50):
So you know, every year we always have players that
are undecided if they're going to come back or not
and for senior and I always tell him, go do
senior Day because the last thing I want is they
don't do Senior Day, then they decide to move on,
and then they didn't get to have that moment And
so we have a few guys that are in that

(54:11):
mold of you know, whether it's Connor robertson Hero Canoe
when we have a few guys that are kind of
in that mold, same not not any different than a
few guys from last year's team that came back and
they've done it twice, and we've had guys do it twice.
I just think they want their moment of shine. But
but I don't know. I mean, I would like to
run out of DKR with one hundred thousand people cheering
for me too, so getting their name and out. So

(54:33):
we'll see what happens with Connor. You know, we would
love to have him back. We'll see what that looks
like for him. As far as the O line goes, again,
we were we were so deficient at numbers on the
defensive line last year that we had to take five
guys just.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
To get the room numbers correct.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
I don't know necessarily that our numbers will be so
far off on the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
It's it's not so much about.

Speaker 5 (54:58):
The quantity of the pla that we get out of
the portal on the offensive line. I think it's more
about the quality of the players that we get out
of the portal on the offensive line.

Speaker 7 (55:09):
Hey, Steve, you've got some specialists in this class.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
Do you see them as guys who need to come
in and get it done or do you have guys
in mind.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Or could you go to the portal for for help there?

Speaker 5 (55:21):
Well, I think we definitely could go to the portal.
We We do think all these guys have huge upside.
I mean, they're they're very gifted, very talented. But but
I do think one thing we learned this year the
value of having veteran punter, veteran kicker, veteran long snapper.
But again, we're we're trying to build for depth. We're
trying to build for long term and you know the

(55:43):
goal and hope maybe we get to one oh five
and now you can you can stack a little bit
of depth in that room and to see what that
looks like.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
And so we'll we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 5 (55:52):
And and and but but I do think we're we're
not done there. You know that that we'll have an
opportunity to look into the portal and if there's quality
people there that we could take advantage of it.

Speaker 16 (56:03):
Yeah, coach, I know, every signing day is kind of
one of those things where you hear where are the
five stars?

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Where are the five stars?

Speaker 16 (56:08):
Can you talk a little bit about the balance of
you know, finding value versus finding the big game, hunting
and winning you know those Yeah.

Speaker 5 (56:16):
Yeah, I think this is now more than ever. This
is really important, okay, because we're a little bit more
I don't want to call it like NFL draft model,
but again, we only you know, everybody. You can only
have so much money, right, there's rules, there's caps, and
we play within the confines of what the rules that

(56:37):
they put in place, and so you got to decide
what's the value at the position, and what's the value
of certain players, and when when the when the when
the school b offers more money that's outside of the
value of the money. It's not endless, right, and you
can't just keep throwing money on top of money on
top of money. A we're outside of the confines of

(56:58):
what the rule says, and B it's there's not endless money.
So we have to be very specific in what are
our needs looking long term as well as short term
of where do you allocate that money? And then what
do your second round picks start to look like? See
if kind of your first rounders or second rounders. And
then to me, I think the best teams in the

(57:19):
NFL do a great job in the draft in rounds
three through five, right because those guys really start to
make up the core of your locker room.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
And I think we've done a fantastic job of that.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
And again, and assessing building a roster in this era,
I think is much different than building a roster in
previous years before this thing, you know, the whole what
was nil now revenue sharing or publicity rights, so on
and so forth. It's different, and constructing that roster is
very different. So I do think we have some elite

(57:52):
first round picks, and I think we have some high
level second, third, and fourth round picks that we're going
to be able to lean into that are going to
be quality the pieces on this team. Again, maybe not
next year, but as they develop down the road and
they continue on the trajectory that they were on, man,
these guys are gonna be a good player for good
players for US two and three years down the road.

Speaker 17 (58:15):
Yeah, coach, speaking of developing, going back to d bel,
how beneficial is it for him to have some time
to develop and have some time under Arch.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Yeah, I think the quarterback position. I always say this,
the closer to.

Speaker 5 (58:28):
The ball you are, the more development you probably need,
the tougher it is to play earlier in your career.
So you think about the quarterback, think about offensive lineman,
think about interior defensive lineman. That step you make from
high school to college is probably the bigger step than
the further away from the ball you get.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
The further away from the ball you.

Speaker 5 (58:49):
Get probably a little easier to get you onto the
field and get you on the field earlier to contribute
at a high level. And so the quarterback to me
is a developmental position. As many stars as you have
behind your name, it's a developmental position. There's so many
nuances that come with that position. And even with Arch,

(59:09):
here's a guy who had been in our program for
two years and had started a couple of games for
US last year. We saw some of the growing pains
for him this year and how much he evolved and
how much better he played for US the second half
of the season. And so that position is a developmental
position for us. And like every guy we've recruited for
the last two decades, it's not always about at quarterback

(59:32):
playing early. It's about when you have the opportunity to
play that you can play great. And when we've had
some good success at developing quarterbacks, we've been fortunate there
some guys only started one year and got drafted really
high first round picks and had gone on to have
careers in the NFL. And so at the end of
the day, DIA's future is very bright. I do think

(59:54):
he's fortunate to be in that room. There's a lot
of quality players in that room. There's great people in
that room, you know, obviously with with Arch and kJ
and and Trey and what all that looks like. And
so for for Dia, I think he's getting put in
a really good situation. But I also know DIA's competitive
spirit and he's not coming here just to sit back

(01:00:15):
and wait his turn.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
He's gonna work his.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
Tail off and he's going to try to beat the
next guy out and beat the next guy out, but
at the same time support those guys.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
And I think that's why he was.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
So attractive to us in this recruiting process, is because
of his mental makeup of what he's what he believes in,
what he stands for, to go along with the physical
attributes that he has coach.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
This is a sport that's ever evolving.

Speaker 7 (01:00:38):
In the NFL, we're seeing a big increase specifically this
year in twelve personnel, but also jumbo packages with six
offensive linemen. I can't help but notice John Turntine's coming
into school at two hundred and seventy pounds. You have
Charlie Jillik who's six five two forty or those some
of the ideas with bringing guys like that into this
program and with John, would you maybe give him that
look in the first year.

Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
Well, we'll see, you know, it's probably a little too
early to tell. I gotta gotta look at him in
real time and what he looks like for us.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:01:06):
What what I do know is our sport forever evolves,
to your point, and there's always things that that were
the trend or the fad years ago, and they always
kind of pop themselves back up. Probably outside of the wishbone,
everything else is kind of has come back up, and
maybe the wish wishbone is going to come back to
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
I don't know, you know, but you know, I do
think that what.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
We try to do when we get our players is
find the things that they do well, and then how
do we try to put them in position to do
the things that they do well, to have some success,
to build their confidence, to grow to want to do more.
And and when when it's a want to as opposed
to I have to man, we start to we start
to knock down targets individually and collectively as a team.

(01:01:52):
And so, you know, whether it's John or or any
of these guys, like, if we can find a role
or two for them that that they can lean into
you and they can build confidence, then they're.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Gonna want to do more of that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
And again, I think we're gonna see a ton of
development out of some of these guys. And I just
don't think I'm gonna sit up here, you know, a
couple of years from now, say John Turntine six four
two seventy, I have a feeling he's getting weigh a
lot more than that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
I mean, Trevor Guseby showed up, he was two.

Speaker 5 (01:02:18):
Hundred and sixty five pounds, you know, and now I
think the guy's three hundred and twenty something pounds and
pretty good player. For so again, it's just the the
developmental piece that it takes when we get him is
it was one of the really critical components that that
we have.

Speaker 16 (01:02:32):
OCUR has Archidefinalvey said he's coming back for next year
and I'd like to get your action to CFP.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
Yeah, No, I haven't asked him. Maybe I should. I
don't know. I don't know. Uh, I feel pretty good
about it, but but we'll see.

Speaker 5 (01:02:51):
You know, my thing with the CFP is this, and
I know you guys have seen me talking about the
CFP over the of the past days, and I guess
I'm out of point now where we can agree to
disagree on what the principles and the parameters are on
what makes up one of the best twelve teams in

(01:03:16):
the country to play in the playoff?

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
And people like to use the word deserving. Are they deserving?

Speaker 5 (01:03:22):
And to me, deserving is the five conference champions. They
deserve to be in the playoff because they won their
conference championship, and they deserve to be in the other
seven teams. To me, that's not about deserving. That's are
they one of the best seven teams remaining to compete
for a national championship? And in my humble opinion, we

(01:03:45):
are one of the best seven teams remaining we're not
competing for our conference championship.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
We tried that last year, we didn't make it.

Speaker 5 (01:03:51):
This year, we're a six and two team in the
Southeastern Conference. We've played the hardest schedule of all the
remaining teams left in the CFP, and that's supposed to
be the number one criteria, strength of schedule. The second
criteria is supposed to be head to head competition. Well,
there's two teams that are in there that we beat

(01:04:11):
by multiple scores. So is that head to head competition
or not? But clearly they're the CFP, and I have
a lot of respect for those guys on the committee.
It's a hard job and there's a lot of really
good teams that they're trying to choose between, and then
they're trying to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Figure it out.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
They valued losses more than they value the wins, and
so at the end of the day, they looked at
the record and what is your record? And so to
my point is that that's fine, but just tell us
that that's what it is. I just don't like contradicting
yourself when you tell me it's about strength to schedule
and you tell me about's head to head, But yet

(01:04:50):
then you make a decision predicated on what's our record,
and so that's my thought on it. Hey, and I
get it, they don't have an easy job. I respect
everybody on that committee for the time and efforts they
put in to try to put the best teams in there.
And so it just is what it is. What I've
learned out of this whole thing is we got to
control what we can control, and we got to win

(01:05:11):
more games, and we got to win the games that
are right in front of us, and clearly we didn't
do enough of that this year.

Speaker 18 (01:05:18):
I know when you started the relationship with Richard Wesley,
he was in the junior class, decides to become a senior,
y'all stay with him and recruit him. What's the process
for dealing with players who like or who have reclassified?
And then also what does Richard bring to your defense? Yeah,
you know, it's Richard Wesley. This guy's six and he's

(01:05:39):
sixteen years old. I'm fascinated by him, the fact that
he's going to be here in in a few weeks.
You know, his demeanor is not of a sixteen year old.
This guy is is very focused, he's very driven, He's very.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
Serious about football. His craft.

Speaker 5 (01:05:57):
He's got two wonderful parents who we've got it and
I've got a great relationship with that. I think have
done a tremendous job of guiding him throughout this process.
I think he's he's going a guy that is going
to really contribute to this team. How early we'll see,
but I would not be surprised if he has, if
he contributes early on in his career. He's that high

(01:06:18):
level of a player. He's a very versatile player. It's
going to be interesting to watch his body grow and develop.
He's sixteen years old. You know, how big can he get?
How twitchy can he get? But we couldn't be more
excited about Richard, and it's been a great process. This
was I think, in my opinion, this was the place
he always wanted to come to, and now he had

(01:06:38):
an awkward kind of commitment there along the way, to
say the least. But him to be back with us
and feeling very good about him being back with us
is something that we're definitely excited about.

Speaker 10 (01:06:51):
He spoke with the summer about wanting to corral the
state a little bit more. Do you feel like you
met that goaldis cycle and what do these local guys
do for the culture of the program.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Yeah, you know, I think this.

Speaker 5 (01:07:01):
I think one thing we learned over last year and
this year, we had some really good players from in
and around central Texas and Austin that were high level
contributors for us over the past couple of seasons. And
whether that you want to talk about John A. Baron,
Andrew mccubaugh, Michael taff Ethan Burke. I mean, I'm leaving
guys out, but these were some really high level players

(01:07:22):
for us that maybe weren't all the most highly recruited guys.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
But one thing I've learned.

Speaker 5 (01:07:29):
About this and now in year five, there's a real
sense of pride that they have in this place. And
so the idea that we were able to keep some
local guys here I think is good for us culturally.
I think it's good for us as we continue to
grow as a program, but also in and around the
state of Texas. But I've said this before, recruiting has evolved.

(01:07:49):
Recruiting has changed. It's not anymore where the kids in
California all go to USC UCLA and Stanford and cal
It's not anymore all the kids in Florida go to Florida,
Florida State and Miami.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
It's not anymore where the.

Speaker 5 (01:08:02):
Kids in Texas go to Texas and A and m
and anywhere else. Guys are much more app to travel.
Social media has changed recruiting a ton. We're more app
to go and recruit on the you know, we're talking
about Richard Wesley from Los Angeles, California, and dbl and
Derek Cooper from Miami, Florida and everywhere in between. And
so we're fortunate we've got a great brand and that

(01:08:26):
is nationwide and and allows us to do that. But
at the end of the day, you know, when you
when you look at it, half our half of this
recruiting class and more than half our roster is still
from the state of Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
And I do think that that is very important over here.

Speaker 10 (01:08:41):
Coach jam Mary and Carlton flipped to you guys just
over the last few days, just from a relational standpoint,
what is that like when you're able to, you know,
flip a recruit and someone you know commits last night.

Speaker 5 (01:08:53):
Yeah, you know, I'd say this it was a battle
before his commitment. You know, it was a guy that
that we have liked now for a couple of years
and and and we recruited him really hard. And when
he when he decided to commit, you could almost feel
a little uncertainty in his voice. And so we just
didn't we didn't back down, and and we stayed We

(01:09:14):
stayed true to the recruitment process. As long as he
and his mom and coaches were okay with us recruiting him,
we stayed committed to the recruiting process. I think I
think Lea Allen Clark did a great job of staying
connected with him, and in the end, he felt like,
ultimately this was the best place for him.

Speaker 7 (01:09:31):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:09:32):
He's another guy who you know, just watching his development
over over the past couple of years from where he
was a couple of years ago to now, you know, six',
five just under two hundred and seventy. Pounds what's he
going to look like in two?

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
Years you? Know and, so, uh we're pumped to have.
HIM i think he's a.

Speaker 5 (01:09:51):
Guy i'm glad we stuck with it and and continue
to recruit. Him and in the, end you, know he
made the decision to be A longhorn and we couldn't
be more excited about.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
It you guys have got.

Speaker 11 (01:10:02):
Time for a couple of questions overall a little bit
before we talk.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Again recruiting question.

Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
The Next, yeah, yeah so this, week what we what we've.
Done this is our last week of regular, school and
so we want to give the guys time to finish up, papers,
projects take. Tests so we're we're really just working out
with coach, backtin running and. Lifting we'll get back on

(01:10:33):
the practice Field monday. Morning we'll practice four days next, Week, Monday, Tuesday,
thursday And. Friday obviously we'll know our Fate sunday of
kind of where and what an exact date we'll be,
playing and then we'll adjust our calendar. Accordingly if if
you're in THE, cfp if something crazy happens and we
and we find our way in, there that adjusts some

(01:10:53):
things because you're playing a little. Quicker if, not we're
playing more towards the end of the, month and we
get you, know any where between fifteen eighteen practices where
we can really work on a development and we can
look at a lot of our younger players and really
see where they're at in the program and really work
with them and coach. Them and then and then we
don't have to worry about game planning till down the.

(01:11:14):
Road we'll obviously take some time for the holiday and
give guys some time to get around their family and
so on and so. Forth but it's been a different
week for, us you, know this. Week for the last two,
years we've been, practicing we've been, playing And i've been
running in, here running and, gunning you, know game, planning
getting ready for a, game and so not playing in
a championship game has been a little bit. Different last

(01:11:35):
year was very unique because we went from championship game
right INTO. Cfp so we've got a little bit more
time on our, hands WHICH i think is good from
an evaluation standpoint of the state of the program and
evaluating all aspects of the. PROGRAM b what are our,
needs and so getting ourselves prepared for you, Know january,
second when the portal does, open and see trying to

(01:11:58):
go finish off this. Season you, know we've got an
opportunity to win ten games this, year and that hadn't
been DONE i think since seven o eight oh nine
something like, That and so think about almost nearly twenty,
years you, know fifteen twenty years.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
From the last time that.

Speaker 5 (01:12:11):
Happened to go along with some of the other great
accomplishments THAT i think this team was able to.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
Do so we've got some things to do.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
And we've got to be we got to be time
on task with with what we're.

Speaker 12 (01:12:22):
Doing Left, steve the last two years you kind of
had awkward, SITUATIONS i, guess with the fact that as
we're preparing for the playoffs and guys had to kind
of make decisions for themselves and maybe jump in the.
Portal and assuming y'a aren't in the, playoffs do you
expect to have exit interviews earlier with these guys or
how did those conversations go if you aren't in the?

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
Playoffs?

Speaker 5 (01:12:43):
Yeah, No my plan is to do my exit meetings
with the players In. December to be fair to, them
they should know where they stand in the program prior To, january.
Tewod so that's the, plan and we've got different layers
of exit. Interviews i've got exit interviews with players are
trying to decide if they're gonna declare for THE Nfl
draft or stay. Here we've got we've got seniors who are,

(01:13:07):
done but what do they need to work on to
get ready for THE Nfl. Draft we've got current players
on a roster that we feel very good that aren't
potentially going anywhere That, okay what do they need to
where are they, at how is their, season what do
they need to work? On and then we've got players
that are probably a little bit in flux and they're
trying to make. Decisions and so we'll have all those
meetings here In, december and we got plenty of time

(01:13:30):
to get that. Done BUT i think to be fair to,
them that's that's the right thing to.

Speaker 13 (01:13:33):
Do steve kind of pickyback and off of, that, right
you talk about having ex interviews with players you may
prepare for the, draft you, know possible opt, outs you,
know how how would you kind of go about you,
know going that with the player and also as a
staff to prepare.

Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
You, KNOW i think at the end of the, day
that that the way our rosters, constructed you, KNOW i
DON'T i don't know that we'll have necessarily opt, Outs.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
But at the end of that's the choice of the
of the young, men you.

Speaker 5 (01:14:01):
Know and we're a little bit of a different era
of opt out some different. Things and and And i'll
make a CASE i think every player on our, team
whether they're going to the draft or, not needs to
play in this, game it, says another opportunity to build their, resume,
uh to put to put things on tape that that
THE nfl can lean into that can help them evaluate
them for the. Draft we're going to play a quality,

(01:14:22):
opponent regardless of who it, is so they can work
on their craft here and In december and maybe put
a little little better product on the field for. Them but,
ultimately you, KNOW i just think the way our team is,
constructed these guys are, Tight they're close. Knit they want
to play for one another with one. Another but we'll
cross that bridge if that comes.

Speaker 18 (01:14:41):
Up looking at some of the guys that you were
able to preserve red shirts for since these remaining games
don't count against, that who are some guys that you
look at and you're, Like i'm glad they're.

Speaker 1 (01:14:52):
Gonna be a red shirt freshman next. YEAR i.

Speaker 5 (01:14:56):
DON'T i don't know all of them just right off
the top of my head that way think for any of,
them it's it's a good. Thing you, Know like, again
you may do you want someone specific for me to
talk about you can hit that because.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
Yeah, no again we.

Speaker 5 (01:15:14):
Didn't we tried to do our best and it's difficult
on some. Games we try to do our best not
to put a guy out there just for three, plays you,
know and that's hard to, do and you're getting in the.
Moment those guys want to get in the. Game every
guy wants to. Play you know. That none of them
are sitting there, like don't put me, in. Coach you
know they want to go.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
In so you're just being mindful of.

Speaker 5 (01:15:33):
That BUT i do, THINK i do think that man
to preserve those guys is. Good, Now i'll be honest with.
YOU i may be preserving them for another, school right
that's just the nature of and they might be another
school might be preserving them for. Me you never, know you,
know this day and age of what do we have
two fifty year seniors on our roster this year And
Michael taff And Marshall lamware and so when you think

(01:15:55):
of it that. Way BUT i think in the best
interest of the player is the right thing to.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Do.

Speaker 5 (01:16:01):
NOW i would love to have more fifthier seniors down the.
ROAD i think older teams are good. Teams their veteran.
Teams Take vanderbilt for, example this, year they WERE i
think the, oldest if not one of the oldest teams
in the country that had a great, year but here
in places like where we are and the quality of
classes we. SIGN i think us In georgia were the

(01:16:22):
two youngest teams in our conference this. Year that's what
happens when you've got good players on good. Teams you
have twenty three guys drafted the last two, years and
a lot of those were underclassmen that left, early and
so we have to get comfortable being younger and playing,
younger and then how do we mature a younger team? Quicker,
Right that's one of the things that we're going to,

(01:16:42):
evaluate myself and the. Staff how do we mature a
younger team? Quicker because clearly we weren't mature enough early
in the. SEASON i think we matured as the season went.
On we weren't quite mature enough early in the, season
and that's for something that that we definitely have to, evaluate,
Right Thank.

Speaker 7 (01:17:02):
Steve of these twenty TWO eari in, worldlies do you
anticipate having any of these.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
Guys available for the bull?

Speaker 7 (01:17:07):
Practices and if, so is there any added advantage of
that at a spring Ball?

Speaker 9 (01:17:11):
YEAH i.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
DON'T i got to look into.

Speaker 5 (01:17:13):
That they may have changed the rule on That hank,
LIKE i don't know. That THE ncaa kind of goes
back and forth on, that and then they'll there'll be
a school that finds a loophole that this is how
they get their guys to, practice and then we'll all.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
Follow the suit of that. Guy we'll we'll look at.
IT i don't.

Speaker 5 (01:17:27):
Know you, know, again we've got we've got a little
bit of. Time these guys are finishing up their high
school and we were obviously playing up Until friday, night
and so we'll kind of address that as we. GO
i think there's some advantage to. IT i don't think,
again it's kind of like coming in the. Spring it's
not the end all be, all BUT i do think
exposing them to it a little bit is.

Speaker 9 (01:17:46):
HELPFUL i know you're a fan of the. Game where
are your plans For championship? Weekend are you're gonna watch
with the coaching staff or getting together with the.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
Guys i'll probably watch it at the house.

Speaker 5 (01:17:59):
Regressional you, know, hey we all want to, play you,
know as the competitor inside of, ME i wish we
were Playing, saturday and But i'm not gonna apologize for
going six and two in THE sec with arguably the
hardest schedule, either you, know and the fact that you,
know in in regular season play we're thirteen and three
our first two years in the conference is something that

(01:18:22):
we're proud.

Speaker 16 (01:18:23):
Of you.

Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
Know, well hopefully we're better next, year you. Know But
i'll watch all the. Games then there's some great, games you.
Know i'm looking forward to Watching Alabama, georgia two good teams,
playing and as well as the other conference championship. Games
and so we'll watch it and assess it and, hopefully you,
know it serves a little bit of fuel for the,
fire you, know headed into next.

Speaker 11 (01:18:45):
Year coach you maybe too, early BUT i know you've
always prided yourself on the challenges of playing tough non conference,
teams whether it was To, alabama The, Michigan Ohio state
got in so and, So Notre. Dame if the committee
is not going to reward you guys for taking that,

(01:19:05):
challenge do.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
You really have to rethink?

Speaker 11 (01:19:08):
That and are you in your mind are you saying
AND i know you still got to play a power
for a, team but do you have to go for
the killers and do you have to, say you know,
what The committee's not going to award this we're just
not going to keep doing.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
This, yeah you, KNOW i think there's a couple of.
Things there's layers to, this and just bear with my.
Answer first of, all we're going to Honor Ohio state And.
Michigan you, know we went, there we went to Ann,
arbor we went To. Columbus we're going to honor those return.
Trips so for the next two, years we know what
our non conference schedule is going to look, like and
that's the right thing to. Do we made the commitment

(01:19:39):
to play, Them now we'll honor that commitment for them
to come play us. HERE i think anything beyond that
is up for. Discussion we need to IN cdc AND
i have already had that. Discussion we need to take
a good hard look at what our non conference schedule
looks like beyond the next two.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
Years because you.

Speaker 5 (01:19:55):
Got to, remember you, know so much of the non
conference scheduling was when we were in The Big, twelve
and those those these schedules were made when we were
in The Big. Twelve, well there's a little bit of
a different shift now that we're in The Southeastern, conference
and a little in another shift now that we're going
to nine conference, games.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
And So we've got to be mindful of.

Speaker 5 (01:20:15):
One putting our players in the best position to have
success and to have.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Growth, two we.

Speaker 5 (01:20:21):
Got to be mindful of how the committee's going to
evaluate to put the best teams into The College Football. Playoff,
now the goal is to go win The Southeastern conference every,
year and when you do, that you don't have to
worry about what the record look. Like and you probably
have a good record if if you're if you're in that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
Game and winning.

Speaker 5 (01:20:36):
It BUT i also need to look at what The
committee has shown me over the last two years since
we've expanded to twelve. Games they care about your record
and and so we've got to be mindful of that
as we go and we'll see what that looks.

Speaker 7 (01:20:51):
Like.

Speaker 5 (01:20:51):
Again we're going to Honor Ohio state And. Michigan we're
excited to play those. Games are are gonna be great
environments AND dkr and our players are looking forward to,
it our coaches are looking forward to those. Games it
should be highly competitive ball games with great, teams great,
players great. Coaches but but beyond that is where we've
got to have some real discussions of what our non
conference schedule looks.

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
Like after, That.

Speaker 16 (01:21:14):
Coach you, mentioned, uh you, know exit interviews for. Players
can you talk a little bit about those interviews with
the coaching staff and what you might need to target
or positions that might need to be filled With Brandon
harris as, well just in the sense of the portal
and what the number outlook might look like.

Speaker 5 (01:21:28):
There, Yeah, NO i think that we we have that
kind of exit meetings with the, Players we have personnel
meetings with the staff and then you and then you
you start to look at your roster and you look
at where your where your depth is at certain, positions
and and it's one thing to have depth in, numbers
it's another to have depth in class. Age, right are their,

(01:21:50):
seniors are their, juniors are their true? Freshmen and what
that looks? Like and then where are your?

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
Needs? Right where are your needs on your? Roster and
then how are we going to attack those? Needs?

Speaker 5 (01:21:59):
Right and then and what we try to do we
try to kind of put it in it's an urgent,
need it's a great it's a great need to, have
or it's a, luxury Right and and so if when
you do, that the urgent, needs that's where a lot
of our attention goes. To and then, hey this would
be if this guy's a really good player and we

(01:22:21):
have a pretty good need, here let's let's go attack.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
That or this is just a, luxury, Uh and a
luxury is maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:22:27):
A kid wants to come home who is a fantastic
player out of high school and got, Homesick but how
can we say no to? Them that's kind of more
of the. Luxury and so we try to rank it
in that way to go along with our roster and
our sheer numbers of what it looks. Like and so
we we've done that with a pretty good. Feel and
but that always evolves.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Too you.

Speaker 5 (01:22:46):
Know and and you, know let's say you go into
this thing, thinking, hey we're gonna take two old lineman
or three ol, lignmen but there's a fourth one that
how do you say no to?

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
Them you're probably gonna take, them you.

Speaker 5 (01:22:57):
Know and and again that that falls back into what
maybe went from urgent can still become a luxury.

Speaker 17 (01:23:02):
Too, Coach will you guys watch Selection sunday we're back
here as a, team and then how do you maybe
manage expectations going into that selection.

Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
SHOW i don't know if.

Speaker 5 (01:23:14):
We, will you, KNOW i haven't really thought that far,
ahead you, know quite, frankly we'll, See LIKE i, SAID
i know we're gonna Practice monday.

Speaker 2 (01:23:24):
Morning we'll see what that looks.

Speaker 5 (01:23:25):
Like maybe get a little sense and a feel of
maybe what happens On saturday of with the championship, games
if if we'll come together on that or you'll we'll
meet it up with the Team monday morning and and
kind of lay out the plans for for what the
month looks.

Speaker 12 (01:23:40):
Like i'm going back to your answer To onwar's, question you,
know how a line DO i guess you AND cdc
need to be about this scheduling because he's been pretty
clear that he likes these big brand. Games is there
a concern, ever that what might not make sense football
wise makes sense business?

Speaker 5 (01:23:58):
Wise and that's Why texas. MIGHT i think we're very.
ALIGNED i love the big brand games. Too nobody likes
them more than. ME i love coaching in those. GAMES
i love getting our teams ready for those, games Like
i'm all for, It LIKE i love playing those. GAMES
i don't like the repercussions of playing those games IF
i don't get rewarded for playing those. Games AND i
think CDC's in line with that, Too So we're very,

(01:24:20):
aligned but ultimately we have a Responsibility university Of texas
to make sure that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
We're putting our teams. Teams he's got a lot of other.

Speaker 5 (01:24:28):
TEAMS i have our team in the best position to
go win championships because that's why we got, hired was
to go compete for. Championships and so, again it's not
about shining away from playing. ANYBODY i just also know
we're playing the toughest conference in the. Country we already
have the number one strength to schedule in the, country
AND i think if you Took Ohio state off our,
schedule we still might have the toughest strength to schedule

(01:24:50):
in THE. Cfp so the reality of it is we
got to be mindful, of, hey are we just doing
it because, hey we'll go play, anybody or we being
strategic in our approach to playing non conference games as
we move, Forward LIKE i, said beyond the next two.
Years BUT i think we're aligned on. That we would
love to play, everybody but we also need to be

(01:25:11):
mindful and smart with the decisions we.

Speaker 7 (01:25:13):
Make left, coach there's been different points such as five
years of eligibility and the overall schedule of the college
football world that you've talked about this. Season are there
any that you were specifically gonna be advocating quite hard
for over the offseason IN sc media daysers in.

Speaker 5 (01:25:28):
General you, Know, Hey I'm i'm all for five. Years
i'll say, That i've said that. BEFORE i don't think
that that's going to get passed this. Year BUT i
just think if the kids on your, team let's let him,
play you, Know and Then i'm not falling into What
joe was asking about of SHOULD i put him in
the game or.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Not you, know it's, like let the guy.

Speaker 5 (01:25:48):
Play he's on our, team and and and then nobody's
worried about red shirt and not red shirt and opting
out things of that. Nature so that that that that
one definitely hits home with. ME i think we do
need to evaluate championship weekend if you want to know the.
TRUTH i, mean you think about why are some teams
getting an opportunity to play a thirteenth game and not

(01:26:09):
ANOTHER i sure would like to play a thirteenth. Game
let us get a little more to get another win
in on our, Resume but we don't get, that you.
Know so there's things in here THAT i think all
of college football needs to continually get looked. At and
again we're talking about the. Calendar we're talking about a
head coach leaving our, conference who's in the, playoff who's
hosting a home playoff, game probably leave for a rival

(01:26:32):
school in conference and leave that team like that doesn't
make sense to, Me but that's the arena that we're.
In and SO i think there's a lot of things
in college football that continues to evolve and that we've
got to make sure, that, man we're doing the right
things for our.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
Sport and we've got a great.

Speaker 5 (01:26:51):
Sport and As i've said this numerous, TIMES i think
the popularity of college football.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
Is at an all time high right.

Speaker 5 (01:26:57):
Now and a lot of that is due to the
product on the, field a lot of that's due to
y'all and the coverage of our, sport a lot of
us due to television and the exposure that it's. Getting
but college football and the popularity is at an all time,
high and it's.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
AWESOME i love everything about.

Speaker 5 (01:27:12):
It but we've got to make sure that we're doing
and making decisions that's in the best interest of our
sport big picture, wise and there's probably some real issues
that we need.

Speaker 2 (01:27:21):
To we need to hunker down on and get right.

Speaker 5 (01:27:25):
Because right now we've we've got bigger issues that are
kind of under the table that maybe y'all don't even
see or even know. About that to me are really
severe issues that until we get guardrails around, them like
who's enforcing the rules right, NOW i don't really, know,
well who's adhering to the rules right?

Speaker 2 (01:27:45):
NOW i don't really know that.

Speaker 5 (01:27:46):
Either so we have some issues that need to get
addressed and address. Quickly ard, y'all thank.

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
You all. Right that's Long warton's head Coach steve sarkisian
there with the news conference For National Signing, day unning
down the signing class for twenty twenty, six and also
other things with regard to the college football playoff things
that we addressed about an hour ago WHEN i had
to sit down one on one with coach Sark if
you didn't hear, that you can certainly catch that on

(01:28:15):
the podcast page AT am thirteen under The zone dot.
Com when we come, back we'll bring you the four
o'clock hour of The Craig ratio right here on Sports
RADIO am thirteen Hundred. Zone, hey we're happy to be
back with a. Year for the first and final hour
of the program here on Sports RADIO am thirteen hundred
Of The, zone hope you enjoyed long worn head Coach

(01:28:36):
Steven Sarkesian's National Signing day press. Conference he brought it
to exclusively live right here on The, zone the entire
one hour of it where he went player by player
and then answered questions from the media about that and
also about the college football playoff and off season, things
things that we talked about an hour ago when sark
joined us prior to the press. Conference, again you can

(01:28:58):
go TO a thirteen under The zone dot com to
go to the podcast page to listen to that one
on one as well as the press. Conference if you
missed any of. That what we're gonna do here since
we obviously have some catching up to do with our,
sponsorship and we'll do a good bit of, that but

(01:29:19):
we're gonna start off just for those of you who
missed the press. Conference here's the rundown on those who
have signed with this twenty twenty. Six i'll go. Alphabetical
Linebacker Tyler atkinson From, Lawrenceville. Georgia Dia bell you heard
a lot about, him the five star quarterback From Fort, Lauderdale,

(01:29:40):
Florida Jermaine. Bishop if you haven't seen this young man,
play he's amazing out Of Willis and So i'm the
Last saturday NIGHT i play against forty in the playoffs
and with something. Else and he'll be going up against
The sota this week in the state. Quarterfinals And sark
said it in the one on one THAT i have with,
him there's a good chance to look at him on
both sides of the. Football he's described as an, athlete

(01:30:01):
not by specific. Position Cohen brown wide receiver From Waxahachie
Mikey bukoskas is from Prosper he's a. Punter Jamaran carlton
edge rusher From. Temple Jake collette is a kicker From, Ringgold.
Georgia Derrek cooper running back from Lauder, Hill. Florida Rocky

(01:30:24):
cummings linebacker From, Carlsbad. California Terrey davis is a defensive
back From, Thornton. Colorado Heywood Howard Hayward Howard, junior A
dB From New. Orleans charlie Jilleck is is a tight
end From, Portage. Michigan James johnson defensive lineman From Fort, Myers.
Florida Samari matthews defensive back From, Charlotte North. Carolina Cosey

(01:30:48):
okpala is a linebacker at A Maid Creek high that's
in The Katie school district on the west side of
The houston. Area torot O'Neil is a long snapper from
The colony out Of preston With Christian, academy one of
the outstanding private school programs in this. State Ye Heem
riley defensive back From miami and then of course originally From,

(01:31:08):
miami we finished up In Anderson. High played for The
Anderson trojans this. Season, Also Nicholas, robertson offensive lineman out
Of Kline high in The houston. Area Kayden sure is
From georgetown offensive. Lineman Chris stewart wide receiver out Of
Shadow creek in The houston. Area John turntine is an

(01:31:31):
offensive lineman From North, crowley the defending SIX A division
one state. Champions running Back Jet walker From georgetown and
Edge Roger Richard wesley from out Of Sierra canyon In,
california and Many all but just about one or two
of these are early in. Rollies As i'm looking down the,
list Only Nicholas robertson From kline is not an early

(01:31:56):
roly everybody else will be as. Well all, right we'll
have more on that and more On Long worn basketball
coming up here on Sports RADIO am thirteen under the
zone of The iHeartRadio. App they keep trying to tell
ME i want to do it you, ah, yes the

(01:32:21):
late Great Dell. Weathers so hey all we're asking go
ahead and use us is after them call your information On.
Longmore In National Signing, day we had the one on
one With Steve sarkisian prior to the press, conference and
then the press conference soulth we brought it to you
in its Entire let's get caught back. Up there is

(01:32:42):
a pretty important basketball game being played tonight just down
the street FROM us At Moody, Center texas Against virginia
in the A SEC Sec. Challenge. Now in his news,
Conference Sean miller was asked a variety of questions on
the media, zoom one of those from our Own Mike Hardball,
heart asking about his evaluation of guard play and bench

(01:33:04):
play in their three games they played In.

Speaker 8 (01:33:05):
Maui the first question part of the question of our guard.
Play you, know we have great experience in our in
our guard. PLAY i thought that helped us In, maui you,
know playing three games in three, days knowing that the
third game was probably the biggest challenge that we faced In.
MAUI Nc state a good team playing for the same
prizes that we're playing for here At.

Speaker 2 (01:33:26):
Texas Jordan pope rose to the.

Speaker 8 (01:33:30):
Challenge, Right, well you, know he's been there, before he's
played in, tournaments he's you, know this isn't his first
big game that he's played, in AND i think we
felt that ditto For Kendall. Weaver you, Know tremond may
not have played as well in that particular, game but
if you look at our collective experience between those three
guys playing at The university Of, texas playing in THE

(01:33:51):
sec where they're at in there each of their respective,
careers you, KNOW i think you feel That i'll Add
Dalan swain And Cam heidi And Sim wilchair to that.
Mix and if you look at those three, guys you,
Know cam playing At, Purdue he's played in The National championship,
Game he's played in The Big. Ten dalen's played for
two years for me as a head, coach played in

(01:34:12):
The Big, east, right played in THE ncaa tournament and
ditto for Sim. Wilt you're playing for Coach patino playing
At Saint. John's he was on a two seed last.

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
Year SO i think that.

Speaker 8 (01:34:23):
Winning experience collective. EXPERIENCE i like the experience of our
of our guard play and uh and we we have
to lean on. That and just because you have it
doesn't mean they're gonna play. Well but for us to
be the best that we can, be we have to
look back and, say the experience and depth of our
guards won out for. Us so we talk about that

(01:34:44):
a lot as a coaching, staff AND i hope that
you and everybody who watches us starts to see that
as the strength of our. Team in terms of our.
Bench you, know we played eight guys AGAINST Nc. STATE
i feel like right now we'll be at our best
if we could develop a ninth. Player you, know we
believe In Nick. Cody he has to come our way

(01:35:04):
a little bit. More he gives us size and athleticism
and depth up front THAT i think over the long
course of a season that we.

Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
Need AND i think that individually he has some real.

Speaker 8 (01:35:17):
Talent we have to get that out of, him and
and then just continuing to develop guys that don't start
the game impact Winning Lacina tree Or Simeon.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
Wilcher you know those two.

Speaker 8 (01:35:30):
Guys you look at those guys right, there Like Kendall
weaver didn't, start they really helped us AGAINST Nc. State
SO i think that we have depth off the. BENCH
i would like to keep developing.

Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
It AND i agree with. You you, know we don't
have an iron. Five we have to do it as
a group of eight or.

Speaker 8 (01:35:48):
Nine AND i think the stronger that we are off the,
bench AND i think the more we can lean into
that experience in our, GUARDS i think that'll be the
best that we can be At texas this.

Speaker 1 (01:35:59):
Year next attention kind of turned a little bit to
getting ready for The Virginia, cavaliers and he was asked
about the style That Ryan otum has employed At, virginia
how vastly different it is from those Old Tony bennett coach.

Speaker 2 (01:36:18):
Teams and you, Know Ryan otum has his own.

Speaker 8 (01:36:21):
STYLE i think he's an excellent, coach one of the
best young coaches in the, game and he's really not
that young. Anymore BUT i think that his success at
every stop really speaks to what he's been able to
do with that style that you're talking. About But virginia
does a couple of things incredibly. Well number, one almost
fifty percent of their shots come from the three point.

Speaker 2 (01:36:43):
Line they shoot from four. Spots they have great.

Speaker 8 (01:36:48):
Depth sometimes the best plays that are made in the
game happen from guys that don't, start so when they
sub they get great value towards. Winning our bench will
be a key part to this. Game we have to
have equal good depth playing Against. Virginia, second they're one
Of america's best offensive rebounding. Teams they don't necessarily do

(01:37:09):
it just by you, know big and, strong although their
front court guys.

Speaker 1 (01:37:12):
Do a great.

Speaker 8 (01:37:13):
Job their guards really crash the glass if you look
at them right. Now, statistically they're one of the tops
in the country at the moment in terms of creating second.
Shots especially when they shoot a three point, shot they
just they crash from all over the. Place so our
rebounding is going to be challenged and our bench is
going to be. Challenged and as they play with pace

(01:37:35):
and we play with, pace you, know we have to
really do a great job of making good decisions and
taking care of the. Ball you, know when we've taken
care of the ball and there's been a number of
games that we've, had that's when we've been the most.
Efficient AND i think AGAINST Nci state what you saw
is we not only took great care of the, ball
but we made shots and that's why we were able

(01:37:57):
to score so many.

Speaker 1 (01:37:58):
Points little doubt that probably the two best pure shooters
on the long range team Are Jordan pope And Cam.
Heidi they're the biggest three point shooting. Threats so as
a result of, that one thing that Coach millers asks
is how do is he and his staff ensure correct
shot distribution for Both Jordan pope And Cam. Heidi.

Speaker 8 (01:38:21):
Yeah SO i think the first thing about those two
guys is, like as a, group we have to understand that,
they're you, know two of our best, shooters. Right SO
i think anytime that we can create an open look over,
TIME i think their percentages will even. Out you, KNOW
i don't know If cam will stay at sixty two.
PERCENT i hope he. Does but you can make an

(01:38:44):
argument like we got to Get heidi one or two
more clean looks a. Game you, know not only based
on what he's done for us early this, season but
if you look at his, career he's a career forty
percent three point.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
Shooter he's very selective in the shots he.

Speaker 8 (01:39:00):
Takes we're trying to get a mentality from him that
we really want him to take open, threes like never
pass them, up and as a, group how do you
get him one or two? More you find, him you
just understand Like i'm a good, shooter he's a better,
shooter give him the, ball find him in, transition and
being more creative as a coach to maybe free him

(01:39:22):
up once or twice a game from something that we
can call to create that open. Shot in terms Of,
jordan he just got off to a slow. Star you,
know it's it could be frustrating because when you're around
him every, day he's an excellent. SHOOTER i think everybody knows,
that and you know that happens sometimes you go through stretches.

Speaker 2 (01:39:40):
Where you don't make. Them but he really even that
out In.

Speaker 8 (01:39:44):
Maui SO i think it's more about knowing their respective
roles on our team is to take open, threes and
we want to find them and create as many good
opportunities for the both of them as we. Can you,
know that's that's part of in a smart, group right
where you recognize your team, strengths and you keep.

Speaker 2 (01:40:04):
Getting better and better and better at.

Speaker 8 (01:40:06):
Him and WHAT i mean by that is how many
open looks can we create by those two players that
will help our, Offense.

Speaker 1 (01:40:13):
No question about. That when we come, back we hear
what one more piece of sound from the head, Coach
Seawn miller when we continue on Sports RADIO am thirteen
under The zone of the radio App, yeah some folks
long worn chance probably feel the same way for The
College Football Playoff committee, there that's. All it's one very
interesting and philosophical conversation With sark about, that and he

(01:40:37):
also was asked about it in the press conference as
well that we brought to you last, Hour BUT i
asked him specifically about his thoughts on that and THE
cfp and the very real probability that what we're probably
going to be looking to is Seeing texas Play michigan
in The Citrus. Bowl the cheese At Citrus. Bowl that's

(01:40:59):
probably how it's going to ultimately wind. Up And sark
talked about.

Speaker 10 (01:41:03):
That.

Speaker 1 (01:41:03):
Again it's all part of that one on ONE i
had with, him and you can check it out on
the podcast page AT am thirteen hunder The zone dot.
Com All, right one more bit of sound From Sean,
miller the long wornes head basketball. Coach texas gets ready
to Host virginia tonight At Moody center and he was
asked how he feels about his group responding to what

(01:41:25):
we've talked about is the teaching element as well as
the coaching element That Sean miller and his staff have
done with this. Group so he was, asked how do
you feel this group is responding to your style of?
COACHING i don't.

Speaker 8 (01:41:36):
Know it's hard for me to answer, it right BECAUSE i,
think you, know it's the great meaning is you know
how they. Feel but you, KNOW i think that when
you bring experience to the, table you have a track
record of knowing what works and what doesn't, well and
then you really can back a lot of things up with, evidence,

(01:41:57):
Right and you, KNOW i think in my, case you,
know when we say do what we, do you know
it has to be about, Like, okay this is what
we are going to do to be the best, program
and how we work every day to be the best
team we can. Be but most, importantly like here's why
we do things the way we do. Them over, time

(01:42:21):
as we play more, games have more practices and spend
more time together each. WEEK i think credibility comes with
just WHAT i just, said and that is that you
can really back up what we, do that what we
do works and here's. Why SO i think giving them
the whole picture of this is how we go about our,

(01:42:43):
process here's the evidence to support that it, works and
this is why it's going to work for you and for.
US i like to tell you again to my earlier
answer that as soon as you show up that everybody
just jumps on board and. Follows but it does take,
time and then every once in a, while not everybody
jumps on.

Speaker 2 (01:43:03):
Board and when that's the, case it's not gonna. Work
it's not gonna.

Speaker 8 (01:43:07):
Work SO i think that we're a work in progress
in a lot of, ways BUT i do like the
direction we're, headed AND i think The maui trip and
THE a games that we've played have continued to reinforce
and develop our.

Speaker 1 (01:43:21):
Way All right, there it is From Coach miller and
Again Texas place tonight Against virginia will be on there
at seven point thirty with the pregame tip off is
going to be around eight twenty because they're. STAGGERING espn
is the start times of these games for all these
ACC sec challenge games to get all of them in
so tip off right around eight Twenty and by the,

(01:43:42):
way season premiere Of Longhorn weekly With Sean miller is
tomorrow night at seven. O'clock and so, anyway that's that's
that's happening as. Well all, right we'll be back to
wrap up today's edition of the program From campus on
Sports RADIO am thirteen under the zone of The iHeartRadio.
App

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