October 23, 2024 • 13 mins
Steve Sarkisian appeared on the SEC Teleconference today and spoke about Saturday's game against No. 25 Vanderbilt and the impact of the CFP on the regular-season.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We continue here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred. Zo.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You know I mentioned that this Saturday be a busy
day for Cam Parker, Hardball hard Mark Henry as they
bring you the Longhorn game Day programming and our long
Horn gams who used to saying, you know, out of
Bevo Boulevard the win Ship Circle.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, I guy.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Now the team's on the road, which means you're a
Twin Peaks down south, the South location at Stasney, right, that's.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Where you guys will be. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Stasney in thirty five will be out there from twelve
to noon, so come out. We'll have a bud light
specials courtesy of our guy hardball hars and get the
visit with the you know, some Longhorn legends and some
insiders to get you set for what's going to be
a real fun game against a now ranked Vanderbilt football team. Yeah, yeah,
(00:51):
that's that's true. So yeah, they are ranked twenty fifth
in the country. So anyway, the coverage starts at noon
there from Twin Peaks Stasting that's down south there, so
make your way down there for that, and then the
network pregame coverage at two o'clock mckickoff at three.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know, when I was studying my Vanderbilt information. Like
every other team long worn's play. This Vanderbilt team, believe
it or not, situated in Nashville, Tennessee, is well represented
by Texas high school football products, and probably most notably
(01:32):
on the offensive side, the running back we talked about
Cedric Alexander from LBJ, who is rushed for three hundred
and eighty yards this year and he's averaging four yards
per garing. Eli Stowers is listed as a tight end.
They can use him all over the field. He was
the guy at quarterback there for Denton Geyer when he
(01:52):
went down early in the ballgame in the state championship
game against Westlake with a knee injury and was replaced
by x and Arnold, who was a freshman at the time.
And Stours of course had been committed was at A
and M and wound up at New Mexico State and
then he came over along with Diego Pavia. Remember Jerry
(02:14):
Kill had been their head coach at New Mexico State,
and Kill is like the number one father, confessor, executive
assistant type of thing to head coach Clark Lee.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But you have those guys, but their other guys.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Lort Fungi is a receiver who was really really good
in high school at Midland Legacy and back then it
was known as Midland Lee and then he then he
started off at Texas Tech but transferred in from there.
The guy who backs up Cedric Alexander running back aj
(02:52):
Newberry as a sophomore at a Grand Prairie High. He
was a high school teammate of Savion Red, who is
a long worn who's now at Nevada. So you have
Tristan Brown, who is a slot receiver. He's a freshman.
He's from Houston Lamar. These are all guys on the
offensive side of the ball. Look the what's called the
(03:14):
quick side guard on the short side. Feel Stephen Hubbard
is a grad transfer. He's from Aldine Davis and transferred
in from UTEP. That's just on the on the offensive
side of the ball. The star back in the defense,
Randon Fontnett is from Brass'sport down along the Texas golf coach.
He began his collegiate career at TCU. He's backed up
by Jeffrey Ogachuku, who is from George Ranch that's in Richmond,
(03:38):
down there in Fort Benn County. You have Colby Taylor,
who's a backup corner. He is a grad transfer from
Pasadena Memorial. I remember when he was playing as a
freshman for Wyoming. And then Trudel Barry, one of their
corners is from Baytown. Lee Dante Carter freshman safety from
(04:00):
blow Steel as well. So this team is really really
well represented by Texas high school football products.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And then again it's just another example.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Of of you know, the the high school football talent
that comes out of the lone star state. All Right,
So Logwarts head coach Steve Sarkeshan was taking part in
the SEC teleconference this week in getting prepared for Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So here's some of his comments. Starting off with Sark's
opening remarks.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
You know, I think for our team heading into this
weekend's matchup with Vanderbilt, this is a great test for us.
You know, obviously Vanderbilt is much improved, and I think
Clark's done a tremendous job of building that team and
having the identity that they have, you know, their ability
to play really good defense and minimize the explosive plays,
(04:52):
their ability to control the football offensively. The quarterback is
a guy that I admire a ton the way he
plays the game. Pavia plays the game. Well, He's a tough,
hard nosed guy, can run it, can throw it. You know,
they lead our conference in a lot of you know,
key stats, turnover margin, time of possession, third down conversion rate,
(05:14):
red zone offense. So it's a heck of a challenge
on the field, but it's obviously a challenge for us
obviously off the field too, from mentality standpoint, coming off
of the loss to Georgia last week. And so it's
a good test for us as a team from maturity standpoint,
how we respond to some of the adversity coming off
of a loss, but also preparing for a very tough opponent.
(05:35):
And so it's kind of twofold. It's been a good
challenge so far this week, and I'm sure it will
continue to be one all the way through Saturday.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, So there's a lot of conversation now about as
we draw closer to the first release of the college
football playoff rankings, and there's a great deal of excitement
about it, and you know, all the build up about
(06:02):
the expansion of twelve teams, and so Sarka was going
to be asked a couple of questions about this.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
One of those questions was, and I.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Understand the reasoning why a lot of writers in media
will ask some of the questions they asked because, as
we all know, a lot of them are working on
a specific piece, so they're looking for feedback. Sometimes they're
looking for a specific you might say, a specific response,
(06:36):
be it positive or negative about a certain topic. Sometimes
they're just sampling to get quotes. But if you've spent
any time around Sark, or if you've heard him on
this radio station, on television interviews, in news conferences, you
(06:56):
know that Sark is a huge, huge proponent. Not only
is a big college football fan, but a huge proponent
of the playoff and the system and how it can
benefit the entire game and certainly the individual programs. So
you might have been able to predict the response when
he was asked if he thinks the expansion of the
(07:20):
college football Playoff has impacted the regular season, the twelve
game regular season. Has the expansion to twelve and the
playoff impacted the twelve game regular season in a positive way?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I do.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I think everybody way back in the old format, you
felt like prior to college football playoff, you're doing everything
in your power that you could do to try to
go undefeated and hope you guys voted us number one
in the country. Then then came, you know, the two
(07:56):
team playoff, and then it was you know, fighting your
tail off to basically be undefeated so you could be
one of the top two teams. And then it went
to the four team playoff, and then you were you
were like, okay, you're you're fighting like crazy and you
could maybe endure one loss maybe depending on that you know,
when that loss occurred and if you're a conference champion
and things of that nature. And now being a twelve
(08:18):
team playoff. I actually was just talking to an NFL
executive about this. It's got a little bit more of
an NFL feel and that of you can you can
afford a loss, You can afford maybe not to be
your best, you can afford to maybe you have some
injuries that that that cost you where you're not, you know,
at one hundred percent and you don't play your best
(08:39):
and you lose a ball game, but yet continue to
strive for an opportunity to be in that playoff at
the end, because you know, just because you lose a
game doesn't mean you're not the best team at the
end of the season, and so you're fighting for right
to be one of those twelve to get in. And
I think one of the challenges is for fan bases
now understanding that as well. You know, I think everybody
(09:02):
wanted for the longest is just go undefeated, and a
little bit more now as you're going to get a
little bit more high profile. I think non conference matchups obviously,
with conference realignment being in the SEC, the expansion that
that the Big Ten has done, you know, there's some
really quality teams that you have to play, you know,
throughout the season, and you can afford a loss, uh,
(09:26):
you know, and I think in some cases maybe too
and still have an opportunity to get into that game.
You know, we lost a really good Georgia team Saturday
that I had to remind myself was already coming into
that game with a loss, and so you know, how
we how we respond and how people respond to that loss,
I think is what's as critical as anything. But but
I do I think the regular season is super exciting,
(09:49):
especially now in the SEC for US because of with
no with no divisions, you know, everybody's fighting for one
of those top two spots in our conference to compete
for a conference championship and ultimately try to try to
get a buy in the first round of the playoff
as well. So there's a there's a lot of a
lot of things to be excited about, for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, we've been talking about a lot of those same
topics with regard to whether it's one loss or two losses,
and and how does that affect you?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And can you can you afford a loss?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And in some cases too, we even heard some of
the ESPN people saying in some cases, maybe even a
three loss team could get it. And I know some
peope were thinking, how in the world could that happen. Well,
maybe it's a really good team that lost twice in
the regular season to really good teams but still managed
to get into its conference championship game and then maybe
(10:42):
lost to an undefeated I don't know. It's a little
stretched and far fetched. I will I will grant you that,
but certainly two loss teams can definitely get in. Although
I can tell you this us all and we'll go
over this a little bit later. The college football playoff probabilities,
the percentages if Alabama does not win against Missouri this week,
(11:06):
at three losses, no matter how good, the oppositions.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Are pretty much done.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I think they I think it said if they if
they won, it might be forty five percent. If they
were to lose to Missouri, it's like nine percent. So
they're pretty much having to deal with that and understand
where they are. This is also, by the way, this
weekend one of those two really big games with the
(11:34):
G five to watch. And there's a couple of games
out there, but there's one I think that's at the
top of the heap, and that's Navy Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Now they're playing at the Meadowlands this week.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Navy is undefeated, Notre Dame has the one loss, but
they have been playing much better since that loss to
Northern Illinois. And you know, when we've been playing that
scenario out of an undefeated Navy and an undefeated Army
perhaps getting a chance to meet for the American Conference Championship,
(12:10):
which is one week before their annual Army Navy game,
which would not factor into determining the conference champion because
it comes after the conference championship game, so it wouldn't.
It also would not affect selection for the college football playoff.
But if both teams are eleven to zher going into
that game with one regular season game remaining against each
(12:32):
other the week after the conference championship, and they happened
to meet for the conference championship, well, obviously, a one
team that wins at twelve and oh stands a really
good chance of getting into the playoffs. According to some
of the metrics we read yesterday, probably they would be
in over a one loss boys, he stayed, whose only
loss has come to Oregon, who's currently the number one team.
(12:56):
So the first step towards sorting out some of that
stuff will happen this Saturday in the Meadowlands when Notre
Dame plays Navy. Obviously, both Navy and Army would have
to have huge wins over Notre Dame, and from there
it would be I think a sprint to the finish
line to be eleven and oh and eleven and oh
(13:17):
in facing each other in the American Conference Championship game. However,
that's a big if they both would have to get
past Notre Dame for that to happen. All right, up next,
we're going to bring you today's edition of inconceivable here
in Sports Radio AM thirteen, under the zone of the
iHeart Radio app
We continue here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred. Zo.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You know I mentioned that this Saturday be a busy
day for Cam Parker, Hardball hard Mark Henry as they
bring you the Longhorn game Day programming and our long
Horn gams who used to saying, you know, out of
Bevo Boulevard the win Ship Circle.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, I guy.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Now the team's on the road, which means you're a
Twin Peaks down south, the South location at Stasney, right, that's.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Where you guys will be. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Stasney in thirty five will be out there from twelve
to noon, so come out. We'll have a bud light
specials courtesy of our guy hardball hars and get the
visit with the you know, some Longhorn legends and some
insiders to get you set for what's going to be
a real fun game against a now ranked Vanderbilt football team. Yeah, yeah,
(00:51):
that's that's true. So yeah, they are ranked twenty fifth
in the country. So anyway, the coverage starts at noon
there from Twin Peaks Stasting that's down south there, so
make your way down there for that, and then the
network pregame coverage at two o'clock mckickoff at three.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know, when I was studying my Vanderbilt information. Like
every other team long worn's play. This Vanderbilt team, believe
it or not, situated in Nashville, Tennessee, is well represented
by Texas high school football products, and probably most notably
(01:32):
on the offensive side, the running back we talked about
Cedric Alexander from LBJ, who is rushed for three hundred
and eighty yards this year and he's averaging four yards
per garing. Eli Stowers is listed as a tight end.
They can use him all over the field. He was
the guy at quarterback there for Denton Geyer when he
(01:52):
went down early in the ballgame in the state championship
game against Westlake with a knee injury and was replaced
by x and Arnold, who was a freshman at the time.
And Stours of course had been committed was at A
and M and wound up at New Mexico State and
then he came over along with Diego Pavia. Remember Jerry
(02:14):
Kill had been their head coach at New Mexico State,
and Kill is like the number one father, confessor, executive
assistant type of thing to head coach Clark Lee.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But you have those guys, but their other guys.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Lort Fungi is a receiver who was really really good
in high school at Midland Legacy and back then it
was known as Midland Lee and then he then he
started off at Texas Tech but transferred in from there.
The guy who backs up Cedric Alexander running back aj
(02:52):
Newberry as a sophomore at a Grand Prairie High. He
was a high school teammate of Savion Red, who is
a long worn who's now at Nevada. So you have
Tristan Brown, who is a slot receiver. He's a freshman.
He's from Houston Lamar. These are all guys on the
offensive side of the ball. Look the what's called the
(03:14):
quick side guard on the short side. Feel Stephen Hubbard
is a grad transfer. He's from Aldine Davis and transferred
in from UTEP. That's just on the on the offensive
side of the ball. The star back in the defense,
Randon Fontnett is from Brass'sport down along the Texas golf coach.
He began his collegiate career at TCU. He's backed up
by Jeffrey Ogachuku, who is from George Ranch that's in Richmond,
(03:38):
down there in Fort Benn County. You have Colby Taylor,
who's a backup corner. He is a grad transfer from
Pasadena Memorial. I remember when he was playing as a
freshman for Wyoming. And then Trudel Barry, one of their
corners is from Baytown. Lee Dante Carter freshman safety from
(04:00):
blow Steel as well. So this team is really really
well represented by Texas high school football products.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
And then again it's just another example.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Of of you know, the the high school football talent
that comes out of the lone star state. All Right,
So Logwarts head coach Steve Sarkeshan was taking part in
the SEC teleconference this week in getting prepared for Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So here's some of his comments. Starting off with Sark's
opening remarks.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
You know, I think for our team heading into this
weekend's matchup with Vanderbilt, this is a great test for us.
You know, obviously Vanderbilt is much improved, and I think
Clark's done a tremendous job of building that team and
having the identity that they have, you know, their ability
to play really good defense and minimize the explosive plays,
(04:52):
their ability to control the football offensively. The quarterback is
a guy that I admire a ton the way he
plays the game. Pavia plays the game. Well, He's a tough,
hard nosed guy, can run it, can throw it. You know,
they lead our conference in a lot of you know,
key stats, turnover margin, time of possession, third down conversion rate,
(05:14):
red zone offense. So it's a heck of a challenge
on the field, but it's obviously a challenge for us
obviously off the field too, from mentality standpoint, coming off
of the loss to Georgia last week. And so it's
a good test for us as a team from maturity standpoint,
how we respond to some of the adversity coming off
of a loss, but also preparing for a very tough opponent.
(05:35):
And so it's kind of twofold. It's been a good
challenge so far this week, and I'm sure it will
continue to be one all the way through Saturday.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, So there's a lot of conversation now about as
we draw closer to the first release of the college
football playoff rankings, and there's a great deal of excitement
about it, and you know, all the build up about
(06:02):
the expansion of twelve teams, and so Sarka was going
to be asked a couple of questions about this.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
One of those questions was, and I.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Understand the reasoning why a lot of writers in media
will ask some of the questions they asked because, as
we all know, a lot of them are working on
a specific piece, so they're looking for feedback. Sometimes they're
looking for a specific you might say, a specific response,
(06:36):
be it positive or negative about a certain topic. Sometimes
they're just sampling to get quotes. But if you've spent
any time around Sark, or if you've heard him on
this radio station, on television interviews, in news conferences, you
(06:56):
know that Sark is a huge, huge proponent. Not only
is a big college football fan, but a huge proponent
of the playoff and the system and how it can
benefit the entire game and certainly the individual programs. So
you might have been able to predict the response when
he was asked if he thinks the expansion of the
(07:20):
college football Playoff has impacted the regular season, the twelve
game regular season. Has the expansion to twelve and the
playoff impacted the twelve game regular season in a positive way?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I do.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I think everybody way back in the old format, you
felt like prior to college football playoff, you're doing everything
in your power that you could do to try to
go undefeated and hope you guys voted us number one
in the country. Then then came, you know, the two
(07:56):
team playoff, and then it was you know, fighting your
tail off to basically be undefeated so you could be
one of the top two teams. And then it went
to the four team playoff, and then you were you
were like, okay, you're you're fighting like crazy and you
could maybe endure one loss maybe depending on that you know,
when that loss occurred and if you're a conference champion
and things of that nature. And now being a twelve
(08:18):
team playoff. I actually was just talking to an NFL
executive about this. It's got a little bit more of
an NFL feel and that of you can you can
afford a loss, You can afford maybe not to be
your best, you can afford to maybe you have some
injuries that that that cost you where you're not, you know,
at one hundred percent and you don't play your best
(08:39):
and you lose a ball game, but yet continue to
strive for an opportunity to be in that playoff at
the end, because you know, just because you lose a
game doesn't mean you're not the best team at the
end of the season, and so you're fighting for right
to be one of those twelve to get in. And
I think one of the challenges is for fan bases
now understanding that as well. You know, I think everybody
(09:02):
wanted for the longest is just go undefeated, and a
little bit more now as you're going to get a
little bit more high profile. I think non conference matchups obviously,
with conference realignment being in the SEC, the expansion that
that the Big Ten has done, you know, there's some
really quality teams that you have to play, you know,
throughout the season, and you can afford a loss, uh,
(09:26):
you know, and I think in some cases maybe too
and still have an opportunity to get into that game.
You know, we lost a really good Georgia team Saturday
that I had to remind myself was already coming into
that game with a loss, and so you know, how
we how we respond and how people respond to that loss,
I think is what's as critical as anything. But but
I do I think the regular season is super exciting,
(09:49):
especially now in the SEC for US because of with
no with no divisions, you know, everybody's fighting for one
of those top two spots in our conference to compete
for a conference championship and ultimately try to try to
get a buy in the first round of the playoff
as well. So there's a there's a lot of a
lot of things to be excited about, for sure.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, we've been talking about a lot of those same
topics with regard to whether it's one loss or two losses,
and and how does that affect you?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And can you can you afford a loss?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And in some cases too, we even heard some of
the ESPN people saying in some cases, maybe even a
three loss team could get it. And I know some
peope were thinking, how in the world could that happen. Well,
maybe it's a really good team that lost twice in
the regular season to really good teams but still managed
to get into its conference championship game and then maybe
(10:42):
lost to an undefeated I don't know. It's a little
stretched and far fetched. I will I will grant you that,
but certainly two loss teams can definitely get in. Although
I can tell you this us all and we'll go
over this a little bit later. The college football playoff probabilities,
the percentages if Alabama does not win against Missouri this week,
(11:06):
at three losses, no matter how good, the oppositions.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Are pretty much done.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I think they I think it said if they if
they won, it might be forty five percent. If they
were to lose to Missouri, it's like nine percent. So
they're pretty much having to deal with that and understand
where they are. This is also, by the way, this
weekend one of those two really big games with the
(11:34):
G five to watch. And there's a couple of games
out there, but there's one I think that's at the
top of the heap, and that's Navy Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Now they're playing at the Meadowlands this week.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Navy is undefeated, Notre Dame has the one loss, but
they have been playing much better since that loss to
Northern Illinois. And you know, when we've been playing that
scenario out of an undefeated Navy and an undefeated Army
perhaps getting a chance to meet for the American Conference Championship,
(12:10):
which is one week before their annual Army Navy game,
which would not factor into determining the conference champion because
it comes after the conference championship game, so it wouldn't.
It also would not affect selection for the college football playoff.
But if both teams are eleven to zher going into
that game with one regular season game remaining against each
(12:32):
other the week after the conference championship, and they happened
to meet for the conference championship, well, obviously, a one
team that wins at twelve and oh stands a really
good chance of getting into the playoffs. According to some
of the metrics we read yesterday, probably they would be
in over a one loss boys, he stayed, whose only
loss has come to Oregon, who's currently the number one team.
(12:56):
So the first step towards sorting out some of that
stuff will happen this Saturday in the Meadowlands when Notre
Dame plays Navy. Obviously, both Navy and Army would have
to have huge wins over Notre Dame, and from there
it would be I think a sprint to the finish
line to be eleven and oh and eleven and oh
(13:17):
in facing each other in the American Conference Championship game. However,
that's a big if they both would have to get
past Notre Dame for that to happen. All right, up next,
we're going to bring you today's edition of inconceivable here
in Sports Radio AM thirteen, under the zone of the
iHeart Radio app
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