We hear from Head Coach Steve Sarkisian about how practices have been going

We hear from Head Coach Steve Sarkisian about how practices have been going. Player updates, and position updates after just five practices under their belt. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glad to have you with us here on a Monday,
and we'll get into this talking about this Michigan story
in just a few minutes. But first of all, I
want to hear from Long Worn's head coach Steve Sarkegen
now following the practice this morning, because they have now
finished I believe it's by practices. Yeah, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,

(00:25):
and I think Sark said that was going to be
the only time that they were going to go four
straight days. You think about this, four straight days of
heavy practice, because it doesn't work like that in the
regular season. You get into a football season and the

(00:47):
players are off Sunday and then they practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursdays is really kind of a walkthrough thing, and then
Friday year usually traveling or whatever. So and certainly before
the start of the season they're going mainly three days

(01:08):
and then a day off and they'll come back with
three more days or something like that. Well, they went
four days before Sunday was a day off and then
went back to work this morning. Now, Sark was prepared
to talk about that, but he was also prepared to
talk about what's going on with a lot of Longhorn
involvement in those Summer Olympic Games.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
They got to be remiss if I didn't touch on
the Olympics and what's going on and all the great
things that the Longhorns are doing in Paris right now.
I think we've got twelve medals, which I don't know
exactly where that ranks amongst all the countries, but obviously
makes us super proud, love watching it when we get
our chances to and so proud of them. And also
what a great honor for Steve McMichael getting inducted into

(01:49):
the NFL Hall of Fame, and so a couple of
cool things going on, obviously at the highest level from
an athletic department standpoint.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, So he's pointing out all and he might have
been saying it a little and I stressed the word
a little bit tongue in cheek about Texas Olympians garnering
twelve medals so far and current and former long Horns

(02:19):
picking up twelve Olympic medals. And I think I saw
it written down somewhere that if you did count the
University of Texas as an independent nation competing in the
Summer Games, their metal count of twelve would be in
the middle of the pack of nations total nations having

(02:40):
twelve and that's why I was talking about that and
saying that obviously with a great deal of pride. Now
to the football thing, and coming off the fifth practice
of the start of fall camp, Sark had his thoughts
about where things are, where they've been, where they're headed.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Five practices in very proud of our team. This camp
has been. Like I said after the first day, the
first week and a half, it was gonna be tough,
and we were gonna make it tough on them, and
we were gonna put them in some uncomfortable situations we
were getting. We're, you know, gonna get them out of
their comfort zone and we're gonna learn how to to
excel when we're out of our comfort zone to try

(03:16):
to expand that comfort zone. And I think our players
have really embraced that. It's been very competitive through five days.
I'm seeing growth and development at a lot of spots
across the board. We're asking for more from everybody like
we should through five practices, but uh, I've had right
now not not really any complaints about the way we're going.

(03:36):
We've been healthy, so again credit to our to our
strength and conditioning staff of getting our guys in good
shape to perform. And uh, credit to our players. You know,
they're really exuding, uh the mental toughness that's needed to
go along with the physical toughness needed, especially now we've
had three days now and uppers and then tomorrow we
get into full pads.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah. So toward that end, since they are getting ready
to go in the full pads and they have been
working on he does want his players to trust the
good habits that have carrying them forward to this point,
to be able to put some of the bad habits,
not repeat those, but to have the good habits carry forward.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I think what I want to see is them continue
to trust their habits that they've been creating now for
five days.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
You know.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
The one thing that happens, I think at times as
players get distracted, whether it's by the elements, could be
the heat, could be the cold, whatever, that is, all
of a sudden, I put pants on and they forget
to do the things that got them to that point
where they've been playing good football. And so the challenge
for us is to trust our preparation, to trust the
habits that have put us in a good position to

(04:38):
play good football.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
All right, So there is some thoughts we'll hear more
from start coming up in both the second and third
hours of the program. The coaches poll has come out
the preseason coaches but usually comes out in early August.
Around this time. The ap pole will be a little
bit later on this month. Not only how the poles
set up, but where the log warns or rank should

(05:02):
surprise nobody. Georgia is the number one and out of
fifty five voting coaches, Georgia is the preseason number one.
They got forty six and the fifty five first place votes.
Ohio State is number two. The Buckeyees garnered seven first
place votes. Oregon is third, Texas number four, and the

(05:23):
law Wars actually picked up a preseason number one vote
a first place vote. Alabama's fifth ole miss six. Notre
Dame is seven. Michigan got a first place vote. They're
number eight, the defending national champian. That could have been
somebody voting on say, hey, they're the champions, soil somebody
beats them, you know, some coaches, that's just how they operate.
Penn State is nine, and Florida State rounds out the

(05:44):
top ten. Second ten begins with Missouri fall like LSU
at twelve, Utah thirteen, Clemson fourteen, Tennessee fifteen, Oklahoma sixteen,
Kansas State seventeen, Oklahoma State eighteen, Miami is nineteen, Texas
A and m at number two. Rounds out the top twenty,
and then the final five of the preseason poll. This
is the Coaches Powl Arizona, NC State, USC, Kansas and

(06:08):
Iowa Again preseason Coaches poll out today. Texas checks in
at number four and Lawrence did pick up one first
place volue.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
All right.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
The other thing that I wanted to point out was
the story that has come out today according to a
draft a notice of allegations coming from the NCAA and
ESPN picked this up and this latest thing says that

(06:40):
Michigan could be facing more issues, including Sharon Moore, their
head coach, one of seven members of that program last year,
accused of violating NCAA rules. Now, this draft could be
subject to change, It's important to point that out, but
it does state that Moore, Sharon Moore, the guy who's

(07:03):
succeeding Jim Harbaugh's head coach, could face a show cost
penalty and possibly a suspension for allegedly deleting a threat
of fifty two text messages with the former Michigan staffer,
and we became familiar with his name, Connor Stallions last October,
on the same day that the media reports revealed that

(07:25):
Stallions was leading an effort to capture the play calling
signals of future opponents. Now, this draft states that the
texts were later recovered via device imaging and that Moore
subsequently produced them to the enforcement staff. Moore's accused of
committing a level two violation. He took over courses the

(07:48):
Wolverine's head coach in January, been the offensive coordinator for
several seasons. Considered a potential repeat violator by the NCAA
because in August of last year he did negotiate a
resolutions that he contacted recruits during a dead period during
the COVID nineteen dead period. So these new allegations against
Moore are part of this long anticipated notice of allegations

(08:12):
that was related to the actions from Stallions. You remember him,
He's the guy who dressed up in the Central Michigan
coaching attire on the sidelines. Well former Michigan staff members,
including former head coach Jim Harball, long with Chris Partridge,
Denard Robinson, and Connor Stallions are also accused of committing

(08:33):
Level one violations. These are the most serious category in
the enforcement process. The school is also facing a level
one violation charge, according to the draft because of its
quote pattern of non compliance within the football program quote,
and institutional efforts to hinder or thwart the NCAA's investigation.

(08:53):
The former coaches Jesse Minner and stee Klinkscale are also
accused of recruiting violationations unrelated to Stallions. In the draft,
a spokesman from Michigan said to ESPN quote, our athletic
department and the university continue to cooperate with the NCAA
regarding our ongoing investigation. We do not have an update

(09:14):
to share regarding its status at this time. Harball, who
of course left to coach the Los Angeles Chargers, is
accused of not cooperating because he denied the NCAA's request
to view relevant messages and phone records from his personal
cell phone. The drafts as Harball could face a show
calls restriction if he ever returns to college sports. Of course,

(09:36):
he's off to the Chargers. In the NFL remember the
Big Ten suspended him for the final three games of
the twenty twenty three regular season. The draft states that
Horrorball failed to actively look for or evaluate red flags.
Stallions resign in early November, following that week of public
reports detailing his scheme of purchasing tickets to games around

(09:58):
the country and then direct this network of individuals to
video the sidelines. In an effort to decode the play
calling signals, investigators used ticket information, film, photographs, and interviews
to determine that Stallions had impermissively scouted at least thirteen
Michigan opponents on at least fifty eight occasions between twenty

(10:20):
twenty one and twenty twenty three. He directed others to
scout some opponents multiple times, including one team that they
scouted seven different times. Gee, I wonder which one that
one wanted? Use your imagination. The investigators also led that
multiple team interns and at least one other full time
team employee knew about the scheme and that they participated

(10:41):
in it. The draft also says that Stallions led those
individuals to believe that what they were doing was not
against the rules, just like he thought it wasn't against
the rules when DNC had gathered evidence that showed him
on the sidelines at Michigan States Seas an opening game
against Central Michigan in twenty twenty three, Stallions was wearing

(11:03):
a bench pass, Central Michigan coaching gear and a disguise.
According to the draft, which states that Stallion's conduct quote
seriously undermined or threat in the integrity of the NCAA
collegiate model end quote. The draft does not say how
Stallions got a bench pass to be on the Chipewas sideline.
That was another thing I was wanting. How did he

(11:24):
How did he get a bench pass a sideline pass?
But anyway, so in the NCAA draft says he has
failed to cooperate as well. So just wanted you to
know that that's the latest stuff that's coming down there
on Michigan. Whether it has any effect at all on
coach Sean Moore or anybody else prior to Texas playing
in ann Arbor on September seventh, we'll wait and see

(11:47):
and see how that all bears out. All right, up next,
we have inconceivable on a Monday afternoon, even as much
as some folks would think, wearing the coaching garb of
an opponents of an opponent, an opponent's opponent, of the
opponent that you're going to be facing at some point
and standing on with a sideline pass. But we have

(12:08):
a regular dose of inconceivable. Up next on sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred, The Zone,