Steve Sarkisian calls Spencer Sanders an 'elite competitor'

The Texas Longhorns are rolling, putting together three straight conference wins following their 24-21 win over Iowa State this past Saturday. But this weekend they face one of their biggest challenges of the year, as they take No. 11 Oklahoma State on the road this weekend. The Cowboys are led by one of the Big 12’s most experienced quarterbacks in Spencer Sanders, who Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke highly of ahead of their matchup.

“I think what I see out of Spencer Sanders, and this is the ultimate compliment, I think he is an elite competitor,” Sarkisian said. “I mean this guy has got a fire inside of him that is clear, you don’t have to look for it, I think it burns inside of him.”

Sanders led the conference in total offense and total offense per game last season as one of the nation’s most effective dual-threat quarterbacks and winners, as he’s currently just three wins shy of tying Mason Rudolph‘s record for the most wins as a starting quarterback in school history.

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“He’s gonna do whatever he has to do to help his team try to win; run it, throw it, motivate, go tackle a guy, go block a guy. I think this guy, he’s a winner and he’s got it man, he’s an impressive young man and you can tell he’s the leader of that team and you can see the guys rally behind him,” Sarkisian said.

Sanders’ performance and production on the field is undeniable, but Sarkisian noticed an important trait about him off the field following their first loss of the season last week at TCU, as the Cowboys fell in overtime 43-40.

“I noticed something Saturday watching their game that I thought was a pretty special moment. They lost a tough game, that was a tough loss, but as soon as that game was done and their crowd went to rush the field he had two or three offensive lineman get around him to make sure nobody could get to him as he got to the locker room,” Sarkisian explained. “To me that’s a sign of a guy that has respect of his teammates that they’ll do anything to protect him. So cool competitor, love what he does, looking forward to competing against him, that’s what it’s about.”

Sanders is clearly a special player and person in the eyes of Sarkisian, as he depends on true freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy to do his best impression of him this week on scout team to prepare the Longhorn’s defense for their matchup against Sanders and the Cowboy’s offense.

“I think our best scout team guy is Maalik Murphy, I think can show us the arm strength, the versatility, the variety of throws, but yet is athletic enough to do the things that Spencer does. Because he is a multifaceted guy, he can run it on called runs, he can throw it, he can improvise with his legs. So he’s a hard guy to emulate, but Malik will be the guy this week to do that,” Sarkisian said.

The Longhorns will take on Sanders’ Cowboys this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in a game that will air on ABC.