Everything Steve Sarkisian said at his pre-Peach Bowl press conference

Here’s everything Steve Sarkisian said on Monday during a joint press conference with Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham to preview the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl.

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The transcription is provided by ASAP Sports.

STEVE SARKISIAN: Thank you. First of all, this is a heck of an honor to be participating in the Peach Bowl against Arizona State. Obviously it being the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, but to be part of this game is a fantastic honor and one that we’re really proud of that we’ve gotten to this point.

We obviously have a ton of respect for Arizona State and the job Coach Dillingham has done. They’re a very good football team. You don’t win the Big 12, as we know how hard that is around here to win a Big 12 Championship, and doing it in their first year in the conference, his second year at Arizona State, is a heck of an accomplishment.

We touched on it earlier, they’re plus 14 in the turnover margin with only eight turnovers, and they’ve created, I believe, I think 22 turnovers defensively. They pride themselves on running the ball.

Skattebo is a heck of a player. He’s got a ton of fans in our building, I can tell you that. We didn’t know we were getting ready to play Arizona State, and we’ve been watching them here for about the last year and a half, and this guy is a monster, and now we’ve got to try to figure out a way to stop him.

Like I said, I think Coach Dillingham — I’ve followed his career for some time now, and I was kind of in his shoes a while back where I was kind of the hot guy and you’re winning and you keep finding your way up the ladder, and the job that he’s done at Arizona State from year one to year two in this day and age of college football is extremely impressive.

We’re looking forward to the opportunity. It’s a heck of a challenge. Appreciate the invitation, and looking forward to seeing everybody in Atlanta.

Coach Sarkisian, during the last game against Clemson, Texas only had two penalties. This suggests that you guys are preparing in a physical, a mental way that you never had such low penalties. I’m curious if you would take us into how you guys are preparing. I know you’re going to probably say it’s just like we always do, but it seems like the bar has been raised. Can you walk us through what’s going on inside the locker room?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, we had a real come-to-Jesus meeting after the SEC Championship game when we essentially lost that game because of penalties, and we just said, we’re not going to do that anymore, and we’re going to play as clean a football as we can play, as fundamentally sound football as we can play, still be aggressive. We never want to lose our stinger and we never want to lose our aggressive, but we can play smarter.

Honestly, I critiqued one of the penalties that we got today. You can’t hit the quarterback late, and that was one of our two penalties Saturday. We’re continually trying to preach playing smarter football as well as playing hard and playing tough and playing physical.

Quite frankly that just came out of a come-to-Jesus meeting coming out of the SEC Championship game.

Steve, you said Saturday night that Cam Williams was on his way to have an MRI. How did that go? And then behind that, just now that you’ve seen some film, what did you think of the way Trevor Goosby played in place of Cam Saturday night?

STEVE SARKISIAN: I’m going to make a joke here that has nothing to do with you. I’m watching “Judge Judy” at the bottom of this Zoom right here. I’m not sure who’s got that cooking. But it’s kind of — anyway, sorry. Kenny, I apologize.

Cam, again, not as serious as we thought. That was more of a precautionary MRI, so we feel comfortable about that. I thought Trevor did a really nice job. I highlighted him this morning with the team. They had an elite defensive end, first-round draft pick defensive end. I thought he held his own, more than held his own, and for a guy — to think he’s been a backup all year and against A&M, seven plays in, he goes and plays left tackle in that game, plays left tackle against Georgia, and then he thinks, okay, I’m back as a backup, and then in this ballgame, in the second quarter he gets thrown in at right tackle against a pretty good pass rush, a couple pretty good defensive ends from Clemson.

He’s been kind of thrown to the fire pretty good, and I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He’s held his own. He’s shown not only the physical fortitude but the mental toughness when he’s been going against some pretty elite players. So I’ve been proud of him.

Q. For both Steve and Kenny, you guys would have ran into each other at the Iron Bowl, but what is something you observed about each other’s careers? You touched a little bit on it in your opening statements.

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, I think from Kenny’s perspective, he’s obviously a very bright football coach, and he’s been around other really good football coaches. Now, I’ve been fortunate that same way, as well, in my career as I grew up playing for Norm Chow and then starting my career at SC with him being the coordinator and then going to work for a Norv Turner and still all the while being around a Pete Carroll, and then later in my career getting around Coach Saban. I think Coach Dillingham, same thing. He’s been around some really good coaches. But you can see how innovative he’s been.

Whether he knows it or not, I’ve watched his stuff, too. Not only when he’s been a coordinator from an offensive perspective but really as a head coach. People don’t know this, that Washington probably should have lost to Arizona State a year ago, and we watched that game very closely because of playing Washington in the playoff, and the way he attacked them not only on offense but on defense, on special teams, that was a head coach that was trying to win the game. So I have a lot of respect for him in that approach.

A lot of guys put on a head coaching hat and then they go find that head coaching manual and they just kind of cookie-cutter it because that’s how we’re supposed to do it. I give him a lot of credit, and I have a lot of respect for him because he does what he thinks is the best thing to do, and sometimes that’s not always what the manual says to do, and in this day and age of college football, we all have to continually evolve.

I think he’s blazing a trail for some older coaches to look at to say, hey, maybe there’s a better way. We don’t always have to do it the way we’ve always done it before. I think we’ve all got to think that way. This is a new era. There’s a lot of change going on. We’ve all got to think outside the box a little bit, and I credit him for doing that. They’ve done a nice job.

Steve, you’re going to look across and see a lot of guys who were in your building. How does that change, and what’s that like, especially in a game like this?

You know, I think this is college football in 2024 and moving forward. It’s almost got a little bit of an NFL feel that way. I’m happy for all those guys, especially the guys that are having some success in Coach Dillingham’s program. In this day and age of college football, it’s about creating opportunities for our young people, and the way the transfer portal works, when new coaches get jobs and — half their roster I’m sure when Kenny took over at Arizona State jumped ship and now he’s trying to fill his roster, so that creates opportunities for other players and other programs to maybe go there and contribute and find a role that’s different than maybe what their role was here, and vice versa for that matter.

I’m happy for all those guys that they had this opportunity. You transfer schools and you never know; am I going to transfer to have an opportunity to get in the College Football Playoff; are those things a reality. And for them to be in the quarterfinals of the CFP, I’m really happy for those guys. I know our players, they were kind of talking about today, so-and-so, oh, yeah, so-and-so, so the names started popping up again today.

But I do think that’s the era of college football where we’re at right now. It’s 2024, the portal is alive and well, and 2025 is going to roll around and there will be more faces moving around.

Steve, the other night Gunnar Helm set the season record for receptions by a tight end. Talk about Gunnar’s role, his ability in your offense as a safety blanket for Quinn.

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, so Gunnar, I think we all know the path, his journey, the development that he’s had in our program. I’m super proud of him. What I like about Gunnar is he’s a really versatile guy. We rely on him to block the C-area. He had some tough match-ups against some of these six techniques that he’s blocking. He had a couple tough match-ups the other night when they moved the three technique out to defensive end. It was not a favorable match-up, but he fights for us in the C-area and he does a great job.

He’s a really good play action pass tight end where we can find voids for him, but he also has evolved his game now into a down-the-field threat and a guy who can make plays with the ball in his hands with yards after the catch.

I do think his catch radius is a positive of his, and I think Quinn trusts that from him, that he’s going to be where he’s supposed to be, and that his catch radius is what it is so he can place balls in certain spots where he knows maybe if Gunnar doesn’t catch it, it’s probably incomplete.

They’ve just got good rapport. They’ve been together for three years now, and I think there’s a lot of trust there.

For Steve, do you guys expect to have Isaiah Bond available for this game?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, I think, like I said going into last week’s game. I think Isaiah continues to make really good progress for us. Obviously we’re quite a ways out, so my goal is coming out of Christmas here that that progress continues in a positive direction and we can see where it goes from there.

Steve, you kind of started off giving some praise for Cam Skattebo. If you can further expand on what he does well and how that’s going to challenge your defense.

STEVE SARKISIAN: Well, I think this: He’s a really versatile player. I think when you first turn on Cam’s tape
you’re thinking you’re just going to see Mike Alstott; you’re just going to see this bruiser that’s just running into the line of scrimmage and bouncing off of people. Then the more you watch him, you’re like, man, this guy has got really good feet, this guy has got great contact balance. This guy, right when you think he’s getting to run somebody over, he makes them miss. He uses his stiff arm. He’s really good in the open field. He can run away from you. Then all of a sudden, you’re like, but wait a minute, this guy catches the ball really well out of the backfield. He’s got really good initial quickness after the catch to get vertical.

So he’s a really versatile player. I was hoping he was going to be kind of a one-dimensional guy, when you just kind of watch SportsCenter and different things, but all of a sudden, you start looking at the cut-up of him and the explosive plays and how they’re happening, his versatility is probably the thing that stands out to me the most.

Steve, as well as y’all ran it against Clemson, you did have some runs stuffed in short-yardage situations. I just wondered after looking at the film if there was any trend there.

STEVE SARKISIAN: Some bad planning, some bad execution, without getting into the particulars on which
plays were which. Probably could have planned it a little bit better, and we definitely could have in a couple instances executed better.

I hated that because I think a couple of those could have really changed the momentum in the game. The one was after a turnover, and we had an opportunity to go up 28-7. We didn’t capitalize on that. Then the other one there I think it was 3rd and goal from the 2 and we lose a couple yards and we settle for the field goal, which we got three points.

But probably those two instances stand out to me the most. But I think it was a combination of things.

Sark, this next couple of days you turn the guys loose. How important is it for them to be with family this time of year but also as a coaching staff how tough is it to kind of see them scatter for a couple days at such an important time?

STEVE SARKISIAN: It’s been a long grind for us. We started August 31, went all the way through the SEC Championship there and had a couple weeks, and we took a few days before the Clemson game that first week to get ready for Clemson. We felt like the formula worked pretty good. We felt fresh. We felt fast. We felt physical. I felt the guys had a good grasp of the game plan. Coming out of this week’s game, coming back to work on Sunday and Monday, then giving everybody a couple of days for Christmas felt like the right thing to do. We’ll get everybody back the 26th and we’ll go to work.

We’re in year four, this is year two, back-to-back years of being in the College Football Playoff. I think we’ve got people in our organization and players on our team who came here for reasons, and this was part of the reason why they came: to be in these moments. If I can’t trust them now, when can I trust them? There’s eight teams left, we’re one of the eight. If I can’t trust our guys for a couple of days to go home and drink eggnog with their mom, when am I going to trust them? They’ll be ready to go on the 26th.

Steve, what has made it so difficult for opposing defenses to turn the Sun Devils over on offense?

STEVE SARKISIAN: On the flipside, when you look at it, when you have a runner carry it as much as Cam carries it and to think as a team they only have three fumbles on the year, to me that tells me they practice ball security. You just don’t not fumble the ball. You work at not fumbling the ball. You work on stumble bum. You work on two hands on the ball and contact, not switching the ball. The ball is in their outside arm. That’s fundamentally right when they carry the ball.

Secondly, I think the quarterback makes good decisions. I think he only has five interceptions on the year, so he’s making good decisions. They’ve got a great plan. Obviously with Kenny’s background and Marcus Arroyo, those guys are really good football coaches, so they put together good schemes, and you can tell the quarterback is really well-coached up. He makes good decisions. They’re not forcing throws. He trusts his guys to go make their plays, but at the end of the day, if you’re holding on to the ball and then your quarterback makes good decisions, that’s about all you can ask for, and they’re getting that.

It’s a credit to them. On the flipside, we know the issues it’s caused us. We’ve had a strange year when it comes to the turnover bug that we’ve had, and it’s come at odd times, and it can change the impact in games.

They’ve done a great job of controlling football games by not turning it over.

Coach Sark, you talked about being proud to get to this moment. You’ve always talked about how much you love this team. How much confidence do you have going into this game?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Well, I’m definitely proud of our guys. Like I said, it’s been a long season, and having gone to the College Football Playoff a year ago and literally being inches away from playing for a National Championship and knowing what the goals were coming into this season, and to be back in the College Football Playoff, when four of us were in the CFP a year ago but we were the only team that made it back into the College Football Playoff in an expanded version of 12 teams, there’s a lot to be proud of, but mostly I’m proud of our veterans, our leaders, our seniors, because those guys went from 5-7 in year one, they went through 8-5 in year two, and they didn’t jump ship. They hung in there with us. They believed in what they were doing.

Going into last year and not finishing it the way we would have liked and then to get back again this year, I just think, like I said, it’s a credit to the leadership on our team. This is a heck of a challenge. You don’t — you’re not a conference championship team, especially in the Big 12 — I want to remind everybody, we were in that Big 12, what, for 27 years? We won four. This is their first year in and they won a Big 12 Championship. It’s a really hard thing to do.

They’re playing with a ton of confidence right now. The last two months, I think they’re playing as good a football as anybody in the country, and that’s a credit to Coach Dillingham and their staff and building their team as they’ve gotten better and better as the year has gone on, and it’s clear as day to see when you watch the tape. This is a heck of a challenge for us.

Steve, do you think Kenny owes you a player like Cam Skattebo for all these loaners?

STEVE SARKISIAN: In all reality, I wish I would have discovered Cam when he was transferring the first time around. I was unaware, so kudos to them. They found him, and he’s a heck of a player.

You look back on the regular season a bit, and what were some of the biggest challenges competing in a new conference, but also what were some of the benefits of being the new kid on the block?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, I think the challenges for us were probably very similar to Coach Dillingham’s in that we went into some tough environments. We renewed two rivalries with Arkansas and A&M and going on the road to both of those were obviously very challenging. But again on the flipside, I do think being the new kid on the block, maybe we weren’t exposed to them as much, so they had to do a little bit more research on us. When I really felt like in the Big 12 we really had to recreate ourselves every week because so many common opponents, so many similarities from a defensive perspective, especially where you almost had to recreate stuff week in and week out, where this year around in the SEC, a little different style of play that I think was challenging, but probably the most challenging thing for us more than anything was just dealing with some of the unfortunate injuries that we had and managing those things
and what that looked like.

Again, I don’t think that was a direct correlation with being in the SEC, it just happened to be our first year in the SEC, and managing some of the injury bug that we had, especially on the offensive side of the ball.