Everything Steve Sarkisian said the day before the Peach Bowl

ATLANTA — Here’s everything Steve Sarkisian said on Tuesday ahead of Texas’ matchup with Arizona State in the Peach Bowl.

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STEVE SARKISIAN: First of all, I’d love to first of all acknowledge the Peach Bowl. The job they’ve done has been first class all the way through. Our staff, our players have enjoyed the experience granted. Being in the playoff, it’s a bit of an abbreviated bowl experience, but I think they’ve done a fantastic job of making this experience one that our players really have enjoyed. The hospitality, facilities, everything has been tremendous. Thank you.

As far as the ballgame goes, feels like we’re just kind of staying the course of what’s been going on, the way the season has gone, with starting July 31st with our first ballgame, or excuse me, August 31st. And then two byes along the way, a conference championship, these ten days in between games. So we’ve just been kind of riding the wave and enjoying the journey. And this is another great opportunity for us.

Humbled and honored to be here representing the Southeastern Conference in the CFP against a great opponent. I’ve got a ton of respect for Coach Dillingham, the job he’s done at Arizona State, the way their team has continually improved throughout the season. The last couple of months they’ve been playing as good as anybody in the country. Tall task. So looking forward to the opportunity. And like I said, humbled and honored to be here.

I know that coaches tend to be part of a small fraternity. Do you guys know each other, have history beyond this game? Do you guys remember meeting each other and have you kind of kept your eyes on each other throughout your various trajectories?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Oddly enough, we were just talking about that. I’ve known of Kenny for quite some time. I always kind of follow the offensive young hot minds out there, try to stay fresh to what we do and ton of respect for him, and a couple of the guys that he’s worked with in his time and the connections that we’ve had.

Oddly enough, we haven’t spent a ton of time together, but I think there’s some natural connections there. So maybe after this one, we’ll hang out a little bit more.

Steve, how confident are you that you’ve got the offensive kinks worked out in the Clemson game, and what’s your degree of confidence you can get 60 minutes from Isaiah Bond and Cam Williams?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, I felt probably for about the last month and a half now, one of the things we needed to address was the running game. And I really felt like we addressed it well, and we’ve been moving the ball pretty
efficiently.

The SEC Championship Game was in my opinion a little bit of an anomaly where we got away from it, and it just didn’t come to fruition the way we would have liked, but I feel like the last month and a half of the season, I think our balance is where it needs to be.

Ultimately for us, it’s about finishing drives. And when we get into the red area of putting the ball into the end zone, it’s one thing to have a bunch of yards and explosive plays, but you need points to win. And so that’s going to be the challenge in this game no differently. I think we’ll find some
balance there.

With IB and Cam, again, I think they both have been practicing. They both have been improving. To some degree, it’s how do you feel on game day, right, when the adrenaline really kicks in, what does that feel like for a competitor. And then we gotta make really good decisions with those guys if they play and how much and to what degree.

But I give them both a lot of credit. They’ve been working. Our medical staff has done a great job of building them towards this and not only them. We’ve had a few guys.

Jake Majors finally feels good about where he’s at. Quinn has steadily been improving.

Again at this juncture of the season, game No. 15, everybody’s got bumps and bruises. So we’re just trying to get our guys as healthy as we can.

Steve, as a followup to the run game, you had early adversity in August when you had a couple of guys go down. How would you describe the development that you’ve seen from Jaydon, Tre and Jerrick to get you to the point where you have been able to put forth a powerful run game?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah. You know, that was — you never like injuries to occur. And to some degree, it was almost a blessing that they did occur in training camp because it gave us more extended time to work with Tre and Jaydon and Jerrick. And they’ve all had their, I guess, somewhat ups and downs throughout the season where guys have to grow.

And I think, again, that’s a credit to Coach Choice and all of our coaches of continuing to try to work with our players. We had some issues holding onto the ball, and nobody gave up on anybody, and we continued to work, and we got confidence back. I think Tre Wisner, we found out a lot about him, his ability to kind of carry the load. You don’t go into Kyle Field and carry it 30 something times in that physical and that environment if you can’t handle it.

At the end of the day, I think we’ve found a good mix with all three of those guys, and we’re going to need all three to be effective as an offense.

Question for both of you coaches. You guys do have something in common, which is you didn’t have the results you wanted in year one, but yet you guys still trust the process that you would eventually have the success. Can you just talk about getting past year one, trusting the process when you don’t see the results and that basically that journey to where you are now?

STEVE SARKISIAN: I would reiterate a lot of what Coach is saying because I think that’s true. I think a lot of times, you know, I’ve got a great mentor in Pete Carroll. And I remember taking the job, and I remember us struggling through that first year and losing games in the second half. We’d have leads, and we weren’t finishing the way we would have liked. And I was venting to him, I remember, on one Sunday night just about, man, I feel like if I would just go and do some of the things they did before, that we might have a little more success and our record might be a little bit different. He said that’s probably true, but he said at the end of the day, if you want to go down that road, you better expect similar results to what they were before, or if you really believe in what you do, you’re going to have some rough waters for a while, but in the end, you’ll find better results than what was there before.

So staying true to the belief I think is critical. But I also think being adaptable to the times for us. When we started, there was no transfer portal. There was no NIL. And along this journey of four years, college football has changed a ton. And I think being adaptable to the times, I think for ASU, same thing, like adapting to what college football is now and not sitting around complaining about it.

I’ve heard plenty of Coach Dillingham’s comments about a lot of other coaches get up here and complain about what college football is about right now. And I think the two of us have been guys that have been on the forefront of here’s the rules, let’s maximize the opportunities that we have to enhance our roster, to enhance our level of play, to put the best team out there that we can. But, yeah, it’s definitely a journey. Nobody likes to lose, especially in Austin. (Laughs).

Steve, you have a number of early enrolling freshmen here going through this week. What are the benefits of having the young guys, the guys who have not even been on campus, gone to class yet, what’s the benefit?

STEVE SARKISIAN: The first benefit is we have nine guys entering the portal already, and only two have stayed with us. And the majority of those guys were off our defensive front. So from a scout team perspective, we needed some bodies to help us with practice. So that was the very first benefit.

I think the second benefit for those kids, they’re awesome humans, and I think the exposure they’re getting now to our team, rapport, they’re staying active, we’re getting a little bit of a sense and a feel for what they’re about. But, again, the biggest advantage is the fact that we get to practice with a scout team and not have to do crossover work like we had to do before the Clemson game.

We are currently now in an era of college football where bowl games — you need to win multiple bowl games in order to win a National Championship, and decades past a bowl game was used just as a celebration, just as a way to celebrate a season, celebrate a single season with a single team.

For both of you starting with Coach Sark, what does it necessarily mean for you guys now to address your team in today’s college football of how to celebrate a season in a bowl game now knowing that you’ll have to play in multiple in order to win a National Championship?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Well, you know, college football has been very unique over the years, and you gotta think it wasn’t that long ago, there was no National Championship game. You went to the bowl game that you were assigned to and everybody won or they lost and then you all decided who the national champion was.

And then we went to a two-team kind of they played for a National Championship. And then we went to four teams, and now we’re at 12 teams. And ironically, we were really the only sport, us and boxing, that didn’t have a tournament. Right? Everybody else always had a tournament, whether it’s Major League Baseball, basketball, football, whatever it was, the NCAA basketball tournament.

So I do think we’re evolving in a way that is healthy. And I think the responsibility then falls on us as coaches and staffs to make sure that we are enjoying our time with our players and celebrating a successful season, because before I had a lot of good teams that didn’t win their bowl game. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a successful season, we didn’t celebrate that team. But now it’s just part of a tournament that we’re trying to be the last one standing at the end.

You guys both had an all conference tight end on your roster this year. How important is that position, those guys, to what you want to do on offense?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, reiterate a lot of the same. I’ve answered this before. I would say after the quarterback in our system, probably the most important position is the tight end because of what we ask of him to do from a formational standpoint, a blocking standpoint, a route tree standpoint, the multiplicity of the things that the tight end has to do in our systems make him extremely valuable. When you have a good one, I think that that makes our lives a lot easier from a play caller perspective.

Sark, what are some of the areas that maybe you weren’t as sure about going into the season that have turned into strengths to help you get to this point?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah, I think naturally the depth on the defensive line, anytime you lose the quality of players that we lost a year ago with Murphy and Sweat, and I think we felt good about Alfred and Vernon coming in, but what would that depth look like at that position.

And I think the additions of Bill Norton and Jermayne Lole have been huge for us. I think the development of an Alex January where he’s at. And then on the edges, you never know what your transfers might look like. I think the addition of Trey Moore has been tremendous for us. The evolution of Colin Simmons. It’s really supplied us with a lot of depth, and we feel very
confident in our two deep on our defensive front with Sorrell and Burke on the other side. So that was probably the biggest question mark coming into the season.

I’d say the second one was probably in the secondary, making the move, putting Jahdae back at corner and putting Gilbeau back in at star, the addition of Mukuba and what that would look like with Taaffe and Derek Williams and Jelani McDonald and having that depth there.

And so those two positions were probably the biggest question marks of what is it all going to play out looking like, and it’s turned out pretty good for us. And we’ve endured some injuries there. Obviously D. Williams, he is out for the year, but the growth of Jelani McDonald in that three headed monster and the rotation those guys have there.

In the end, it’s worked out well. I think that’s the value of the portal. You’re able to kind of stop gap where you have some depth deficiencies, which we had, and those two things have worked out for us.

For both coaches, if you could just give us maybe your best example of your quarterback’s leadership this season and how they’ve evolved as leaders?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Ours was a really subtle one that I don’t know how many people even remember the play, but it was a fourth and two at Arkansas. And we’re not a big quarterback run zone read team, but sometimes we’ll call them in critical moments. And we called it, and Quinn pulled it and probably could have very easily went right, went left, got the first down and the game would have been over and this dude decides to try to run the safety over, and it’s a massive collision. And he gets the first down.

And probably the emotion that came out of Quinn and the emotion that came off of our sideline for Quinn were to me really indicative of how much the team values him and how much he wants to win for the team.

And I don’t know if that’s a great sign of leadership, not to answer the question, because I think his true leadership showed up when he was out and Arch was starting and the support he gave Arch and to be with him all week long and on the sidelines to help him play the best that he could play. To me, that was the real leader in Quinn coming out, but I loved that moment against Arkansas because there was some real emotion that came out of that play for him and for our team.

Steve, you’re losing a ton of guys just like last year to the draft, and there are no guarantees you get back to the Elite Eight. They don’t just give that away. With the senior-laden locker room, how much do you see that sense of urgency and opportunity to make history if you could keep this going?

STEVE SARKISIAN: Yeah. I mean, I think champagne problems, right? One year we go to the Final Four, and we’re a play away from playing for a National Championship. We break the school record for a number of draft picks, and how are we going to do it again. And we come back and this year and of the four teams that were in the Final Four last year, we were the only one invited to be part of the 12, the new expanded playoff.

So it’s a really hard thing to do, and we appreciate the work that our guys put in to get to that point. But I think as much as we focus on our older players, we challenge our older players on how they’re part of the development for our younger players, just like those older players were part of their development, and what does leadership look like, what does accountability look like, what does work ethic look like here.

And my goal is that we don’t go anywhere, you know, but that takes a lot of hard work. That takes dedication. You just don’t rinse and repeat and do it all over again because each team takes on a personality of its own.

But I’ll say about this veteran group, I don’t think any of them forget being in New Orleans at the end of that game last year, and I don’t think any of them forgot all off season long, and the obsession that they’ve had with getting back to this stage, I think is one that has fueled us through a fair
amount of adversity that has gotten us back here.

Do I think we’re going to have to play some of our best football down the stretch, there’s no question, and it’s going to start on the 1st. We’re going to have to play arguably our best, if not one of our best games this season.

But that’s the challenge that we’re all striving for and working towards of how do we all put our best foot forward so that collectively as a team we can play one of our better games.

Coach Sark, how have you managed over the years confidence versus overconfidence or observed that within your teams?

STEVE SARKISIAN: I think from our end, you know, as a coach, our job is to build confidence in our players, right?

Whether that’s through the physical ability, the mental approach, the emotional approach. That’s our job is to build confidence.

And then you have to continue to build that confidence through their preparation week to week to week and then through their execution. It’s one thing to be really confident and you don’t play well, then you’re still confident again.

It’s, well, why didn’t I play well, what do I need to alter to get that back. Again, there’s obviously times when everybody gets humbled. We all do, as coaches, players, it is what it is.

And the self-reflection I think is really important. Constructive criticism is really important so that we can continue to build and get better because change is inevitable.

We’re either going to get better or we’re going to get worse. We’re never going to remain the same. And our job as coaches is to put a team out there that believes in what we’re doing, but it’s not a false sense of belief.

It’s true belief because of the preparation and the plan and their brothers and the guys next to him that he’s going to do his job and so on and so forth.

But that’s the life of a coach, right? That’s what we do every day. That’s why we get to be around young people and try to instill things in them, not only for this game, not only for this season, but for life, about how they go about their business throughout life even when adversity strikes. That’s okay. How am I going to get on the other side of it and keep moving forward.

For both coaches, you have been on either side of having a bye week in the playoff, and kind of talk about the pros and cons of whether you’d rather keep the momentum and play a game in the middle or have that extra rest and time to prepare

STEVE SARKISIAN: Well, I think that’s pretty easy one to answer. A year ago, I’d say it was great having the bye because that’s a situation we’re in. This year we didn’t have a bye. So this is great, too. (Laughs). I’m going to tell you exactly what our team needs to hear. So it is what it is.

This question is for both Sarkisian and Coach Dillingham. This week the National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame put out a list of those that they’re honoring for their role in college football and also for future generations, and you two are the future generation. So I’m curious, is there anyone in your past that not only taught you about football, but about carrying this legacy forward and how do you have that conversation with your players?

STEVE SARKISIAN: I thought you were going to tell us we were getting honored, Terry. (Laughs). Where is Bianco? He didn’t tell me this stuff. Anyhow, you know, mine is pretty easy, right? I spent three years with Nick Saban. And I don’t think there’s been a better ambassador for the
transition of college football than Nick Saban.

And so the life lessons that you learn managing a program at a high level, how you treat people, how you develop your players not only on the field, off the field, that’s the legacy, right? It’s easy to look at the National Championship trophies or the Heisman trophies and think that’s the legacy, but I think there’s a standard in which he did the work that he did, whether it was at Alabama or at LSU, that that’s what you strive for because I think that’s what people remember about him.

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He stood his ground on issues that he believed in. He developed young people. He won football games. He adapted with the times. He went from I formation, run the ball to RPO driven quarterback runs. He’s forever evolved. And so that was the legacy that I think he left upon us, and it was just how many notes could you take and how can we try to do the same thing here with some of the lessons learned there.