Steve Sarkisian discusses offseason standouts, Year 3 perspective, and more with Always College Football
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will take the stage on July 12 at Big 12 Media Days, but his tour through college football’s talking season made a stop with Greg McElroy on ESPN’s Always College Football podcast on Wednesday.
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McElroy and Sarkisian discussed a wide array of topics, from the offense, the defense, year three improvement, and more.
Topics McElroy and Sarkisian cover include…
- McElroy said he felt a difference in the atmosphere at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium during the 2022 season, notably during the Longhorns’ contest with Alabama. Sarkisian noted his perspective, saying “I think moving the students to that northeast corner of the field has been helpful rather than having them in the southeast corner. They’ve been really impactful. I think their energy is tremendous.”
- Sarkisian was asked about the growing pains the Longhorns went through during Year 2 that indicated the areas where, even with a three-game improvement in the win-loss column, there was still room to grow. McElroy wondered if close losses to Oklahoma State and TCU will help the team grow ahead of an important Year 3. Sarkisian’s thoughts?: “I think so. Two years ago, we couldn’t find a way to win any of those games. All our losses the year before were tough, heartbreaking losses. Last year, definitely some tough losses when you think about Oklahoma State or Texas Tech, games we really felt like when we were walking out of there that we just gave one away. But I also looked to last year in going into Kansas State and winning that game in a tight ballgame in the fourth quarter. I look to the Baylor game at the end of the year when we were behind in the fourth quarter and then take over that game and go win it in the fourth quarter. I see the progress. Obviously we’re not a finished product yet, but I definitely see the progress and I’m proud of the mental makeup of our guys because they showed a lot of resolve throughout the season and, to me, that all came to fruition in that Baylor game in the end because in our minds we were playing to get into the Big 12 Championship game. We didn’t know what was going to happen the next day. We had to win that game to give ourselves a chance, and to go into a game down in the fourth quarter and to come back and find a way to win it, that was encouraging to me.”
- What’s Sarkisian’s emphasis heading into the 2023 campaign? Sarkisian mentioned, as he often does, coaches get what they emphasize. “I think for us, a couple of things. Offensively, we’ve got to be a more balanced attack than we were a year ago. We were a very good running football team, clearly, when you’ve got a Bijan Robinson and a Roschon Johnson. We had a lot of youth on the offensive line, and quite frankly, we had youth at the quarterback position. I didn’t love the depth at wide receiver. We did a lot to address the depth chart that way, and then you have to put in the time. Our offense is better when we can run the ball, we can throw the RPOs the way that we do, we can play-action pass and take those shots and connect on those things down the field and then try to create space for our players on that side of the ball. I think we felt really good about that coming out of spring. We’re continuing to work on it here in the summer, because for us to be the team we want to be late in the season, we’re going to need that balanced attack and we want to make sure we’re dangerous in the passing game.”
- And defensively? “We just keep harping on we want to be able to play tighter coverage so that we can not just affect the quarterback, but create more sacks and create more negative plays. I think we were one of the country’s leaders last year in pressures on the quarterback. If not, we might have led the country. Our sack numbers weren’t where they needed to be. Hopefully with tighter coverage, we can get the quarterback on the ground a little bit more and maybe create some more turnovers and create more short fields.”
- Sarkisian had plenty to talk about in the quarterback room, with Sarkisian praising Quinn Ewers and the rest of the room. “I’m really fired up about that room. I think that collectively we are a very talented group, a group that works really hard and works really well together.”
- After praising Ewers, Sarkisian spoke about Maalik Murphy and Arch Manning. Regarding the QBs, Sarkisian said first of Murphy: “Very talented. Great leadership ability. Has unique arm talent to throw it all over the field and he’s going into Year 2 in the system. Then you put Arch in there, who I felt like I needed to remind everybody that in our spring game our guy should have been at the senior car wash raising money for prom or something. He should have still been in high school at that game. It was invaluable experience for him to be with us and get a lot of that newness out. He’s a normal guy with us and he’s a normal guy for himself and around the building. For everybody else, when you carry the name it comes with those expectations. I think for him to realize how to balance those types of things, in the end, he’s on a great trajectory for us.”
- McElroy and Sarkisian talk about the wide receiver room, which added AD Mitchell. McElroy offers high praise, saying there aren’t many teams outside Ohio State that can contend with what Texas has. Sarkisian provided his perspective: “I like it. When we looked at where we were at at the end of last season, I wanted to look at our passing game from a 360 degree view, whether it was schematics, whether it was the way we were teaching the passing game, what we were calling in-game compared to what we were practicing, and the personnel that was trying to operate those plays. We felt like we needed to upgrade there, and I credit our recruiting staff and our coaching staff for the job they did to go recruit those three kids out of high school who I think are great young players. I think the addition of AD Mitchell has been very helpful, but I also think when you challenge competitors they rise to the occasion. What I’ve seen out of Xavier Worthy has been phenomenal this offseason. He’s the most engaged I’ve seen him be since he’s been here and he’s been really good for the first two years. Jordan Whittington‘s leadership, he’s kind of assumed the Roschon Johnson role on the team, which has been great. Getting Isaiah Neyor back, this guy was a projected starter for us a year ago coming from Wyoming. Gets injured, misses the year, and has kind of been forgotten. That room has been really solid, and I think (Ja’Tavion) Sanders is a budding star.”
- One of the final discussions is about Pete Kwiatkowski‘s defense. McElroy notes he believes the depth has improved at all three levels. Sarkisian mentions how important it has been to have Kwiatkowski’s entire staff back for a third-straight year and says their rapport has been great after being hired from schools all over the country. Sarkisian notes also that veteran players like Jaylan Ford, Byron Murphy, T’Vondre Sweat, and Alfred Collins have been critical. He also praises Barryn Sorrell and new transfer Trill Carter. A new player that drew mention? Anthony Hill, who Sarkisian says he believes can have an immediate impact. Jahdae Barron, Ryan Watts, Jalen Catalon (who Sarkisian says is in great shape), and Gavin Holmes were names mentioned in the secondary.
