Steve Sarkisian UTSA press conference updates

After a thrilling game that ended in defeat to the now No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide, the No. 21 Texas Longhorns welcome Jeff Traylor and the UTSA Roadrunners to town for a Saturday night contest at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium. Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian will be at the podium at 11 a.m. The press conference can be seen on Longhorn Network, TexasSports.com, and heard on hornfm.com

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Follow along for updates.

Steve Sarkisian: “Looking back at the tape from the ballgame Saturday, I kind of feel the same way I did after the game. I was really proud of our effort. I thought our players played really hard. They played tough, I thought not only they were physically tough, but they were tough minded in fighting through some adversity.”

Sark says they were happy they didn’t turn the ball over, but wish they could have forced a few turnovers. :We’ve been working so hard at it in training camp. We’ve got to flip the script on that and we’ve got to continue to attack the ball and create those plays for us defensively to get some short fields and whatnot.”

Sark: “They’ve got really good players. They’re well-coached. As I touched on with the team, these guys play really hard.”

INJURY UPDATES: Steve Sarkisian says that Quinn Ewers, D’Shawn Jamison, Hudson Card, and Bijan Robinson are all “day-to-day.” Says nothing is structural, surgery driven, broken, or with damaged ligaments.

Sarkisian was asked who took first-string quarterback snaps: That’s for me.”

Sarkisian: “No one likes losing their starting quarterback in the first quarter. Nobody likes having your backup get injured in the second quarter and then having him try to fight through. But that’s football.”

Sarkisian on Hudson Card’s tough play: “I think it was huge for our locker room.” — Card is on the leadership committee because of respect he has from his team. — “I think that was inspiring to everybody. It was inspiring to me and I’m his coach.”

Sarkisian: “Charles was next man up. He was ready to go if need be. I give Charles a lot of credit. He has made strides, leaps, and bounds from a year ago this time to where he is today. I think he’s got a good grasp of our offense, a good understanding of managing things. I think he’s thrown the ball much better, much more accurately, and is a lot more confident, which is needed at that position.”

Sarkisian on Maalik Murphy: “He’s not healthy.”

Sarkisian: “I thought for the most part our situational awareness in the game was good. We had some lapses like they may have had some lapses.”

Sark on UTSA: “You turn on the tape and UTSA, they get your attention quickly with their schemes, with their personnel, and the way they play the game. Clearly they had a lot of success last season, then they had two really hard fought games here to start the year.”

Sark: “We only have five more chances to go do this at home. Maximizing these opportunities to come together (with) Longhorn nation and be together as one, that atmosphere was raucous. And that’s exactly how I want it.”

Sark: “To quote my old boss, we’ve got to be careful of the rat poison telling us how good we are.”

Sark: “I thought Moro had a very good game. I thought Coburn had a really good game. I thought Byron Murphy had a really good game.” — Also mentions Ryan Watts, Jerrin Thompson, and Jaylan Ford.

Sark on depth: “That’s the value of recruiting. That’s the value of practicing the way we do even in training camp.” — says they ‘two spot’ so that everyone is working during the course of practice, singles out Austin Jordan. “I don’t know if he thought going into that game he was going to play 15 snaps, but he went in there and he played well.”

Sark on the defense: “They are preparing. I really think the players have bought into the preparation aspect of the game and the opponent. I think we’re practicing better than we ever have. There’s real intent. We’re very deliberate in our approach at practice. I think we are communicating much better on the defensive side of the ball.”

Sark on UTSA’s Frank Harris: “Frank Harris, he’s a dual threat. He can get the ball out quickly in a lot of their RPO game. He does a really nice job of giving his receivers an opportunity to make plays on the ball down the field… then he can use his legs. He can hurt you with his legs, and clearly we struggled with that late last week.”

Sark on Rashad Wisdom: “He’s been a leader of that defense. He plays the boundary safety. He’s a very physical player.”