Steve Sarkisian's College Football Playoff announcement press conference updates Isaiah Bond, Kelvin Banks, Clemson prep

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was available to the media over Zoom on Sunday to talk about the Longhorns’ first round matchup with the Clemson Tigers in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

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Steve Sarkisian on the SEC Championship: “You turn on the tape and you realize the physicality of which that game was played by both teams. That was SEC football at its finest.”

Steve Sarkisian: “This is an exciting time for college football. The 12 team playoff is definitely, as we all know, a new format, but I think it’s an exciting format.”

Steve Sarkisian: “Coach Swinney’s done a fantastic job at Clemson. You don’t win two national titles over a 17 year period, multiple appearances in the CFP, numerous ACC conference championships… they’ve got a championship program.”

Steve Sarkisian says he met Dabo Swinney at a high school game at Alabama. Sark was at USC, and Swinney was an assistant at Clemson: “I do admire what he’s done and how he’s built that culture at Clemson. It’s withstood the test of time. You’re not in one place for 17 years without doing some things right. It’s not only what they’re doing off the field, it’s what they’ve been doing on the field. Just admire him for a lot of things that he does.”

Steve Sarkisian says they “recruited him hard” when talking about Cade Klubnik: “He’s a winner. He’s going to do what it takes. He’ll throw it. He’ll run it. He’ll block. Then that guy will do whatever it takes to try to put his team in position to be successful.”

Steve Sarkisian: “We’ve got to look at a lot of stuff. We’ve got to assess their season, and wee where there’s some opponents there that play like us formationally and different things, and find things they do really well and why they’re successful there, and maybe find some cracks if where they’re not quite so good. That’s looking at SEC opponents, that’s looking at ACC opponents, that’s looking at everybody.”

Sark says they’ll do “no football” on Mon., Tue., Wed. in order to “get them a chance to recharge their batteries, not only physically but mentally and emotionally.” Will get back to work on Thursday, 1-2 days off, then a normal work week next week.

Steve Sarkisian says Isaiah Bond is getting a MRI on his right ankle: “Pretty clear everybody saw him get rolled up. Don’t have anything further on that as far as a severity standpoint.”

Steve Sarkisian on Kelvin Banks: “I don’t know yet. He wasn’t ready to play. We’ll see.”

Steve Sarkisian on Trevor Goosby: “I think Trevor is going to be a good player for us. There were moments yesterday where he felt like a redshirt freshmen playing against Georgia in Mercedes-Benz in a road gime, and there was moments when he did some really good things.”

Steve Sarkisian: “Justus Terry is a great signee for us. Obviously as we and y’all are now seeing, the impact that defensive linemen have in the Southeastern Conference is critical. I talk about big humans. Most people always assume I’m talking about offensive lineman. I’m talking about defensive linemen as well. I thought we signed a really nice defensive line class with he, Sharma, and Charles and then obviously our edge players coming in. It was a nice ending to the early signing period for us. It made us feel really good about this as a balanced class, yet we addressed some real needs. Obviously in our conference, it starts up front and most notably in the defensive front.”

Steve Sarkisian on Clemson OC Garrett Riley: “Very creative offensive mind. Spread you and then utilize the run game because you are spread out. They do a really nice job in the run game with the counter play, the guard-tackle counter play. They utilize the quarterback’s legs in the run game, which we all know Cade is a very adequate runner. Then they take advantage of the one-on-one opportunities. Get you spread out on the field. Very creative. What you see one week is probably not what you’re going to get the next week. You’ve got a lot of offense that you have to prepare for. Two weeks to prepare, I’m sure we’ll get all of it and maybe some things we saw a couple of years ago when we played him.”

Steve Sarkisian on Quinn Ewers: “Super gutsy performance from Quinn. He’s not 100%, but he battled. He competed.”

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Steve Sarkisian: “To me, this is one of the bonuses of playing in the first round: having a home game. We get another opportunity at DKR. School’s just going to be wrapping up. Looking forward to a great environment.”