Updates from Steve Sarkisian's Thursday Zoom
As he regularly does, Steve Sarkisian spoke to the media on Zoom on Thursday to talk about a few last-minute details related to Saturday’s matchup with Colorado State and other aspects of his 2024 Texas Longhorns football team.
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***Opening statement: “We’ve had three really good practices in a row. I commended the team. I think the intent, the attention to detail, the speed in which we practiced with, and most notably on Tuesday and Wednesday, the physicality that we practiced in was really encouraging going into the first game. Sometimes you’re still going through some of the growing pains of how we prepare and things of that nature, but like I said I think all that goes back to the veteran leadership that we have, and then the commitment from a lot of our new people to jump right into (how) this is how we go about our business to prepare for a game. It definitely showed. I was thoroughly impressed with the way these guys worked here this week. Naturally, we know we’ve got a really good clean-up day tomorrow. Proud of the way they’ve prepared. Put ourselves in a really good position to go out and perform Saturday.”
***On CSU’s Air Raid, Sark mentioned how the Rams have an elite receiver in Tory Horton: “Knowing where he is is critical first of all because a lot of their offense starts with him. If the quarterback’s got a favorable matchup, you can almost guarantee that’s where the ball is going to go.”
***Horton wasn’t the only wideout Sark referenced: “We know Armani Winfield well. We recruited him. He was committed to us here a couple of years ago. The addition of Armani, I think, is helpful.”
***Sark made a point to highlight Rams RB Justin Marshall, who rushed 57 times for 311 yards and two touchdowns last year: “We think the running game could cause some issues there as well to try to create some one-on-one matchups on the perimeter.”
***IT asked Sark a question about Kelvin Banks. Look for more from the answer on IT later this week, but he added this.
***On Ryan Niblett: “I think Ryan has been a really versatile player for us. I’ve been very proud of Ryan. A lot of times — I say this a lot… so many times when you’re a really good program like I think we’ve evolved ourselves into and when you’re a four- or five-star kid and you come into the program, there’s not this automatic anointment that you’re just going to be the guy. We have pretty good players on our roster. It’s competitive and it’s tough, but we do pride ourselves on developing the players in our program. I think Ryan’s year last year was a great year of development for him. I think he’s really changed his body. He’s playing really fast right now. Not only is he being effective for us offensively, he’s really found a role on special teams. He’s an impactful player for us on special teams as well. I’ve been proud of him. It’s been a journey. Nobody ever likes coming to school as a freshman and not playing as much as he would really want and hope to play, but he kept his head down. He kept working. We’ve carved out a pretty good role for him that I think is one where he’s going to be an impactful player for us this fall.”
*** On Johntay Cook: “Johntay can play any position on the field. I think that’s where he creates a lot of value for himself. He’s a sure-handed guy that understands our offense and has a really good feel for what we’re doing. I think he’s had a very good camp, and I’ve applauded him throughout camp for the work that he’s done because I think he’s made a lot of strides as well.”
***Sarkisian on Derek Williams: “Derek is a really versatile player. He’s a guy that had a nice freshman year for us last year. He creates a lot of position flexibility for us because although he plays safety, he has the coverage skills of a corner. He’s definitely an impactful player for us on special teams. He’s rangy. He can run.”
***Sark on if the pass defense wants to make a statement against an Air Raid team: “Our key to the drill in the secondary is we’ve got to eliminate the explosive plays. When you look at our two losses last year, that was the area in the passing game that really hurt us. We gave up explosive pass plays against Oklahoma and against Washington. It starts with us. If we let people be balanced, it’s going to be a long day for us defensively. We’ve got to eliminate something, then we’ve got to play sound in the back end in the pass game. We can’t give up those chunk plays in the passing game because the numbers tell you when you hit an explosive pass play, your percentage of scoring a touchdown on that drive go up exponentially. We’ve got to minimize those explosive pass plays first. Sure, we’d like to make more plays on the ball. We got a fair amount of interceptions last year, but we’re always trying to build on that number.”
***Sarkisian on Trey Owens: “I’ve been impressed with Trey. He’s a true freshman. There are days when I’m sure he’s like ‘can I just get Coach Sark and Coach Milwee off my back?’ There’s other days where he does some great stuff. That’s a little bit of a life of a first-year quarterback in our system. I think the one thing we’ve learned is that when the lights come on, he performs. He’s performed really well for us in every scrimmage. He performed well in the spring game. I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of the things he does well. If his number is called, I think we feel comfortable that we feel will put him in a good position to have some success.”
***Sark on the secondary: “We’re comfortable with the guys we have back there. I think a lot of them are interchangeable. I thinks that’s one of the beauties of a Jahdae Barron. He could play three positions here on Saturday. He could play corner, star, and safety. The versatility to disguise coverages is helpful for us that way, too. If he’s just locked on one guy that whole time, that kind of minimizes our ability to disguise some of the things we’re trying to do.”
***Sark mentioned that one of the things bouncing around in his brain is “the multitude of defenses they could call that are nowhere on tape, and then what are we going to call to adjust to that.”
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***Sarkisian: “Because of the way we work and the time and the effort those guys put in in the summer on their own, and then what we do in training camp, I feel confident that Quinn (Ewers) has good rapport with all these guys. I’m sure there will be some growing pains we’ll have to work through.
