Latest / The Craig Way Show / Steve Sarkisian announces starting QB for Texas-Oklahoma

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Steve Sarkisian announces starting QB for Texas-Oklahoma · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Back to the Craig Way Show. Connect with Craig through
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  the text line by texting Texas to eight one five
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  three zero followed by your message. Standard message and data
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  rates may apply.
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  Speaker 2: And here we are two days prior to kick off,
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  and uh, let's get right back to it. Logorn's head
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  coach Steve Sarkisian from the media Zoom today.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, exciting week. You know, I think, you know, from
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  our perspective, you know, when you have two weeks to
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  prepare for a game like this, it's kind of a
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  crescendo as you as you build to the ballgame and
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  now having Thursday's practice in the books, and you know,
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  having a walk through Friday and then head up to Dallas.
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  I know our team is really excited about the opportunity.
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  It's a great game to be part of, as we
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  touched on all week. But I'm very I was told
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  they just got done telling the team. I was really
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  proud of the way they've prepared this week. You know,
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  they've been very focused. I've had great intensity. We we
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  had you know, some really good physical and fast practices.
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  But in the end of this week, you know, I
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  think they're really dialed into the details, which is going
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  to be you know, really important in a game like.
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  Speaker 4: This, Steve, not just with Quinn, but with any of
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  your players. How do you determine a players healthy enough
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  to play?
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  Speaker 5: Is that?
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  Speaker 4: How much of a collaborative effort is that between you,
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  the players, your training staff? How how what's that process?
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  Speaker 5: Like?
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  Speaker 3: I think they're all in some way, shape or form
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  a little bit different, right, Injuries are different. Player history
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  of coming back from an injury is different. You know.
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  I think there's obviously a medical component to this of
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  when he is cleared by doctors to play. I mean,
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  whether I think he can play or not, he has
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  to be cleared to play. And then and then I think,
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  then it goes to myself, if you know what is
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  my I tell me not only from a physical ability,
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  but also from a mental ability to be ready to
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  go play. I think a lot of times players can
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  come off injuries and be physically ready to play, but
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  mentally still have some things in there that that are
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  you know, causing hesitation or not, you know, not playing
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  one hundred percent full speed and that that can be
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  dangerous too. And so I guess there's science involved, there's
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  gut instinct involved, there's psyche involved, there's a there's a
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  lot that goes into it. But in the end, we're
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  just trying to instill confidence in the player that that
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  he's more than capable of going and doing it. But
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  then there's the other player that will tell you he
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  feels great just because he can't wait to get back
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  out there, and the doctor say, you know what, he's
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  not quite ready to go, And so that's where that
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  dialogue comes in. But I do agree with you it's
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  a collaborative effort, Steve.
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  Speaker 6: When facing a guy like Hawkins who's athletic back there,
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  I was wonder if you could just talk about rush
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  lane integrity and how crucial that is to have success,
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  and if possible, just maybe the difference between facing a
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  guy who looks to use his legs to scramble versus
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  a guy who's looking to throw in that process.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of layers
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  to this, you know, because I think coverages can dictate
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  maybe how your rush lanes go. You know, when when
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  you're playing zone coverage, sometimes you can you can be
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  a little more aggressive with trying to really rush the
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  quarterback because the majority of the eyes of the defenders
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  in the secondary are on the quarterback and they can
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  react if he does escape the pocket and you can
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  get him on the ground. Where you have to be
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  really careful with your rush lanes is when you're playing
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  man coverage because when you're a man coverage and you
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  get out of a rush lane and you give the
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  quarterback somewhere to escape when he goes to run, all
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  of those guys in the secondary's backs are turned to
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  the quarterback because they're guarding somebody. And now that can
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  create you know, longer yardage type runs. You know. The
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  other the other way you can do that is to
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  is to play man try to really rush the quarterback
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  and have a spy where you can keep some somebody's
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  eyes on the quarterback and when he does go to
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  go to scramble, you can try to get him on
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  the ground. And so, you know, I think I think
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  one of the keys in games like this is you
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  can't you have to continue to mix your looks, right.
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  You can't just keep throwing a fastball. You gotta throw
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  a curve, you gotta throw a change up. You got
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  to keep switching it up or or a quarterback can
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  find that rhythm, you know, the guys that that that
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  that drop back and then extend to scramble as opposed
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  to guys that drop back to extend to throw. It's
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  pretty I don't want to say it's easy when when
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  they're one or the other. When it's really hard is
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  when they do both. Because now you now players are
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  really compromised of do I do I come up and
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  try to get him on the ground or do I
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  stay in coverage? And so those guys are really the
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  most dangerous of that because they can do either or.
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  And I actually think Michael Hawkins is one of those guys.
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  You know, he has plenty of arm talent that can
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  that can make those throws when when plays get extended,
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  but clearly he's he's very dangerous with his legs when
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  he tucks it and runs.
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  Speaker 7: Coach, good morning. The NCAA released new n l I
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  guidelines this week, and I'm curious what you think of that,
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  what impact that has on you guys as the coaches.
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  And also shortening transfer window from forty five to thirty days,
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  how does that impact a coaching staff.
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  Speaker 3: I gotta be honest with you, I haven't read any
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  of it. I'm gonna I'm gonna look into it a
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  little bit this afternoon when I have a little bit
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  of free time. I try to keep the main thing
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  the main thing. And you know, you know, CDC has
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  done done a good job of keep me abreast of
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  some of the decisions that are coming. Our compliance department has,
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  our recruiting department has. But at the end of the day,
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  they also know I'm trying to game plan and get
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  ready for this ballgame. But but I'll probably have a
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  little more dialogue with them this afternoon when I have
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  a little bit of downtime to h to kind of,
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  you know, drill down on this a little bit more.
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  But so I don't have I don't have a great
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  comment for you on that.
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  Speaker 8: Hey, Steve, whenever Quinn goes through the NFL draft process
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  and starts meeting with pro personnel, do you envision him
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  having some issue in terms of being labeled injury prone
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  just given the amount of injuries that he's had throughout
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  his career.
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  Speaker 3: I don't necessarily think so. You know, sometimes injuries have
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  happened because they happen, you know. I mean, you know,
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  when a guy gets pile drived on to his shoulder,
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  there's a pretty good chance. It doesn't matter who you are,
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  your shoulder is probably gonna be sore to some capacity.
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  Or when you get pile drived and you're clavigal gets
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  gets popped. I mean, I don't I don't know many
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  guys that would have withstood that hit from from Dallas
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  Turner a couple of years ago. That that was an
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  odd hit. And and I've seen that injury, that same
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  injury Quinn had that year. Jalen Hurts had as well.
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  Oddly enough, you know, he has the oblique strain there
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  a few weeks ago, and I'm watching the game the
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  other night, Derek Carr is out of the game oblique strain.
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  You know, So things happen in football, you know, our
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  sport is our sport. I think more importantly is is
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  they monitor his ability to come back and how he
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  comes back and how he plays. And I think Quinn
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  has shown over his time that when he's been injured,
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  he's engaged, he comes back and he plays really good
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  football coming off of injury. And so that's this to me,
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  is another chance for him to go show that he
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  can do that here moving forward.
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  Speaker 9: Yees, Steve, if you could speak to how quickly your
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  plan has come together, and you know, rising to number one,
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  you know, just barely into your fourth year, has that
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  even exceeded your expectations? And as Quinn definitely started.
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  Speaker 3: Uh yeah, Quinn's gonna start Saturday. I'm to go backwards.
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  That was it. That was the easy answer. I don't
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  I don't know, you know, I I don't know if
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  I ever had just a timetable on when we were
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  going to be, you know, competing for championships. I definitely
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  wanted it to happen sooner than it did, I'll be
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  truth be told. You know. You know, you go through
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  some of those the tough roads of year one and
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  and some of the ups and downs in year two,
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  and you're thinking, man, we're so close. Uh and what
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  would that you know, year or two have looked like
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  if we had uh maybe not lost that lead at
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  Oklahoma State, you know, and and what what would that
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  season have looked like? But to think last last season,
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  to go twelve and two, to be conference champs and
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  to be a play away from competing for a national championship,
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  that felt like that felt right to me. That felt
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  like that's this is where we're supposed to be. And
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  now we got to try to take the necessary steps
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  to try and to go finish it. But that's that
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  every year, there's so many other new challenges that present themselves.
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  And so for this journey this season in twenty twenty four,
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  to get off to the start that it has, I'm
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  like I said, I'm proud of our coaches, our staff,
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  our players that we are in this position, but we
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  have there's such a long way to go, you know,
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  it's even it's even hard to see the light at
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  the end of the tunnel for the season, and we
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  know how difficult and how challenging our conference schedule is,
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  and now we're navigating different waters with with what an
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  extended college football playoff could look like. That I just
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  try to appreciate the way we prepare and the way
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  we play week in and week out, and I try
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  to appreciate the culture and the leadership that we have
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  and the and the intent in which our guys come
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  to work every day, and that that, to me, is
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  what I envisioned. You know that, I think the record
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  and the rankings and all those other things are a
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  byproduct of what we put in every single day. And
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  so that part I'm proud of and you know, when
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  we'll see what the end result looks like. There, you know,
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  at the end of the.
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  Speaker 5: Season, coach the piggyback off of Kurt's question there talk
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  about you know, we're enamored with ourselves. When you think
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  about the week and the preparation that the team goes through.
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  Are there some specifics that you see the team doing
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  outside of your coaching. They maybe took your coaching now
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  they're taking it to another level in preparation, either mentally physically.
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  And are there some players that just kind of rise
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  above that kind of set the standard for everybody else?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean some some simple things I look for,
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  like when I see them at lunch or when I
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  see him walking through the building, what are they talking about? Right?
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  Are they talking about you know, hey, how we're going
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  to play a certain coverage or I can't wait for
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  for Sark to call this, or man, you know, I
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  was studying number five this week. Here's what you know
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  when they're talking about football generally, that that gives me
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  a sense and a feel of like, Okay, they're they're
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  engaged in what we have going. I think the other
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  thing I look at is the energy that we bring
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  every morning You know, we start with these guys every
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  day at seven fifteen. You know, what kind of energy
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  do they have in the team meeting when we walk in,
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  what kind of energy do they have when they take
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  the field at practice for pre practice? You know what
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  a stretch feel like and look like, and so all
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  those things kind of give me a sign of like, man,
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  these guys are engaged. And then the ultimately it comes
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  down to how do we practice? You know, do what
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  is our you know, are we do we have the
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  right mental intensity to reduce the number of missed assignments?
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  Are we finishing runs? Are we finishing blocks? Do we
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  have Does it sound loud on defense because we're communicating
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  at such a high level, right, There's a lot of
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  layers to that, but but all adds up to what
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  to your point, it's that are we preparing the way
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  that that is of importance, that that we've value you know,
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  we value preparation, We value practice because I think that
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  that's what instills belief and confidence in what we're trying
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  to go do.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Steve, just with Michael current on the injury report,
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  what's the what's the concern level there?
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  Speaker 3: And then what's the plan if he can't go.
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  Speaker 10: Uh uh.
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  Speaker 3: Ian Ratliff will punt if he can't go, and then
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  obviously you know Michael's still a holder too, so you
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  would be the backup there if he can go as well.
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  Speaker 11: Steve, you mentioned on Monday about Jake, you know, leaving
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  the game last year and Connor playing, and we talked
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  with Jake about, you know, anticipation for this game considering
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  he didn't get the chance last year. Have you noticed
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  any difference in him and how he prepares or is
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  he trying to kind of keep it same old, same old,
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  even though you know last year happened for him.
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  Speaker 3: He feels pretty same old to me.
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  Speaker 11: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Jake's uh, he's a he's a really good leader because
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  you know, when it's football and he's you know, in
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  his hands on that ball and he's made in the calls,
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  he's very intense, I mean, very very intense player. In
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  pre practice when we're working quarterback center exchanges, you know,
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  he's loose, he's laughing, he's having fun. And then when
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  you come to meetings and we're working third down protections
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  and all the calls, I mean, he's dialed in and
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  it's like he's almost an extension of Coach Flood. So
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  he's a he's a really well versed guy that I
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  think is for me, it's calming. You know when I
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  see Jake like that, he's in great spirits, but yet
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  he can he can shift gears kind of within the
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  day or within even practice. That makes me feel good
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  because that tells me he's not over the top in
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  one direction or the other. And then I think that
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  that kind of permeates throughout the offensive line. Steve Guy's
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  just curious about what were your final thoughts or Coach
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  Flood's thoughts to the offensive line about OU's pass rush
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  something they do really well. Yeah, they're a great pass
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  rush team. I think one they've got good players, and
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  two they've got good scheme and and and three they
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  play hard. You know, they play with play with really
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  good effort. And so you put all three of those
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  things together. Uh, they do a heck of a job
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  of getting to the quarterback and because of that, they
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  do a heck of a job of creating havoc, which
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  I think leads to the opportunistic defense that they have
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  where they create turnovers. So a lot of what they
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  do defensively starts up front. And that's kind of been
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  a staple of coach Venables defenses throughout the years, you know,
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  regardless of the school he was at. Uh, it's always
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  started up front. And you know this, this group's not
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  not much different than that. You know, they they do
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  a heck of a job of creating pressure internally, they
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  do a good job coming off the edge, They do
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  a good job with their pressure packages and and a
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  variety of those that they have. So there's layers to
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  what they do. And we know we've got to work
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  cut out for us this week with that.
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  Speaker 12: Hey, coach, what's the the SEC rule as far as
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  how many guys can travel to a neutral site? And
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  what's that number compared to what it looks like in
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  the normal season?
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  Speaker 13: Uh?
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  Speaker 12: And then what you know for regular road games, and
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  how does that impact your preparation as far as special
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  teams or anything as relates to that number that.
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  Speaker 3: There is no special consideration for neutral site. So we
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  get as a road team in the SEC, we get
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  to travel seventy four. Players a home team in the
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  SEC you get to travel eighty. We're obviously the road
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  team this year, so we get to travel seventy four.
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  And then the only caveat that is different from what
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  we had in the Big Twelve. In the Big Twelve,
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  we were able to we were then able to bring
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  the remainder of our team the day of the game
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  and they could be on the sidelines. And this year's
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  format with the SEC, we're not allowed to do that.
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  So so a little unfortunate, but we'll have seventy four
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  guys and it really doesn't impact us too too much.
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  You know, there's a couple of guys you'd really like
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  to bring that could you know, maybe be you know,
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  a second or third team guy on teams, but we
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  just have to adjust accordingly.
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  Speaker 13: Hey, Steve, you and Quinn were basically a freshman the
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  Red River Rivory your first and you did your first
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  one together. What were those conversations like with a young
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  quarterback playing in that kind of atmosphere and what what
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  did you have to remind yourself because it was your
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  first one as well.
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  Speaker 3: My first one was with Casey and he's on the
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  other team.
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  Speaker 13: Now, Yeah, yeah, Quinn about Quinn then, ye, Quinn.
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  Speaker 3: Quinn's was a little unique in that he is coming
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  off the injury, and but I knew how much this
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  game had meant to him growing up right in South
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  Lake and uh, havn't been to the game and sitting
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  in the stands watching this game. My big thing for
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  him was just relax and go have fun, you know,
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  and go play ball. And we had a pretty good
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  team and we were playing pretty good at that that
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  juncture of the season, and so I thought I thought
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  he did that. He had a heck of a game.
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  I joked with him. In the middle of the game,
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  he threw one of the worst interceptions I've ever seen.
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  He was trying to throw the ball away and it
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  kind of just fluttered in the air and I actually
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  thought it hit the wire from it from the TV
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  camera that it but it didn't. So we're able. I
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  think that's one thing Quinn and I are able to
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  do that a lot of times doesn't get seen. Like
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  we're able to laugh things off. And I think that
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  that's important for a guy like him, and really for
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  Arch for that matter. Like we're a very intense quarterback
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  room and we coach them hard, but we also have
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  the ability to kind of laugh at ourselves and have
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  fun with things, and and and that, and that ended
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  up itself. I think in games like this is really helpful.
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  When the intensity is so high around you, the emotions
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  are so high around you, the quarterback has got to
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  be that steady see. You know, he has got to
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  be that even keel guy that can that can remain
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  calm and keep his poison composure in the midst of
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  all the intensity.
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  Speaker 14: Hey, Steve, kind of an off the wall one here
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  for you. I'm working on a story on your Spanish
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  broadcast crew and I was listening to the call. I
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  heard you do an ad for him. I'm wondering if
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  you were able to do that off the rip or
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  if you had to read it, and do you ever
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  go back and and kind of listen to the energy
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  those guys bring.
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  Speaker 3: Let me say this the fact that you asked, did
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  I have to read it or did I let it?
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  Let it come off the rip? I'm so pumped about
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  because I had to read that. I had to have
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  it narrated to me for me to say it my Spanish.
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  I wish was better than it is, but uh, I've
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  listened to it a couple of times and I cringe
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  it like gosh, I should be better at this. But
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  what a great telecast they do, and and the covers
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  they give us and just the energy they provide. So
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  but no, I I had a halfway read it and
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  have it halfway kind of you know, read to me,
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  and then I was kind of repeating it back.
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  Speaker 10: Hey, Steve, I know Big Humans has been a big
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  part of how you guys have built this program. I'm
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  curious what are the traits you look for, whether it's
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  like arm length, explosive and strength in your offensive line
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  and also the trees you look for defensive line, and
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  that led you two guys like Kelvin Banks or DJ
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  Campbell or Collins meant yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Man, I think one is the first measurable is the size, right,
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  there's height, weight, Then do they have the ability to
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  bend because you can be a really big guy, but
• 18:15
  if you can't bend, then you probably can't move. And
• 18:18
  you're always looking for initial quickness, lateral quickness, change a
• 18:21
  direction and then when we get them, you know obviously
• 18:24
  you know arm length matters, hand size matters. Uh, those
• 18:27
  are all those are all things that that you know
• 18:29
  through you know historically, you know when you when you
• 18:32
  look at the NFL draft and you look at the
• 18:34
  average numbers there those types of things matter as well.
• 18:37
  So there's a variety of things in there. But but
• 18:40
  it's if they don't have the first prerequisite right, which
• 18:43
  is some mass, right, some size, then then the other stuff. Man,
• 18:47
  you really be a need to be an outlier.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: It's like, well, we've never recruited a six to one guard. Okay, Well,
• 18:55
  if he's going to be a six to one garden,
• 18:56
  he's that good. He better have like thirty four and
• 18:58
  a half inch arms right to protect himself because he
• 19:01
  doesn't quite have the height. Hardiell thank you.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Walgorn's head coach Steve Sarkeesian from the weekly media availability,
• 19:09
  the Media Zoom that happens on Thursday, his final visit
• 19:13
  with the media prior to the next game. All Right,
• 19:17
  we have more coming up. To stay with us here
• 19:18
  on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone in the
• 19:20
  iHeartRadio app.