Latest / The Craig Way Show / Steve Sarkisian on Quinn's ankle, win over Texas A&M, and preparing for Georgia

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Steve Sarkisian on Quinn's ankle, win over Texas A&M, and preparing for Georgia · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
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  Speaker 1: Texas Longhorns in Hall of Vaine broadcaster Craig Way. It's
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  Speaker 1: a Long Orange Monday here on the program on sports
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  Speaker 1: Radio AM thirteen hunderd The Zone Long Orange Mondays when
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  Speaker 1: we bring you long worn head coach Steve Sarkisian, Who's
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  Speaker 1: weekly news conference live eleven thirty in the morning every
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  Speaker 1: Monday morning. Our coverage begins at eleven AM from the
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  Speaker 1: UT campus and the presser at eleven thirty. Then we
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  Speaker 1: bring you the recap of it during this program this afternoon. Now,
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  Speaker 1: before we get into this, I mentioned going into the
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  Speaker 1: break that I've felt pretty comfortable and confidence saying that
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  Speaker 1: the Longhorns have cemented their spot in the college football
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  Speaker 1: Playoff coming up with the win over time Texas A
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  Speaker 1: and M. When we said that last week that if
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  Speaker 1: they won, it would probably do the trick. I asked
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  Speaker 1: sark about it on the post game, and I said,
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  Speaker 1: I know, you've got a championship game to prepare for,
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  Speaker 1: and you take each week and it comes. But given
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  Speaker 1: the things that have happened to day, and I was
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  Speaker 1: referring to Ohio State's loss to Michigan and Miami's loss
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  Speaker 1: to Syracuse. Given those things plus what your team has done,
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  Speaker 1: I said, there aren't many one loss teams left, and
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  Speaker 1: there's only one unbeaten team left that's Oregon. I said,
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  Speaker 1: would it be you feel pretty comfortable and confident that
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  Speaker 1: your team is in the college football playoff? He said, well,
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  Speaker 1: I'd be surprised if we weren't, was the way, and
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  Speaker 1: he kind of echoed that today. And just for further validation, Cam,
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  Speaker 1: I just happened a glance at the Football Power Index
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  Speaker 1: thing the number one team in the Football Power Index
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  Speaker 1: of the Texas Lawnwards ESPN's Football Power Index right now,
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  Speaker 1: and they list him as having a one one hundred
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  Speaker 1: percent chance to make the playoff one no matter what
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  Speaker 1: happens on Saturday in Atlanta and anywhere else. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's one hundred percent or whatever
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  Speaker 1: it is, but but felt pretty confident that they locked
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  Speaker 1: up that spot in the playoff at the very least
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  Speaker 1: getting into the playoffs. And I would also add probably
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  Speaker 1: they've probably locked up no lower than being able to
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  Speaker 1: host a first round playoff game, even if they lose
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  Speaker 1: to Georgia second time. I can't see them falling below eight,
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  Speaker 1: and probably would still be a little higher than that,
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  Speaker 1: but certainly I don't think would fall lower than eight.
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  Speaker 1: And if you finish five, six, seven or eight no standings,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to host a first round playoff game. So
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  Speaker 1: now all of that looks good, but sark will be
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  Speaker 1: the first to tell you they're still work at hand.
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  Speaker 1: And so from the news conference, the opening statement first
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  Speaker 1: and then some of the questions from head coach Steve sarkisian.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, just a quick recap from this weekend.
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  Speaker 3: You know, first of all, what an what an atmosphere,
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  Speaker 3: and what a turnout by Longhorn Nation Saturday night. And
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  Speaker 3: can't can't thank everybody enough for their support on the road.
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  Speaker 3: Been really proud of our guys on the road of
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  Speaker 3: the last couple of seasons. Now this is that's eleven
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  Speaker 3: straight road wins for us, And just love the mentality
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  Speaker 3: of which our guys have when they go on the road,
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  Speaker 3: the connectivity they have with one another, focused on the
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  Speaker 3: task at hand and not getting caught up in the
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  Speaker 3: surrounding things and what's going on. And I think you
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  Speaker 3: know something that came out of it was, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we talk a lot about complimentary football, and there were
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  Speaker 3: some really cool moments in this game of one complimentary football,
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  Speaker 3: but too dealing with adversity.
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  Speaker 2: The first part, you know.
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  Speaker 3: Michael taff gets an interception there in the in the
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  Speaker 3: first quarter, and the offense takes the ball and drives
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  Speaker 3: ninety three yards for a touchdown all the way into
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  Speaker 3: the last defensive snap of the game. You know, Trey More,
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  Speaker 3: you know, sack fumble, Vernon Broughton recovery and we're able
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  Speaker 3: to kneel it out.
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  Speaker 2: So this is nine straight turnof now.
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  Speaker 3: Where we've scored six touchdowns or ended the game with
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  Speaker 3: the ball in our possession. And so that's something that
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  Speaker 3: we'd been harping on one creating turnovers, but then what
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  Speaker 3: are we going to do with those turnovers? On the
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  Speaker 3: flip side of that, how we responded to adversity I
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  Speaker 3: thought was really critical Saturday night as well. You know,
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  Speaker 3: when you look at Kelvin Banks getting injured seven plays
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  Speaker 3: into the game, you lose your starting All American left tackle,
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  Speaker 3: and incomes Trevor Gooseby. I didn't think anybody blinked, you know,
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  Speaker 3: he didn't, the guys around him didn't, and he played
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  Speaker 3: a heck of a game for us all the way
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  Speaker 3: to we're up seventeen to nothing, we'd missed the field
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  Speaker 3: goal at the end of the first half, we throw
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  Speaker 3: the pick six off the tip ball. Nobody blinked, nobody
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  Speaker 3: panicked all the way to we get the pump block
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  Speaker 3: there late in the fourth quarter and the defense comes
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  Speaker 3: out sudden change and gets a goal line stop. So
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  Speaker 3: complimentary football works both ways, when you take advantage of
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  Speaker 3: your opportunities when they're there, but also responding to adversity
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  Speaker 3: to pick the other side up. And I thought there
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  Speaker 3: was some great moments of that that showed up in
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  Speaker 3: the game. I thought, obviously, defensively was a heck of
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  Speaker 3: a game. You know, we limited a very balanced offense
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  Speaker 3: to about one hundred yards rushing and just over a
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  Speaker 3: little hundred yards passing. You know, A and M had
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  Speaker 3: the number one red zone offense in the in the
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  Speaker 3: conference coming into the game. Obviously we played great red
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  Speaker 3: zone defense uh the other night.
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  Speaker 1: UH.
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  Speaker 3: And on the flip side, I thought offensively, our ability
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  Speaker 3: to run the ball, our ability to convert on third
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  Speaker 3: downs and on fourth down to extend drives was really
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  Speaker 3: important in the game as well.
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  Speaker 2: So all in all some.
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  Speaker 3: Some really cool individual performances, obviously Trey Wisner, Vernon Broughton,
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  Speaker 3: you know, being Conference Players of the Week. But I
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  Speaker 3: thought it was a total team effort. But the beauty
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  Speaker 3: of it is I think we can play better. And
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  Speaker 3: that's exactly what we told the team this morning, that
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  Speaker 3: we can play better and we'll need to play better
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  Speaker 3: moving forward. But it was a nice win for us
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  Speaker 3: on the road to clinch an opportunity to play in
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  Speaker 3: the SEC Championship game, which is uh, which is a
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  Speaker 3: heck of an opportunity, and and and it's a great
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  Speaker 3: it's it's a great opportunity to go against a really
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  Speaker 3: formidable opponent. You know, Georgia and Kirby have been the
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  Speaker 3: standard in college football now for about the last eight years.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: They've been in the SEC Championship game seven of the
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  Speaker 3: last eight years. They've been to the last four consecutively.
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  Speaker 3: You know, they've as I Tuck touched on with the
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  Speaker 3: team this morning, you know, and this is a real compliment.
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  Speaker 3: This isn't you know, to to intimidate our players. But
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  Speaker 3: George's got the heart of a champion and you see
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  Speaker 3: it time and time again you watch their game against
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  Speaker 3: Georgia Tech when it looked like they were dead and gone,
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  Speaker 3: and they fought their way all the way back to
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  Speaker 3: have to go play, you know, eight overtimes to ultimately
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  Speaker 3: win that to win that ball game, and so you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're gonna have to play all of sixty minutes and
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  Speaker 3: maybe beyond, and we're gonna have to play a better
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  Speaker 3: version of football then we played the first time around.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we were out of character, out of sorts.
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  Speaker 3: We had four turnovers in that game. We had eight penalties,
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  Speaker 3: four of which were false starts.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we we we were.
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  Speaker 3: Two of fifteen on third down, one of five on
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  Speaker 3: fourth down. I think we only ran the ball for
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  Speaker 3: twenty nine yards in the game. And so we're gonna
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  Speaker 3: have to play a better brand of football offensively, I thought, defensively,
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  Speaker 3: and they they did their best to kind of stop
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  Speaker 3: the bleeding. Georgia had a bunch of short fields, took
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  Speaker 3: advantage of those things to get out to a twenty
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  Speaker 3: three to nothing lead at halftime, which was which for
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  Speaker 3: us is a is an uncomfortable situation. You know, we've
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  Speaker 3: gone into every game with leads at halftime except for
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  Speaker 3: that game, and so we've got.
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  Speaker 2: To start better.
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  Speaker 3: We've got to execute better and then and then ultimately
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  Speaker 3: we're gonna have to finish better than we did.
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  Speaker 2: Uh So it's a great challenge.
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  Speaker 3: Like I said, that's a very good football team on
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  Speaker 3: the road, essentially a road game for us going to
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  Speaker 3: Atlanta to play Georgia. Uh So we've got to we've
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  Speaker 3: got to pack the things necessary to put ourselves in
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  Speaker 3: position to have some success Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So there that's the opening statement for the
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  Speaker 1: news conference. Now to a couple of questions for Sark,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll continue to recap throughout the course.
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  Speaker 2: Of the day.
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  Speaker 1: One was about the tip pass pick six for the
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  Speaker 1: Aggies only touchdown coming off the pass from Quinn yours,
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  Speaker 1: and of course there was one like that that went that.
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  Speaker 1: He's had a couple of other passes that have been
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  Speaker 1: tip drill interceptions, so I believe it was Danny Davis
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  Speaker 1: of the Austin American Statesman of Assark. Is there any
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  Speaker 1: kind of a pattern, there is a technique thing, or
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  Speaker 1: is it just playing bad luck with how those have
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  Speaker 1: gone down?
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  Speaker 2: Bad luck?
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  Speaker 3: You know, we teach our guys to get their hands
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  Speaker 3: up to and we've got some pretty cool interceptions off
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  Speaker 3: of tip balls.
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  Speaker 2: It's part of what good d lyman do.
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  Speaker 3: You know that they try to rush, and when they
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  Speaker 3: don't feel like the rush is there, they try to
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  Speaker 3: time those jumps and get hands up. It's especially difficult
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  Speaker 3: when they're slanting and moving like they were on that play,
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  Speaker 3: because it's not just the straight rush. A lot of times,
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  Speaker 3: you know, quarterbacks, we try to train them to find windows,
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  Speaker 3: but when a guy's coming out of your vision into
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  Speaker 3: your vision to tip a ball, that happens sometimes, and
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  Speaker 3: so it's just kind of part of the game, all right.
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  Speaker 1: Then he was asked about the challenges preparing for the
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  Speaker 1: college football playoff upcoming. Like we said, we're all expecting
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  Speaker 1: Longhorns to be in there, and then you know, these
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  Speaker 1: questions are going to come up during basketball when Texas
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  Speaker 1: was in the Sweet sixteen and Elite eight. To remember
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  Speaker 1: for Rodney Terry, they came up last year for Sark,
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  Speaker 1: can they come up this year?
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  Speaker 2: These questions that.
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  Speaker 1: Come up come up from the guys who do the
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  Speaker 1: reporting for the fans sites, who are keeping everybody updated
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  Speaker 1: with what's going on with recruiting and the commitments, and
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  Speaker 1: who will ultimately sign to become future Texas Longhorns. So
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  Speaker 1: that's why those questions get asked, and in this particular case,
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  Speaker 1: a question about the challenges of preparing for the playoff.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, the conference championship game, then the playoff
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  Speaker 1: with signing day and the opening of the Trends Transfer
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  Speaker 1: portal all looming, and Sark pretty much addresses it like
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  Speaker 1: you thought he would. It's about compartmentalizing things.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think you know there's a handful
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  Speaker 3: of us that are playing this Saturday, right And I
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  Speaker 3: would be the first one to add much rather be
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  Speaker 3: playing Saturday than watching teams play Saturday. So we're we're
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  Speaker 3: fortunate to be playing Saturday. But on that note, there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of stabs around the country that all they're doing,
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  Speaker 3: they're working the phones now between now and Wednesday morning
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  Speaker 3: to get guys signed.
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  Speaker 2: And we've got to find the right balance. As we're game.
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  Speaker 3: Planning, prepping, meeting with our players, practice walkthroughs, we still
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  Speaker 3: have to find those times to recruit. But again, I
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  Speaker 3: think that we've tried to build quality relationships with the
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  Speaker 3: recruits that we are recruiting so that they understand, Hey,
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  Speaker 3: when you come to the University of Texas, get used
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  Speaker 3: to playing in championship games, get used to preparing for
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  Speaker 3: the College Football Playoff, and because of that, maybe we
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  Speaker 3: can't sit on the phone with you for two hours
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  Speaker 3: and babysit you. We're going to check in and make
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  Speaker 3: sure you're in a good spot, but knowing that the
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  Speaker 3: reason that is is because we're preparing to go compete
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  Speaker 3: for a championship Saturday and the CFP and not everybody
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  Speaker 3: can say that, and we're one of the few that
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  Speaker 3: fortunately that can. On the flip side, then the portal
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  Speaker 3: opens after that, and so again it's.
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  Speaker 2: Just time management.
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  Speaker 3: It's it's balancing, balancing what we have to do on
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  Speaker 3: a daily basis. It's having the relationships with our current
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  Speaker 3: players so that they can be upfront and honest with us,
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  Speaker 3: but also monitoring the portal as it comes. We're gonna
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  Speaker 3: have some needs that we're gonna need to fill. Again,
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  Speaker 3: we don't want to live in the portal. We think
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  Speaker 3: we've got a great recruiting class coming in. We've got
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  Speaker 3: a lot of really young talented players on a roster
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  Speaker 3: that are steadily improving. But I'm sure we're gonna have
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  Speaker 3: a couple voids where we're gonna have some depth issues
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  Speaker 3: that maybe we can fill in the portal.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so there is some opening things from Sark.
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  Speaker 1: We'll hear more from the long orenes head coach coming
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  Speaker 1: up next hour, Up next inconceivable for a Monday, and
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  Speaker 1: it includes the NFL here on sports Radio AM thirteen
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  Speaker 1: under the Zone.