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Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian was in a great mood after the Orange-White Game on Saturday. Sarkisian smiled throughout his press conference like a guy who knows he has something special. He even joked with Austin American-Statesman columnist Cedric Golden after Sarkisian was asked if they had spring football when he played quarterback at BYU.
“Yes, we did,” Sarkisian said with a chuckle. “I’m not that old, Ced.”
No, but Kirk Bohls covered David’s spring practice before that famous road trip to the Valley of Elah to face Goliath.
Just messing with you, Kirk
Most of us are old enough to remember when Sarkisian was not the biggest fan of his team. Sarkisian and his staff began building the team they wanted after arriving. You have followed this team closely enough to know how Sarkisian began recruiting offensive and defensive linemen who could compete at a high level. They added speed. Sarkisian also added starters and depth through the transfer portal. Before the Longhorns kicked off last season, Sarkisian began to say something different. He told Longhorn fans throughout the state that he “really liked” his team during the Texas Fight Tour. It was the first time Sarkisian verbalized his stamp of approval on the Longhorn roster since arriving in Austin.
Ring the alarm again, Longhorn fans.
It happened again after the spring game.
“I like this team,” Sarkisian said. “I've said this all along. I think we're a very talented football team. What excited me today is that playmakers made plays. That’s something that you try to recruit to. How do playmakers make plays? You have to be effective at the line of scrimmage. You got to play well on the O line. You got to play well on the D-line. That’s how you get tipped balls. We had a couple of other opportunities on defense to get interceptions. We had a drop in the flat. Xena, I know he's kicking himself. A couple of other tipped balls, we almost had our hands on. That's the exciting part of this team. I think that we've got a lot of talent. There's a lot of playmakers we play a physical brand of football.
“But more importantly, I like the kind of energy of this team. They're in it together and they want to be really good.”
Permission to dream big?
Exit light, enter night.
Permission to pour a glass of burnt orange Kool-Aid?
Double-fist them.
Permission to make hotel reservations in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game?
It will be cheaper than the travel costs to attend this Michigan game.
Sarkisian is living his best life.
When I checked in with my sources this past week, I was told Sarkisian intended to treat the spring game like an NFL preseason contest. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers played so well during the spring that Sarkisian only wanted him to play in two series before hitting the sidelines. He wanted to give Arch Manning and Trey Owens playing time.
Yes, Manning played well.
Heck, Owens was impressive, too.
Sarkisian will have two quality backups in that room this season, and arguably the best set of quarterbacks since arriving at Texas.
@Ketchum, let me repeat myself.
Backup quarterback.
“That was totally the plan for Quinn,” Sarkisian said. “That is why Quinn and Arch were on the same team. I wanted Arch to be able to just go play football. He hadn't really played in a year. I know what Quinn's about. Quinn’s had a great spring. I felt like it was important to get Trey a lot of reps at this level. The biggest thing I saw from Arch was something that we kind of really harped on with him about a week and a half ago about. Just dialing into playing the play, keeping your eyes up. I talked about this last week. When he gets himself in trouble at times at quarterback is when he relies on his athleticism, which he has a ton of. There are times today when I blew the whistle on him. I don't know if he was really happy with me that I blew it, but he's non-contact.
“But when he keeps his eyes up and steps up in the pocket, he can deliver those balls down the field the way we like to play. It was good to see and it's good to see some of the guys around him play with him the way that they did.”
Sarkisian is happy because he is stacked with talent at nearly every position.
Except one.
After seeing the performance of his defensive line during winter conditioning and spring practice, Sarkisian will swipe right on every available upgrade in the transfer portal.
“I think obviously, the depth on the defensive line is not where we need it to be,” Sarkisian said. “Hopefully, we can address that. That’s a big concern … We don't have enough bodies. There's not enough big humans. It's simple math for a variety of reasons. We've got to address it. It's not always about addressing it with the guy who's going to come in and win the Outland [Trophy]. It's about having enough depth, especially playing in Austin, Texas in September and early October. We have to rotate players and you know. There were times I sat in here with you guys a year ago in September, we were playing upwards of 30 to 32 on defense in the first half of games, never mind in the total game. To do that, you have to have enough quality people that you feel comfortable rotating in there to make that happen. We have got to got to address it, which we will.”
In addition, Sarkisian said he will review the film to examine which defensive backs were on the field when the offense had success on explosive plays.
If I was Sarkisian, I would just hug anyone assigned to cover Ryan Wingo.
They were victims.
Sarkisian was in a great mood after the spring game.
You should be, too.
Sarkisian is excited about this team.
Sound the alarm again, Longhorn fans.
“Our coaches are going to go and recruit in May,” Sarkisian said. “These guys are going to get a little time off. But I know when we come back in June, there's going to be things that we're going to want to finetune and really drill down upon and get better at. Maybe move a couple of guys around positionally. We got to look at that. We'll see. There's a lot of things in front of us.
“But I will be honest with you guys, I really like our team. I think we're very good. I think that we have a chance to do some really good things this fall.”
Funniest Things You Will See This Week
Solid motivational advice
Dog lovers will enjoy this
Uber passengers can identify with this
Now we know why it takes so long for cars to get repaired
Yeah ... I'll pass
Sports On A Dime
1. Steve Sarkisian’s response when asked about Ryan Wingo and Isaiah Bond separating themselves from the other receivers: “They're unique in that the speed factor. Both of those guys can really run. Bond is a little bit different because of the experience that he has. Wingo, we thought was a unique talent in high school. We loved his character of what he stood for, and those things are holding true for us right now. But Parker Livingstone has made plays. I know he didn't have the big-wild plays today, but he's made a bunch of plays this spring. Aaron Butler, there's no question about the skill set that he has. He can really run. We saw Johntay [Cook] make some really contested critical catches on third down today. We saw DeAndre Moore catch the big touchdown today. Matt Golden was a little bit limited today, but he still showed up and made some plays. We've got a quality room in there.”
2. Sarkisian’s response when asked if he needs to contain his in-game emotions before using the helmet radio: “I'm a pretty even-keeled guy. When I get real upset, sometimes you don't know it. But in the end, I have to buzz in to actually talk to them. I've been down this road sometimes I may have a few choice words for the quarterback and I let them out, then I push the button and then I talk to him so he didn't have to hear it.”
3. ICYMI
4. Somebody check on Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark
5. Unless April 20 has a significant meaning to Vernon Broughton or his bride, they should have scheduled the ceremony in May, June, or July. Broughton has played football long enough to know the important team activity time frames without knowing the specific date of the spring game.
6. It is good to see Maalik Murphy enjoying success at Duke
7. Here are two technology rule changes that the NCAA approved for the upcoming season:
“Optional technology rules in football, effective for the 2024 season, were approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Thursday.
“In games involving Football Bowl Subdivision teams, each school will have the option to use coach-to-player communications through the helmet to one player on the field. That player will be identified by having a green dot on the back midline of the player's helmet.
“The communication from the coach to the player will be turned off with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.
“For all three divisions, teams have the option of using tablets to view in-game video only. The video can include the broadcast feed and camera angles from the coach's sideline and coach's end zone.
“Teams can have up to 18 active tablets for use in the coaching booth, sideline and locker room. Tablets cannot be connected to other devices to project larger additional images and cannot include analytics, data or data access capability or other communication access. All team personnel will be allowed to view the tablets during the game.”
8. Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger is always on top of relevant college football topics. Here is a portion of Dellenger’s article that is worth reading when you have time this week:
WASHINGTON — On Thursday, within a matter of a few hours, the current unruly state of college athletics was on full display.
The NCAA’s transfer portal buzzed to life with dozens of new additions who’ve been lured away by financial inducements from booster-led collectives. The state of Virginia passed legislation that defies NCAA rules by permitting its schools to directly compensate athletes starting July 1. And finally, a national association filed a third complaint with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to make athletes employees.
Meanwhile, within an auditorium on the campus of Howard University, the man who at least partially controls any future college athletics model — the guy perhaps responsible for both bringing disorder to the landscape as well as determining a more stable future — took the stage for a 90-minute panel discussion.
Dressed in a dark suit and striped tie, Jeffrey Kessler peered through spectacles at the audience before him. Kessler, 69, is the lead attorney in what is shaping up to be the most revolutionary case in NCAA history — an antitrust lawsuit that seeks billions of dollars in retroactive monetary damages to former athletes for name, image and likeness (NIL) pay. The case has the potential to, for one, cost the power conferences and NCAA enough money that many fear bankruptcy and, secondly, topple all NCAA compensation rules related to NIL.
There is something else, too: A settlement of the case could produce a future athlete compensation model that will shape the industry for years to come, possibly bringing structure and solutions to the landscape likely in the form of athlete revenue sharing.
To do it, college athletic leaders need the approval of the plaintiffs — and their lawyer.
“A possibility is that this all gets settled in our litigation in which we agree on a new system with the NCAA,” Kessler, co-executive chairman at powerhouse law firm Winston & Strawn, told the crowd at an event hosted by the Drake Group, an organization whose mission is to advance integrity in college sports. “There are proposals out there by [NCAA] President [Charlie] Baker to compensate the athletes. There are systems that could be negotiated as part of a settlement. That’s up to the NCAA. They’ll have to decide if they can actually agree on what it is and then we have to agree to it.”
9. I hate to imagine an Austin FC world without Brad Stuver. He has been money this season.
10. In case you missed the fight last night, here you go …
