Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian spoke briefly during Wednesday's weekly SEC media conference call.
The Longhorns have only two home games left in the regular season—Florida on November 9 and Kentucky on November 23. That means Texas only has two more opportunities to host recruits before the dead period begins on December 2.
I asked Sarkisian if there was any sense of urgency to get players on campus for the final two games.
“Recruiting is always at the forefront of a lot of what we do,” Sarkisian said. “We've been fortunate to get a lot of players, a lot of kids to games. We had a great turnout for the Georgia game. We'll continue to stress and push getting players to our final two home games. Both should be great games, great environments. So, that really doesn't change.
"As far as players coming to games, I think, for the most part, all the guys we're recruiting have at least been to one game here this season and gotten a sense and a feel for the environment at DKR. And so we feel comfortable with that. We try to take advantage of our bye weeks and days that we have, like this week, to get on the road and get to schools and see people play. Then you start the process of getting guys to try to finish it, signing day.
"Last year, we made the conference championship game, and it was still open to recruit. At that point, what's the sacrifices that you make? I think recruits like to join really good teams and be part of teams that are competitive and tough, and they want to play with the best. They want to compete with the best on a daily basis. Sometimes the best recruiting tool we have is being a successful football team to go along with the environment here at DKR, to go along with the education, the city of Austin, and all the things that we have.
"You can't do everything all the time, because if you try to do everything, you're probably not good at anything. The best thing we can do is play really good football on top of, when we have our moments to recruit, do a great job at that.”
Typically, the final regular season game for Texas was played on a Friday, which allowed the staff to make home visits on Saturday and Sunday.
Texas is playing on the road against Texas A&M on November 30, which is a Saturday. If Texas wins, Sarkisian would need to start preparing on Sunday for the SEC Championship Game on December 7. However, the dead period begins on Monday, and signing day is on December 4 (Wednesday).
I asked if he could go on the road and recruit on December 1, a day before the dead period begins, or need to focus on game preparation.
“Dude, you’re talking a month from now,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t know.”
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Sarkisian was about safety Andrew Makuba's status and said he's making "good progress." Sarkisian said he will have a better idea if Makuba will be available next week when Texas prepares to play against Florida.