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It's hard to believe we are back to a real-life, good-old-fashioned game week. Here are a few immediate thoughts and reactions to Sark's Colorado State-week presser heading into a long-awaited 2024 entry into the SEC conference:
It's the first press conference that I'll be watching from the LHN app, so let's see how this whole thing works and if it even gives me the functionality to pause, etc. if necessary. I'm actually a touch nervous about this. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate Alex Loeb filibustering with various stats and other quips as we await Sark at the podium, and no more vignettes of Lowell Gallindo kissing a giraffe at the Johnson City Exotic Park.
- Sarks says that CSU is a tough opponent with an explosive offense and a dynamic receiver in Tory Horton and two all-conference safeties. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Horton is the best WR Texas will face until conference play.
- Danny Davis asked what Sark wanted to see: "Minimize self-inflicted wounds." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: This will be especially important as Texas will use a lot of depth players through these first four games as Sark has said recently. He said that he wants to play guys on the two-deep as early as the first half in this game. I'd imagine you'll see the WRs in the two deep out there first as they mix those guys in.
- Are you set at every position? (Depth Chart Wise) Sark says that in Week 1 we always leave it open. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I don't think left tackle is open, Coach!!
- Eric Henry asked about Tory Horton and tackling in the secondary: "Where's he lining up? They move him around a lot. We have to get him on the ground on offense and always when he's returning kicks." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Sark is talking about Horton like he talked about Matthew Golden before the UH game last year.
- Ced Golden asked about the last go round for Quinn and Kelvin, Jake Majors etc. -- Sark says it's a unique year in that way for Texas even though they lost a lot of leadership last year. Says he could list 20-30 guys who are in Year 4 where our culture is their culture. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: There's your first culture reference!
- Bob Ballou asked about Arch Manning in the first half if the two-deep is going to play early: "We'll find out." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Good question from my man. You could tell Sark even gave him a little credit, told him it was slick to slide that one in.
- Confidence in the RBs running between the tackles. "Three years ago, I couldn't have said that about Jaydon Blue, but he's more than capable. We're a physical team." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: It's gonna be a big year for Blue. I don't understand all this concern about him being big enough to run inside.
- Chip Brown asked about Red Zone offense and about the WR target split: On the RZ "we have to do a better job of not stubbing our own toe." Said focus has been on mental intensity. He has confidence in his players and schemes. He said time will tell about the receivers and they're going to play a lot of them, especially early in the season. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: He said "the ball would find" Devonta Smith and says he needs to find out who the ball finds. I think that is a really cool way of saying it.
- Anwar asked how you find a rhtythm if you're rotating so many guys: You just do it. He said he doesn't have a really good answer, but obviously he has guys he wants on the field at certain times in certain groups. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: We saw this a ton in fall camp, especially at receiver. I think they'll have little platoons.
- Kirk Bohls asked if there's any reason to think they'll not be as good as last year and how many draft picks he thinks Texas will have. "Every year is a new team and every team takes on its own personality that we play to think strengths of." Said they have to re-establish an identity and that will start Saturday. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Insert Bart Scot CANT WAIT gif. He also said his goal is that Texas should always be hovering around 10 draft picks.
- Joe Cook asked about the Rice game last year was a lot like this year. Sark said they played 32 or 33 players on D in that game in the first half and want to do that again. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: 1) This isn't going to be an easy game to chart at all. 2) I hope the OL plays better than they did versus Rice, that was really a bad day for those guys. Everything turned out OK, though, if you'll recall how the season ended up playing out.
- CJ Vogel asked about the grad transfer RB Velton Gardner - "He was a guy we had to wait to see if he was going to graduate. Versatile guy, natural running ability and good hands out of the backfield." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Sark also mentioned Ryan Niblett "doing some things" at RB as well. Sounds like he's sort of settling into a role of helping out there, which hopefully takes any of the younger LBs out of contention to get carries. If Gardner has to play significant snaps, though, it probably means Texas is in trouble.
- Terry Middleton asked about conversations with Belichick and Reid, etc: "They go deep into the playoffs again and again and again. It's more about workload management of the players" that he was curious to get their advice about. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: There is so much that goes into this even with their GPS tracking, nutrition, etc. Nowadays, they can measure player loads at practice and give guys rest accordingly. All part of being the head coach at a major program, I suppose.
- On 3rd downs in 2023: "Too many false starts, penalties, too many third and longs. The conversion rates are not good when you are 3rd and 7+." Said he needs to be better in 3rd and short as well, though. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: It's been a big focus of his.
- Is Michael Kern going to play? "I've been very impressed," said he came in with freshman jitters but is now playing at a really high level. He said he will be on the field this week but hopefully not too often. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Sounds like Kern won a starting job.
- Jeff Jones asked about what he likes most about his team: He said it is a close-knit team that has grown up together. The new guys have been taken in with open arms. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: He later said that the team doesn't have a dominant leader like a Roschon or a Whittington or a Byron Murphy. Says this team has a larger variety of voices and what makes them special is that personality as a group.
- What is he looking forward to most? Everything. Talked about the mock game Saturday and the mock week last week. Did all the pre-game warmups, and during them, Coach Jackson said "a year ago you told me how much you love Saturdays in college football and I know what you mean now." Sark says he loves it from breakfast at the hotel to Bevo Blvd, the smell of the popcorn, the music playing, coming out of the tunnel, the smoke, the cannon, Bevo ..." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Well .... Yep. What he said.
- Brian Davis is back!! He asked Sark what he learned from Saban/Carroll about balancing confidence and cockiness: He said he learned about giving healthy competition and making the best players go against each other. He also said they both taught him the worst thing that can sometimes happen to you is when you play bad and win. Said you can get too focused on the result and get lulled into not improving. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I've always said, though, that if you recognize this and you're true in your evaluation of your play, that playing bad and winning doesn't have to be a bad thing. Because, you get the W in the win column, but if you know you stunk it up with your actual play, you get that free lesson that you normally have to take a loss to learn.
Here's hoping that Texas doesn't have to worry about any of those outcomes come Saturday because real-life football is indeed back.
