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Inside Texas Football
FULL Steve Sarkisian SEC Media Days Press Conference
00:41:47
Hear every thing Sark had to say during an exciting SEC Media Days.
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And I can tell y' all from sitting in rooms with him and a lot of phone calls, he's trying to do what's best for our sport, not just for the Southeastern Conference. He really is trying to do what's best for our sport. I'd like to thank the leadership of the University of Texas. You know, chairman of the Board of regents Kevin Eltife, Jim Davis, our president, and our athletic director, Chris Delkhani. I know a lot of people talk about alignment, but we are truly aligned. And that was something that six years ago when I took the job. One of the reasons why I took the job was the alignment. But it's shown and shown through time and time again. And the job that Krystal Connie has done at Texas has been nothing short of remarkable. Winning five of the last six Directors Cups, and just the absolute strength in every sport in that entire athletic department is. Is something that I know he's proud of and we are all very proud of, to be part of. I'd like to thank our staff. Our staff is doing a tremendous job. And these guys and men and women are working extremely hard, not only on the grass with our players, but in the building, in the meeting rooms, in recruiting, being on the forefront of doing things that have never been done before and just proud of the work that they do on a daily basis. It's a demanding profession. It's a demanding job. And their spouses, their families, the sacrifices they make for us, for me, for the University of Texas, doesn't go unnoticed. So thank you all for what you do, and I thank our fans. The support that they give us is tremendous. Longhorn Nation has just been phenomenal. I don't think people know this because I think people think about home field advantage and tough environments to play. We're 20 and one in our last 21 home games at DKR, and that's a direct reflection of our fans and the support that they give us. And so thank you for your support in all that we do. You know, Commissioner Sankey touched on a few things and a few stats that I'm really proud of our program and our organization, of what we've been able to accomplish. And you think about, you know, last season alone, we beat three top 10 ranked teams. In a down year, the last two years, we've beaten 10 top 25 ranked teams, which is more than any other school in the country. I believe it's 14 wins over top 25 teams over the last three years. And so there's a lot to be proud of for us at the University of Texas. But I will say this. At the University of Texas, the standard is the standard. The standard is the standard. And I know the expectations are high outside of our building. I know everybody wants to say what percentage we are to make the playoffs or what percentage it is for us to, you know, win a conference championship or make the CFP or be a national champion. But the expectations are always high within our organization. They're higher than you would imagine. They're higher than they are on the outside world. And now more than ever, external factors don't motivate us. It's what we're doing internally. And we've got a very hungry football team. We've got a team that competed their tails off a year ago and fell short of making the College Football Playoff after the previous two years, being in the semifinals and knocking on the door to play for a national title with the ball inside the 10 yard line. So those external factors, whether it's a comment or a tweet or a podcast or an interview by a pundit, that's not going to motivate us. What motivates us is what we do every single day. And I'm proud of the leadership on our team for buying into that idea. And I couldn't be more proud of the guys for the way that they handle themselves that way, because we're going to have to. Our schedule is real. It's a real football schedule. And I think the key to that is focusing on us being enamored with what we do, that takes great leadership. That takes great commitment. Okay? And that takes great. That takes great mental and physical toughness to make that happen. We've got three players here that I think exude all of those three things, obviously. We've got Arch Manning here. We've got Colin Simmons. We've got Trevor Goosby. The first thing I'd like to say about those three guys is all three of them signed with the University of Texas out of high school. So in this era of transfer portal, in this era of players coming from, you know, different places and, and building rosters and so on and so forth, these were three guys that chose to be part of our program when maybe our program wasn't where it is today. You know, Arch and Trevor came four years ago. We were an 8 and 5 team coming off of an Alamo bowl loss against Washington. They chose the University of Texas. Colin came the next year. But I think all three of these guys exude the leadership that is needed, the commitment to the program, the commitment to their teammates and, and the mental and physical toughness to be a champion. And so proud to have all three of those guys with us today. I will say this. I know you all say it, but I'm going to say it. We do have a talented roster. We do have a good football team. We're balanced. You know, I think we're good on offense, we're good on defense, we're good on special teams. I'm not going to shy away from that to give you the coach speak. We do have a talented team, but we've got to make that come to life on every single Saturday against a challenging schedule. And that's the challenge, as their coach, is to get them in the right mental space, the right physical space to go out and be at their best when their best is needed. And in our conference and in our non conference schedule, that's every single Saturday. How did we build this talented roster? We built it through retention. We kept really good players on our team. We built it through high school recruiting. We signed a heck of a high school class, which I think we're very proud of that class. And we built it through the portal. And that's a credit to our recruiting department, all right, of making those things come to life. But, you know, we lost. We lost 40 scholarship players off of last year's team, 24 portal transfers, which was more than we ever had, three early NFL draft picks and 13 seniors. With that, we brought in 47 new scholarship players, 22 through the portal, 25 freshmen, okay. And so a lot of new faces. Culture is a big deal for us, but our culture gets developed, you know, historically, in the summertime to get ready for a season. And I failed our team a year ago by doing it that way. And I felt like we didn't have the culture needed early in the season to make that happen, to be the team that we were capable of being. I learned my lesson. We started doing our culture work in February this year, and I think it's paid dividends. I was just on the plane with these guys coming over, and to a man, they all said, man, I can't. I love how summer's going. I love how close we are as a team. I mean, these guys were doing a scavenger hunt yesterday, and Colin and Arch are competing until the end. Their two teams were the one at the end racing to win it. And then everybody's sweating bullets. It's 100 degrees in Austin right now, and they're having a blast together as a team. And those are the moments that are going to get us through the tough fourth quarters. Those are the moments that are going to get us through some tough road games of where we're headed this fall. So proud of those guys for buying into what was going to be so important to this team. We were. We are not a finished product. We've got plenty to improve upon from last year. It goes without saying, we've got to become a better run football team. We did not run the ball to the. To the standard and the capabilities of what it is at the University of Texas. Now, we can make that better a variety of ways. You got to get better up front as an offensive line group. You got to have capable runners that can do that. You got to provide weapons on the perimeter that people have to deploy to guard against, and you've got to put schemes together that they can operate and do at a high level. I think we've addressed all those areas in the run game. We've got to create more explosive plays when we're at our best. We're at a very explosive offensive football team. We were not that a year ago compared to where we were two years ago. The run game is a huge component to that, but we've got to become a more explosive football team, and we've got to minimize the penalties. We got to fight the urge of playing behind the chains. And I say fight the urge because I think there's an urge to some of the penalties that we get. And so we've got to minimize those penalties all of that, we're talking about consistency on the offensive side of the ball. And so, you know, to me, you put all those things together, we have a chance to be a very good offensive football team. But we got some areas for improvement come the fall that need to show themselves defensively. Obviously, we've hired Will Muschamp to be our defensive coordinator. Has been a great addition. It was everything I thought this hire could be. You know, Will and I philosophically are very similar. We believe in a style of defense that. That is in your face, that is tough, that is hard nosed, but yet. And we believe in coaching hard, but yet. We believe in having a relationship and rapport with the players on the team. And Will does that and it's been great having him. Now, where do we need to improve defensively? We've got to create more havoc. We need to create more negative plays. Right. And we should have the capability to get that done. We've got to minimize the explosives. All right? And so, you know, making sure, especially in the past defense that we minimize those explosive plays. And then we've got to be even better on third down. And most notably, we got to be better in the red area, especially on third down. And so some areas of improvement for us there. But I think this. I know there's been a lot of talk, guys. Like I've been sitting at home watching the three and a half days of this stuff too. Okay. So I'm hearing everybody talk about the same thing. I can't wait to hear the same questions get asked that you were asking Kirby three days ago. Okay, I think this about the sec. We've got a nine game conference schedule, the challenges week in and week out, making sure that our football team is mentally and physically tough enough and prepared to play because that's what's required in this conference week in and week out. Because if you're not, you will get beat. It's not about beating us one time, it's about beating us the nine times. That's the challenge of this conference and that's what we will prepare our team to do. Looking forward to the opportunity. It's a heck of a schedule, you know, and couldn't be more excited just about this team and about where I think this team can go. Just a couple things of note, housekeeping things. Cole Hudson, which you all saw the. The temporary restraining order on the five for five, you know, that's still up in the air. I don't have much more to say about it. We'll see how that goes. And then One addition for us, John Meredith will be an early enrollee for us. He's reclassified. He'll be with the team this fall. Is a great player for us, a DB that we couldn't be more excited to have on board with us. So with that, we'll open it up to questions. Thank you, Coach Sarkeesian, if you have a question. Lauren, Peyton and Lane have microphones. We'll go ahead and come up here and start right here on our center aisle. Right there to the left. Okay. Hey, coach. John Abraham, 977, ESP in the zone in Huntsville, Alabama. I just wanted you to talk a little bit about the wide receiver room. Ryan Wingo as well as Cam Coleman as he was at it during the off season. Yeah, we're very, you know, we love our wide receiver room. I think all Those guys are six, two plus. All those guys are over 200 pounds. They're physical, they're fast, they've all played a lot of football. You know, when you think about their careers, obviously Ryan will be in his third year with us in the program, knows the system, knows the scheme. Really came on last year. I think people forget he was a second team all SEC receiver a year ago. Very explosive player. Emmett Mosley came to us last year after his freshman year at Stanford where he caught 50 balls, was injured. The first part of the season really came on the second half of the season. He is playing at a high level for us right now. And then the addition of Cam Coleman's been a great addition. And you know, the thing about Cam, everybody sees the highlight plays, the playmaking ability, you know, the physical ability that he has. What I love is the person, you know, this guy's a great human being. He's a guy that is a great teammate. He's one of our hardest workers. I just think he's been a great addition to that room, to that offense. I know he's got good rapport with Arch. So excited to have him. Okay, we'll go down in front of me, second row. Cedric. Hey, Steve. Cedric Golden, Austin American statesman. Arch Manning, the name on the back of his jersey brings as much notoriety as the one on the front. How did the growing pains of last season, how would that benefit him this year? Yeah, I'd like to touch on that. You know, Arch Manning a year ago wasn't on social media or on television saying, I'm going to be the first pick of the draft. He wasn't on television saying, I'm going to win the Heisman Trophy. All he did was Work really hard. All he did was try to be the best teammate he can be. And then we had some failures as a team. He didn't have, he didn't play to the way of what he was capable of playing. And then those same people that were saying that about him wanted to criticize and demean him almost for letting them down because he didn't live up to what they thought he was going to be. Very interesting concept right there. And I think the way of what he got put through probably would have melted or destroyed 99% of people in his shoes. All he did was stay consistent to true to who he was, which continue to work hard, continue to be a great teammate, try to get better. And he did. And he came out and played the second half of the season at a really high level. We go 7 and 1, he's got 20 touchdowns, only two turnovers. He's a fantastic player at the end of the year, but he didn't go back on social media and say I told you so. And all he's done this year is continue to work hard again. And so there's always going to be outside opinions of that guy and that comes with the territory and he understands that. But I think he learned a lot about himself last year about dealing with adversity, overcoming, and I think he learned a lot about his teammates and the support that they gave him and them recognizing the mental and physical toughness that he has to play the position to be their leader. And I think that he's grown into a great leader for us. And so I'm very proud of Arch for the way he's carried himself, the way he represents the University of Texas. I think right now he's a very dangerous player because he learned a lot from last season and he's surrounded by some good players and I think that he's a guy that's poised for a heck of a season. Season. Coach will go over to our right hand side on the aisle. Good afternoon coach. Jacob Worthen, KRUI Sports what does playing on time actually look like for your quarterbacks? Well, everything that we do is a progression based offense. And so you have a first read, a second read, a third read, a fourth read, so on and so forth. And those reads are basically tied to his feet, right? Whether it's a quick game, an rpo, a drop back pass, a play action pass, and so being on time is when that read is available to throw the ball to, that the timing of his drop marries with where he should be. If it's A drop back pass on his fifth step is his first read open. The ball comes out. If it's not, he hitches to his second read and then hitches to his third read, so on and so forth. And so that's what it looks like. I think the one thing that we saw real development in Arch a year ago, if you watch his pocket presence and the way he moves in the pocket, he moves like a pro. And he didn't have very many clean pockets last year. It was tough and we weren't great around him, but man, the guy worked at his craft in the pocket. And then the value of that was when he got some better pockets later in the year, he was able to take advantage of it. Coach will go back in front of me, second row. Kirk. Kurt Bowles from the Houston Chronicle. Steve, you've told us that you didn't feel like your team was rewarded for playing in that big intersectional game at Ohio State. And I was curious, where do you feel like that is as far as other schools scheduling, attractive, you know, non conference games. And are you still planning on playing Notre Dame in 28? Yeah, no, I think that that's, that's always a, it's always a tough topic because I'm, I try to move on, right? I'm, we're in 2026 and I, but I think back to 2025, like we have to learn from history and you know, but I have to go Back to, to 2023. Really. We beat Alabama at Alabama and that might have been the game that probably got us into the playoff that year in a four team playoff. We played at Ohio State last year or excuse me, we played at Michigan the next year. I'm not saying that was the game that got us in, but it surely played a part, right, of getting us into the 12 team playoff and it got us a better seed winning that game. Last year we didn't win the game at Ohio State. Okay. And so I'm torn because I have two thoughts on this. One is if we beat Ohio State last year, surely we're in a much better position when it comes to the playoffs. But on the other side of it is if I don't play Ohio State and I play Jones Junior High and we're 102 and our two losses are to Georgia and Florida. We're a playoff team. But like anything in this world, if you want to be really good at something, you got to take risk. There's calculated risks involved in life that you have to take. It's no different than Playing quarterback, you got to take some risks at time. There's no different than being a play caller. You got to take that risk. There's no different than investing in a company or not you're taking a risk. And so yes, there's risk involved in playing a high level non conference schedule, but there's a lot of value in that win. There's a lot of value in that win if you can get the win. And so is the juice worth the squeeze or not? That's what we're all tasked with. And so I don't know yet about Notre Dame. We'll see because I think the committee's got to show us what happens now and what's the value that they're placing on strength of schedule and are we ever, are we going to let a 9 and 3 team in as an at large? We'll find out. And I think that this year is going to be a great test to that of what that looks like. Okay, we'll go over here on our left hand side. Coach CJ Vogel with on Texas football over here. I wanted to ask you just in the sense of chasing, I know you say you don't listen to the media pugnance and I love you guys listening what we say and the polls, but essentially, given that Georgia's won the conference the last two years, is that the team that the conference and yourself are still chasing after as the top team currently? You know, there's a, there's a lot of, lot of sayings and quotes in the, in the sports world in particular, but this one probably is the most fitting. If you want to be the champion, you got to beat the champion. And it's no more fitting for us. We've played Georgia three times, they've beaten us. All the credit in the world to Kirby, their team, they're tough, they're good. So if we want to be a champion, I'm guessing we'll probably have to beat the champion to make that happen. Coach will go straight down in front of us again, third row. Danny Davis, the Austin American Statesman. Going back to the news, you just, I guess, broke. What does John Meredith bring to this team? And I'm not sure when he turns 18, but can someone that young contribute at the cornerback position right away? Yeah, he's already turned 18, turned 18 a couple weeks ago. You know, he provides great length, great speed, tremendous man to man ability, very confident, very aggressive. All the, all the attributes you want in a defensive back. It's not a secret. You know why he was a top two or three player in the country in the 2027 class. So for us to get him now, we'll see how far we can take him. Like I told he, I told his mom, Coach Muschamp, Coach Orfeh, we don't have an expectation on him of a timetable. We're going to coach him, we're going to develop him. When he's ready, I think he'll be good enough to play. How long that takes to get him ready, that's going to be the race. That's the challenge. Week one, week four, week eight, I don't know. I do know he's got the right competitive spirit. I do know he's got the skill set and the ability to be a good player for us. How long it takes, we'll find out. Okay, we'll go down that center aisle again on the left. Coach Steve Curtis. 10, 7, 7. The franchise. You said that you began emphasizing culture work back in February because you thought there needed to be some changes from last year. But as you're entering your sixth season leading the program, a lot of people would think that culture's already well established. So what led you to think that additional culture work needed to be done? And what specifically did you want to see change from last season? Well, I think this. We have 47 new faces in our locker room, so they don't have anything established in our culture. We have to get them ingrained into our culture. And so that's why we back that up, to start that process, to get more guys ingrained sooner. We do a lot of work. We do things called Culture Wednesday around our building where we tap into the person, the whole person, and we get authentic, we get transparent, we laugh, we cry, we hug, we write note cards to one another because we have to become a connected football team. That's what gets us to where we want to go through those hard times. All the way to fast forward to yesterday. We did a scavenger hunt and we broke everybody up into teams and they did a scavenger hunt on the 40 acres. And it comes down to Arch and Collins team sweating, competing in the 50 yard line at DKR. And they loved it. Like, that's the stuff that we're doing now. Sooner than maybe we'd be not doing that even until the end of training camp. And so I think it's going to benefit us. I think the connectivity these guys have right now is huge. But why? Because we got 47 new faces when historically you'd have about 20 or 22. Okay, we'll go back down the center aisle onto our right hand side. Hey, Coach Rob Gregson, A to Z Sports. You talked about a lot of the culture and the shift amongst the group that's returning. Is there a new mentality after missing the CFP last year? I don't know if it's a new one. I just think there's a more committed one. I think that this group holistically is committed to the mission of being a champion. And they're not just saying it, right? It's not about what we say, it's about what we do. And their actions are showing it. These guys are committed, they're helping one another, they're working with one another, they're holding each other accountable and I'm very proud of them for that because that's not an easy thing to do in college when people are making nil and they're 18 to 22 year old men. But these guys have committed to that as part of their journey. And that starts with Colin and Arch and Trevor. But that goes to Jelani McDonald, Ty Anthony Smith, Rasheem Biles, Ryan Wingo, all the people we've been touching on. So that's not easy. They're doing it. I'm proud of them and I think they'll reap the benefits of it come the fall. Have time for a couple more. We'll start in the section in front of me about midway back right in the middle. Hi there, Coach Evan Veith, inside Texas. You've talked a lot about culture and also how many new players you've had to add. Whether it be the Portal or recruiting, you've already seemed to get some good returns from Rasheem and Dalen. When it comes to leadership, how difficult is it in the Portal process to kind of scout personality and culture fit when you only have so much time with them compared to recruiting and how have you maybe improved at that aspect over your time at Texas? It's very difficult. You know, it's like speed dating. You know where you think about in high school, you're recruiting a kid for two or three years. In the Portal, you might be recruiting for two or three weeks if you're lucky. I feel like every year's different on when you bring in the Portal guys of did we get it all right or not? And I know it's easy to say, hey, this year we got it right compared to other years. And honestly I would say we did our due diligence, but we got lucky. This group is incredible that we brought in. They're bought in, they Want to be a champion. They want to be part of this culture. Rasheem Biles, Cam Coleman, Raleigh Brown, Hollywood Smothers, Melvin Sinai, Lawrence Seymour. I'm leaving a bunch of guys out, but like they're committed to the cause and that's hard to do to bring in all these transfers and be like that. And so I think we got it right. I think we got a little bit lucky too that we got it right. Because, you know, how do you really know? Well, I'm starting to really know now as these guys are in some of the adversity that they're running in DKR at four in the afternoon. They're in the sand pit at four in the afternoon in Austin, Texas in July. That, that's not fun. But them hanging in there with their teammates and getting through some of that adversity is exciting for us. We'll take one final question in the center aisle to the right. Coach Ryan Sproute, Columbia Missourian. Last season, y' all lost a couple of early season matchups on the road against Ohio State and Florida, but it was clear that you weren't in rhythm and that the team in the second half was a much different team playing. How do you find a rhythm earlier this year? So that way every game after week five isn't a must win game to get into the playoffs this year. Well, you know, I think we've got to keep practice as competitive as possible. You know, iron sharpens iron and you know, Colin going against Trevor every day, that's a good thing, right? Arch working against Musk champs defense, that's a good thing. You know, Jelani McDonald guarding Emmett Mosley, that's a good thing. So the good on good stuff, we got to continue to elevate that. I think secondly is trusting the process and trusting who we are as a team when we get to those games. And so, you know, we're fortunate. Hey, our first game's not at Ohio State. Our first game's back at dkr. You know, so with a young team, that was, that was a tough task, I think. Anybody who's been to the Swamp at Florida tell you that's a tough place to play. We needed to be better in those moments than we were. But there's a lot of teams that went to those two stadiums over the last few years and probably didn't come out on top. And so. But we've got a relish in our ability to play on the road because we are, we are playing at Kyle Field, we are playing at Death Valley. We are, we are going to Tennessee, we are going to Missouri. Like those are tough places to play. And in our conference there are no easy places on the road. And so we've got to be better in those hostile environments of execution of, of, of minimizing the self inflicted wounds and then having the ability to finish in the fourth quarter. Coach Sarkeesian, thank you for your time this afternoon. All right, y', all, hook them. Thank you. Hey, Coach Aaron Hogan with ESPN and Austin over here in the front. Tell me about the, the additions to your coaching staff. So much SEC knowledge. So with Will Muschamp and coach Jaluk and Mark Stoops. Now, how intentional was that and what have you seen from adding those, those guys to the staff? Yeah, you know, I think each hire was different in different timings. You know, obviously, you know, we made a decision to make a couple changes on staff and, you know, we kind of targeted coach Jalook and felt like his ties in New Orleans and known him from when his time as a high school head coach at Ednicar and just the energy and the passion, the way he coached the game, we felt like we needed that on offense and obviously his history at LSU and at Florida, that was helpful, but also his time in Texas was helpful. So that was, that was one piece of it. Then Coach Muschamp was kind of the next piece. And, you know, we felt like we wanted to get back to playing a style of defense that, that I was accustomed to, an aggressive, in your face, tighter coverage kind of approach to things. It doesn't hurt that Will Muschamp's been a head coach in this league at two different stops at Florida and South Carolina, and had previously been the defensive coordinator at Texas. He knew this place, he knew this league. We philosophically see eye to eye on so many things. And the last piece for me, why that was important. I felt like I needed to get back to spending more time with the offense, especially from a game planning perspective and in trusting that having a guy who's been a head coach in this league that could almost be the head coach of the defense, you know, during, during the week as we were game prepping, that I could get back to my focus and my energy with the offense. And so far, so good. It's been, it's been great when it comes to Coach Stoops. Hey, I learned this a while back with Coach Saban. You know, there's a lot of really good coaches that sometimes are out of work for a minute and when you can, when you can compile a little More knowledge, a little more intel, another. Another way of looking at things. The opportunity that we had to not only bring in Coach Stoops, but Billy Gonzalez from Florida, who was the interim head coach, is now with us as an assistant receiver. Coach Steve Casula from Michigan, he was calling plays against us in the Citrus bowl and then is on board with us. So we think that we've. We've assembled a really good staff, a highly competitive staff, a very bright staff, one that's got a wealth of experience, but are really good teachers and really good connectors with our players. I'll say that about all these guys. Coach Jaluk, Coach Muschamp, it's great having Coach Gideon back as well. Their ability to connect to our players is a little bit of the secret sauce. And that's something we're very fortunate to have all those guys on board with us. Us, front row, Michael Cobble, WBZ tv and Baton Rouge just kind of dovetail, dovetailing into that. You've been front and center to the evolution of Lane Kiffin. Right. Like, what do you think of this latest iteration? And I missed the beginning. I couldn't quit here. You've been front and center of the evolution of Lane Kiffin. Okay. You know, what do you think of this latest iteration with him in Baton Rouge now, and how have you seen maybe him grow? Well, I think Lane's a really good coach. You know, everywhere he's been, there's been success. Obviously the most recent success of what he's had at Ole Miss. He's always going to assemble a talented roster. He's always going to be creative, whether it's through schemes, through recruiting, whatever that looks like. He does not look at things traditionally. You know, he's always going to try to think outside the box to find a unique way to accomplish something. And so I expect him to continue to do that at lsu. Now he's got more resources, you know, now he's got more support and, you know, so I think that that's a. That's an opportunity for him to continue to grow on the path and the journey that he's on. A very proud Elaine. I know he's made a lot of change. Changes. Personally, I'm really proud of him and not. I think those personal changes have led to on field success. You know, I think there's a direct correlation to that. So I'm very happy for him. They're going the aisle then. Pass it back. Jerry Hamilton on Texas football, KJ Lacy got a lot of invaluable reps in the spring. How would you assess his spring and where is he at in his development in terms of you guys playing? Yeah, you know, KJ is a guy that, as we've gone through, gone through this with him and I felt this way in high school and as we've grown and gone, you know, I hate comparing guys because it's never fair, but he's got a lot of qualities. He reminds me a lot of Bryce Young, you know, and. And obviously a bit similar in stature. Both natural passers, both very instinctual, both are sneaky with their legs and can hurt you with their legs when they get there. And now it's the maturation process of understanding schematically and where do I. Where do I play when I play so well? Off schedule, but yet play on schedule so that, that I can play off schedule if, if, if that makes sense. And so I think he's kind of learning that as we go. I felt like there were some moments in spring where he was fantastic. There were moments in spring where there were learning moments. I felt like as we've been on the grass with the guys now for the past, you know, I think it's now five weeks or six weeks or so, whatever it's been this summer. I've seen the best version of KJ Lacy this summer, and that's encouraging to us that he took the stuff we wanted him to get better at from spring and apply it in the summer. And we've seen, seen that. I think he'd be a dangerous guy if he got in the game because of his off schedule stuff that he can do, but also his ability just to throw the ball and rhythm and in timing. He's a natural passer that way and he's thrown a ton of passes. In high school, they threw a ton of balls. And so it's very comfortable and natural for him to do that. Fourth row on the aisle. Hey, Steve hangs out on Texas football. Can you hear me? Yep. Gotcha. Sorry. Kaylin DeBoer talked about yesterday Bama making a jump in penalty yardage per game from 123 in the country to 17, from 24 to 25. Obviously y' all were a little bit lower than the country last year. What have y'. All. We were way lower, dude. 132. What have y' all emphasized in the spring and into the summer to. To correct that? And is there anything you focus on, whether live ball, pre snap or just what you guys do there? Yeah, you know, I think one thing that we've evolved too is the players that, and there's, I believe this. If you want to be a disciplined team on the field, you need to be a disciplined team off the field. Okay, it starts off the field and then it carries itself to on the field. And so we've restructured some things off the field discipline wise. And Coach Becton's very creative down there in the weight room with some of that discipline. But the one thing I think that we're doing that is resonating with the guys is the players taking accountability of that. And so when, when a player jumps off sides, for example, that whole position group kind of serving that punishment with him, because that's what happens in a game, right? It's not, you don't jump off sides. And that one player who jumped off sides move back five yards, everybody moves back five yards. It's first and 15. Now every, you know, that changes when you, when you, when you rough a quarterback, Everybody gets a 15 yard penalty. The entire team. It's not just the individual. This is the ultimate team sport. So I think shifting kind of the punishment, if you want to call it, to where everybody feels the effect of it, I think that's had a real impact on us. And again, hey, I think, I think you know, as again, discipline, there's, there's types of penalties that are bad penalties. Pre snap penalties are bad penalties, post play penalties are bad penalties. There are some penalties that as a coach you kind of need to live with a little bit. Like you can't expect to be a great run blocking team if you're not maybe playing through the echo of the whistle like so you've got it, you got to be able to live with some of that. But it's a unique stat because when you really look at the history of it all and when you look at wins and lose, wins and losses in game, the penalties is kind of far down actually on just a sheer metrics. But when you look at a team in totality at the end of the year, I surely don't want to be 132nd in the country in penalties like that doesn't sit well with me. And that was the first thing I addressed when we got back together as a team in January. So I'm probably a little bit more bullish on it, more of perception of who we are as a program because I do believe we're a discipline disciplined team. But we surely didn't play like it last year. And we've got to be better not. Because I think if there's a direct correlation to winning and losing, but that's the standard at the University of Texas. And so I think it'll help us win a few more games. Honestly, if we do it that way, I don't know if it's going to be directly tied to each game, but I think if we play with more discipline that way. But all that starts, like you said in the off season. I think we're doing that third row and then pass it back to the middle. Yeah. Steve Barry Trammel with Tulsa World. Pete Golding was in here yesterday and I talked about the coaches meeting with the CFP officials and how he was appalled when he heard that they don't really factor in home road results. They don't really respect. They don't care, seem to care where you played the game. Is that what you heard and what was your reaction? If so. Yeah, yeah. That it doesn't. They don't take into account where the game took place and, and the environment of that game of where you. Where you played. And so, for example, us playing at Georgia last year would have been the same as us playing Georgia at home, like the. How difficult it might be to go play at another place. And I get, I understand that, that that's arbitrary. You know, how tough is dkr, how tough is Death Valley or how tough is Neyland or how tough is Kyle Field? That's up for debate. Right. But some of that seems like it's a little bit of common sense. But again, it's not a factor, as we heard it, of metricing a strength of schedule in some fashion or form. Fourth row, Tyler Shaw with kbtx. At the end of the Lone Star Showdown last year, there was a video that played on the video board. It was kind of quote of Mike Elkos saying this is the, you know, flagship program of the state and kind of a troll job way. What were your thoughts? I was not happy about it. Rivalry moment. I was not happy about it. What, what have you seen from this rivalry so far? These a hell of a rivalry. I'm fortunate to be part of it. I'm humbled, I'm honored. The great players, the great teams, the great coaches who have been part of this game, I respect it and I respect the competition. In the last two years, those have been great games that have mattered. Two years ago, the winner of that game goes to the SEC championship. Last year we were fighting for what we felt like was our playoff lives. They were an undefeated team. So there were some great moments. But emotions run high in those games. You know, we had a Team that was trying to think about going to planting a flag two years ago, and I wouldn't let that happen. I respect the game of football and I respect college football, and I respect the football gods. And there's a way to go about our business, and then there's a way not. And so rivalries are great, but we got to be able to fight the emotions that come with the rivalry. And I think that's why we've had success in some of our rivalry games, whether it's A and M or OU or Arkansas. So I think we do a good job of managing our emotions. And so. But that's, that's a, that's a real challenge when you get into games like that. Right side, second row. Hey, Coach Rob Gregson, A to Z Sports. Given the way that the last two Ohio State games went and having them at home this year, is there an emphasis on getting a win in that game? Well, yeah. What else you want to know? I mean, of course. Right? I mean, they're, they're a really good team. Coach Day is a fantastic coach. He's always got talented rosters. You know, I think he, he continually finds ways to have a great staff around his players that they play at a high level. They, they, they've got belief. They're, you know, you, you get into games, and especially two years ago, I think the two years we've played them, they were really good on defense. And I think of those players that started against us in that semifinal game two years ago, I think 12 players, all 11 starters, plus Avery Reese, have been drafted off that defense into the interplay and in the NFL. So that should speak to the quality of defense that they've had. But they've had really good offensive players, too. Treveon Harrison's, Henderson's pretty good. You know, Quinshawn Junkins is pretty good. Jeremiah Smith's pretty good. And so there's a balancing act of the culture that they have and the belief they have the talent that they have and then the schemes that they run. And so you've got to get yourself ready to play in games like that. And you need to be at your best when your best is needed. And we've had moments in both those games when we could have seized opportunities that could have changed the complexion of the game, and we didn't do it. And to, to come out on top this year, we're going to have to seize those moments when they present themselves. Final question. I know that's what you're probably looking for. I was just giving you a hard time. Sorry about that. Second row. Last question. Yeah. Hey, Coach. Evan Cameco News 9, Oklahoma City. Parker Livingston going from Texas to Oklahoma. What's it going to be like to see him on the sidelines on the opposite side of the Red river game? I mean, I hope we kick his ass. I mean, it's the Red river rivalry, you know what I mean? He chose to go there. He's on the other side. So where the game goes, if you've ever been, it's a hell of a game. It's epic. You know, pulling into the Cotton bowl, the state fair, the corn dogs, the turkey legs, the, you know, split down the middle at the 50 yard line, both teams in the same tunnel. Like, at the end of the day, like it's competition. You know, after the game, I'm sure I'll give him a big hug before that. We're trying to beat his ass. That's the way it goes. Coach, thank you very much. Excellent. Thank you.