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EVERYTHING You NEED to Know from Steve Sarkisian's SEC Media Days Press Conference!
00:23:20
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke to the media on Thursday at the 2026 SEC Media Days and we're live with EVERYTHING you need to know!
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- [00:01]
Narrator
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- [01:51]
Bobby Burton
All right, we're live here at SEC Media Days, Day 4 I'm Bobby Burton joined by Jeff Howe. We have sat in on all of the media sessions for Texas players as well as Texas coach Steve Sarkeesian. Three different viewing periods for Steve Sarkeesian, but he dropped the bomb. In the middle of the main media session on SEC Network. He announces that John Meredith, one of the nation's top player overall players in the Class of 2027, has reclassified into the Class of 2026. John Meredith will be on campus and a Texas Longhorn in August of this year and be available immediately to play this season. Now will he actually play much or is this just him accelerating a year? I will say this. There's another player on this roster that accelerated a year and that's Richard Wesley and they've had nothing but great things to say about him. Today Jerry Hamilton talked to Colin Simmons about Richard Wesley. He said a nice thing, but let's start and let's talk a little bit more about Steve Sarkeesian and his overall thoughts. Your main takeaway here on this live chat we're doing here at here in Tampa at SEC Media desk.
- [03:04]
Jeff Howe
I may be reading way too much into this Bobby and bad chances. I've done it before. I'll probably do it again. I just feel like Stark likes this team. I think he's confident in this team. You know, he, he's also at the point too where, you know, he's far enough in his tenure to where I don't know if he's guarded as much when he's speaking publicly in some of these things as he was he did drop some expletives when referring to playing Parker Livingston when Texas plays Oklahoma made it very clear he was not happy about about Mike Elko video that played on the Jumbotron after Texas beat Texas A and M. But I thought it was interesting you we talked about it a lot here on the channel is the penalty issue, I think that was. And Hank south actually asked Sark about penalties and I thought it was interesting. Bobby, we've heard Sark talk about they needed to get fixed, but we haven't heard how. And now to hear him say that, you know, Tory Beckon's taken apart in some of the punishment for things done wrong. And you know, when a player is penalized in the practice, the whole position group gets punished. So Sark feels like just reinforcing it that way and making it like a group punishment instead of an individual punishment. He does feel like that's worked anything to make Texas not triple digits in penalty yardage or penalties this year. I'm all for it. So that that is one thing that the ground this team can make up, especially in the close games where the margins are so small. If you're just a little more buttoned up, that's going to that could make the difference between you being 9 and 3 and on the outside looking in and 11 and 1 and being in the Cat Birds here.
- [04:35]
Bobby Burton
Let me add this to it. He owned it too. He's like I have no interest in being 132nd penalties. He goes, that's ridiculous.
- [04:43]
Jeff Howe
Good, because none of us do either.
- [04:45]
Bobby Burton
Yeah, but. But to his point, he's like, look, that doesn't in the list of things that correlate to winning.
- [04:50]
Jeff Howe
Yeah.
- [04:51]
Bobby Burton
Penalties don't necessarily correlate that heavily to wintering winning or losing. Other things do like ball time of possession or even turnovers in particular. Right. But what he did say is I don't want that to be indicative of
- [05:05]
Jeff Howe
what our program is about.
- [05:07]
Bobby Burton
We want to be more disciplined. He said it starts off the field and continues on the field in his opinion. And maybe he had a young team last year.
- [05:16]
Jeff Howe
To your point.
- [05:16]
Bobby Burton
I like the point that he made is he made penalties a team penalty during workouts this year as opposed to just one player doing 10 bish 10 push ups all of them were doing 10 push ups. So perhaps that carries forward. We see a little bit better execution. Let's talk about his talent too though. That was another. Yeah, we're on. Okay.
- [05:38]
Jeff Howe
Yeah. The offense turned the ball over way too much in there. I am office turned the ball over way too much in 2024. They made it a point to, to make sure ball security wasn't an issue. And you know, they were one of the best ball security teams in the country last year. Fumbles weren't a problem. Arch didn't throw it to the other team. So I'm hoping penalties run game. Some of that other stuff that we talked about, the physicality element of it. I hope some of that stuff gets corrected after he's emphasizing and where I was going with that was you if you're emphasizing physicality. Hiring Bar Luke and hiring Will must champ. I think those two hires, given that those guys have a ton of experience and he has their tough minded coaches, that mentality coming from the top down bleeding through to the players, that could take care of some of those issues too.
- [06:23]
Bobby Burton
Look, we're going to see a lot of different things come out of this. The comment he made, I want to turn next about Parker Livingston. He was asked about what are you going to do now that Parker Livingston guy that played for you is on the other side in the red rivalry? He said, I want to kick his ass.
- [06:42]
Jeff Howe
Yeah.
- [06:43]
Bobby Burton
Now he was, it was theoretical or metaphor, however you want to put that. But Sark didn't pull any punches. He said, look, I appreciate the idea of the, of this rivalry in college football, but make no mistake, as much as he likes or dislikes, I guess the fact that Parker middle, uh, Livingston transferred, he keeps the, the eye on the ball as far as it relates to the Texas OU rivalry.
- [07:13]
Jeff Howe
He did also. And, and Sark at the end, at the end of his spiel said after the game I'll probably give him a big hug but before then I want to beat his ass. And you know, I've been thinking about this in relation to the OU game and the A M game. Again, one thing you can say about SAR from the positive, he's coached really well in these rivalry games. The A and M game last year, for all the, all the faults of the offense, trust me, the offense had plenty of faults last year. I felt like his adjustments and the play calling flow in the second half of the A and M game might have been the best it was all year. I thought he did a really good job making adjustments. Second half of that game. He's been really good going head to head against Brent Venables in the OU game. And I think it's just, it's kind of, I'm not going to say it's, it's real similar, Bobby, to the way not, not, not an Apples Apples comparison. But thinking back the way Bob Stoops used to approach the Texas game where from the Texas side it would be, it's just another game, blah blah blah. Bob Stoops was up front. This is not just another game. This is, this is a life or death situation for us. And sorry's not saying it that way, but you can tell when he speaks about the rivalries there's a reason typically why in those games Texas has shown
- [08:23]
Bobby Burton
all right, let's talk a little bit now, Jeff, before we take some questions here on this live stream. We're not going to have a Thursday night live stream by the way. I want to mention that because we're going to all be traveling back to Austin and parts in between. But Jeff, I want to move on to the players that you saw and got an availability. Texas brought Arch Manning, Colin Simmons as well as Trevor Goosby. Major takeaways for you.
- [08:49]
Jeff Howe
For me, I like, you know, Trevor. Trevor Goosby. I thought he had one of the most honest answers when talking about the run game because I asked him from an O line standpoint, personally for you, where did you guys feel like you needed to correct some things? The run game, he said, honestly, he said we weren't physical enough is that I wasn't physical enough. So for, for your, your leader at left tackle, your potential first round pick to be the guy that said hey, we weren't physical enough, I wasn't physical enough, that's got to change. I liked hearing that from him. Kyla Simmons, is he anytime he talks about Will Muschamp like you, you see the smile over his face like he is elated to be playing for Will much Champ. Actually when he was leaving the electronic media room, we were joking a little bit because he was talking about the NCAA video game, College Football 27. He said he was playing against Cam Coleman. Cam Coleman's playing as Texas and picks Colin Simmons as the guy he's controlling, drops him into coverage and gets pick six. And Colin says I didn't know my guy in the video game was fast enough so that's good. And then you know, we're joking with Colin afterwards and somebo asks him, hey, you gonna ask Mus champ to drop you in the coverage more? And Colin just kind no no. So we want that guy attacking line scrimmage as well. Mus champ said, bobby, you don't train a thorough bread to run backwards. You want your guys attacking. So Colin Simmons, he does feel like there's another level he can get to under Will Muschamp. And considering how good he's been for the first two years. If you're talking about getting into another level now, you're talking about first team, all American type stuff, national awards, top of the first round type stuff. If he gets to that level and he feels like, well, Muschamp's the guy
- [10:25]
Bobby Burton
to help him get there, we talk about all that. Archbanning is the apple of everyone's eye. Whenever he walked around, I literally went to the elevator banks today and there were four girls between 18 and 22 and they go, is Arch Veening here? They, I mean, they literally asked me. I'm like, yeah, he's down the hall. And of course they scurried that way. I kind of chuckled because there's like security guards here.
- [10:50]
Jeff Howe
Way to go, Bobby. Way to go. Having people chasing QB1 around the hotel.
- [10:54]
Bobby Burton
But my, my point being is he's in many ways that, that is akin to what's happening to him on media row. From the minute they arrive this afternoon, he has been followed, covered all of the things you could possibly think about, appearing on shows nationwide, etc. That being said, it seems like it's less than a year ago actually. Maybe it was the newness of Arch last year and then him going through some trials and tribulations and people actually realizing that he's human and doesn't wear a cape every day as Superman. I think it felt a little more. While it was engrossing, I don't think it was as much hysteria as we saw last year. Perhaps also because this is the last day and the media row is starting to thin out right now too.
- [11:49]
Jeff Howe
It's the only, the only guys I've been able to compare Arch to, and I'm not talking about in terms of like the athletic profile or, or anything like that, but in terms of the hype and the attention, the only guys I can compare it to that I've seen are LeBron James and Bryce Harper. May maybe you throw Tiger in there, but everything you do is going to be scrutinized and it's under the microscope and you're constantly in that spotlight. And I thought Arch, to his credit, one of the best answers he gave today was he was asking what's the difference between where you were a year ago going into the Ohio State game and where you are now going into year two. And he said, I think I'm more present. He said that was his goal in the off season. Be, stay present, be in the moment, take it day by day. And I know that sounds cliche, but for him, it's impossible to grasp, Bobby, everything he's dealing with in terms of the external expectations and the noise, you got to try to simplify that as much as possible. So for him to be in a position where he feels like at least he's doing a better job of staying present, I think that shows growth and maturity on his part.
- [12:55]
Bobby Burton
Okay. All right, we're going to take some questions now here on this live stream as we normally do. David Van Derven with the Super Chat. Sark said he was not happy. Can you provide context? I. We sure could. We sure can, David. It was in relation to a video that played after Texas beat Texas A and M last year in Austin. On the scoreboard after the game, they played a video of Mike Elko saying that Texas A M was the flagship university of the state of Texas. And Sark thought that was in poor taste, apparently, and said said as much. That's the context of why Sark said he was unhappy about that. He just didn't feel like it was becoming of Texas to play that video at that time.
- [13:47]
Jeff Howe
Yeah, I think the other part of that, too, the question was asked to him, the way it was phrased, it was. It was asked about the troll job on my account. I think Sark took exception to that. But, you know, to. Again, to that point, he did say he had a team in College Station two years ago that was trying to plant a flag in the middle of the field. And he said, he said, we're not going to do that. That's not going to happen. And he shot that down. So, yeah, you know, that's. That's. But I think, too, the way the question was phrased, too, it just, it got Sarge higher up a little bit.
- [14:19]
Bobby Burton
All right, this one from Mellow. If John Meredith is a key factor on your defense, then that's a terrible sign, in my opinion.
- [14:27]
Jeff Howe
Have we said he's going to be a key factor?
- [14:29]
Bobby Burton
No, we haven't. And I think that's. That's what. Where we need to take this with, put it in the context it needs. John Meredith Reclassifying to 2026. First of all, from a recruiting perspective, he was not going to be allowed to play in the state of Texas in 2026.
- [14:47]
Jeff Howe
Well, he.
- [14:48]
Bobby Burton
He could.
- [14:48]
Jeff Howe
He Would have had to have gone back to, I think back to Trinity. I think the option was there. Maybe, maybe Burleson Centennial I think was an option for him, but he could not play at north crowd.
- [14:58]
Bobby Burton
But my point is he had then started looking at schools in South Florida. Yeah, if you're Texas and recruiting a player, you would rather him be on your campus than on down in South Florida where Miami and Mario Cristobal can sit there and try to get you onto their campus during a game. So nobody is saying John Meredith's gonna get on the field game one. That they will say, however, that I think it's a big piece, a big sign of Texas being able to lasso one of the best players in the class of 2027 and moving him in to class of 2026.
- [15:34]
Jeff Howe
Now, I'll say this, you know, is he gonna take Bo Masco's job or Kate Phillips job or Grayson Littleton's job? Probably not. Can he come in and compete with Smoke Matthews and, and Warren Roberson and maybe Wardell Mac for some of those snaps? The. What it, what would it be, Bobby? Probably eight to 12 snaps per game. Could he compete with those guys for it? Maybe. But like you said, at the very least, this is, this might be. And I've got my own thoughts on guys reclassifying. This might be the lesser of all evils at this point is, hey, basically just with five for five now, you don't, you know, you can play a little bit, not worry about the four game thing. So basically treat this as kind of a red shirt year, developmental year where he can get his feet wet. And then, you know, if you have a situation where, hey, maybe Bo Masco goes pro and maybe you have some defections to the Portal or whatever, now you've got John Meredith and you've got a. With a fall underneath him and he's primed for a bigger role when you get the next spring.
- [16:32]
Bobby Burton
All right, trying to wrap this up and put a bow on it. Texas is talented. Sark agrees with us with, with. He's telling us they are. Yeah, Sark wants to execute better. One of the other things that I thought he spoke about that I asked him personally in the, in the local media session and then he was asked in the major media session, how does he get, how does he get his offense off to a better start earlier in the season? And his response was, you know, we gotta, gotta dance with the one who brung you a little bit. He said, we gotta execute the plays that we can execute. And he Also says I've got to get them ready to go. And that means that second game of the season against Ohio State and Columbus, not to mention Texas State in the open, it's.
- [17:23]
Jeff Howe
There's a. There's a couple things there, I think. One, the last two years, the offense hasn't had an identity. Even 24, when they were one of the most explosive offense in the country, they didn't have an identity. Where are you going to hang your hat on? I think the other part of starting, starting faster is hopefully with a year together with Arch as a starter and start calling plays, it shouldn't take you a few games to figure out what gets Arch in a rhythm, what gets him comfortable, what can get him off to a good start. So that's going to change your opening script, it's going to change your call sheet. So hopefully you've streamlined that a little bit. And Bobby, going back to where we started, if this, if Texas isn't in the College Football Playoff, it's not going to be because they lack talent or they're talent deficient. It's going to be because they were undisciplined. And your point about execution, it's because they didn't improve playing, playing situational football. Third down, red zone, two minute in a half. That's where this team needs to be.
- [18:13]
Bobby Burton
More button boy. Good way to put that. This coming in from Justin Yarbrough. Great job this week, fellas. Thanks, Justin, for the super chat. Sark's tough to beat on the mic. He is indeed. And owns up to problems without hesitation. Proud of him being our head coach. Does he own up to problems about as well as any Texas coach has? I mean, in the. Maybe Charlie Strong owned up to him as well. Mac didn't. I like Mac.
- [18:40]
Jeff Howe
I love Charlie personally. Charlie sometimes owned up the problems to a fault where, okay, maybe, maybe you shouldn't have gone that far in telling us what the problem was. But yeah, I mean, Sark does a pretty good job.
- [18:54]
Bobby Burton
Yeah, he does. Yeah.
- [18:56]
Jeff Howe
Overall, I think this Bobby, no, no coach, no head coach is going to be a hundred percent transparent. That's somewhere on the sliding scale. I think Stark's fairly high on the sliding scale for me, especially compared to some other guys that have been in that job.
- [19:12]
Bobby Burton
One last thing I want to mention before we let folks go here is this Sark immediately, when he went to the podium, said, look, these three guys we brought here are all high school recruits. We've, they've developed within our culture. We're proud of them. We're happy they're here. Is that, you know, I almost asked him a question. Is that part of your recruiting pitch? Like, look, come develop with us and you'll end up in places like SEC media days in Tampa with potential first round grades on all three of those guys.
- [19:45]
Jeff Howe
Well, look at the positions those guys play. That's where you need to evaluate, recruit and develop at a high level. Quarterback, edge, rusher, left tackle. Because we talked about it a lot, going into the portal to get those pieces is really expensive. And the fact that you didn't have to do it, that let you go get. Maybe if you had to go get, you know, Bobby a left tackle, maybe you couldn't have gotten Hollywood smothers and really Brown. But now you're able to get both of them because you've got some structure there. With Trevor Goosby, you're able to put some pieces around Colin Simmons because you're structured there. Your point about. And those positions specifically, I thought kind of put a pin in this. I thought Jerry actually asked one of the best questions Sark got today about KJ Lacy's development. Because every year Sark has been here, there's been a point where you needed to use the backup quarterback. Now, Arc started every game last year. Do you win that game against Mississippi State? If it's anybody but Matthew Caldwell doing what he did in overtime. So law that. Knock on wood. I hope Arch is healthy all year and plays every game. But history tells you you're going to need the backup quarterback. So continuing to develop that position is huge. So we'll, we'll have at some point, hopefully I think on video, we'll have start to answer Jerry's question about K.J. lacy. Just put a pin in that in case, you know, October, November, we're coming back to.
- [21:07]
Bobby Burton
We may, we may be re listening to it is what you're saying.
- [21:09]
Jeff Howe
Yeah.
- [21:10]
Bobby Burton
I hate this one from Sailor Joe. Sark on A M Troll.
- [21:13]
Jeff Howe
I'm upset.
- [21:14]
Bobby Burton
I have respect. Sark on Livingston, belt to ass. That's. That is kind of true. But I think that I will say again, context matters. It really does. He was being a little cheeky. I think with Parker, Livingston and OU as a whole knowing that, look, they have to go play that game with, with our friends over in College Station. I think it felt more like, more like, hey, I didn't like the troll job. It felt more. He didn't want to be complicit in that. Whereas he feels like Parker made his own, made his own bed. And by choosing to go to ou.
- [21:58]
Jeff Howe
I think it's, I think to an extent it's got something to do with control. You know, when you've got a player on your roster that you're talking numbers with, you can control that as much as a coach can control it. In college football today, if somebody in the, in the booth goes rogue and plays a video while you're down on the sideline dealing with stuff, you don't have control over that. So that's probably. And again, I think the way the A M question was phrased to start again, that pro that did that didn't help the response.
- [22:27]
Bobby Burton
And it was a local college station reporter that asked that question. To be. To be fair. All right, that's gonna do it for today's episode of On Texas Football's live stream. Following up on Steve Sarkees. You want to say thank you to our sponsor. You guys know we're always looking for ways to watch games and make it a little more fun. That's exactly why we love Prize Picks. It's America's number one sports pick app and honestly, it's about as simple as it gets for player picks. All you do is go choose more or less on a few players stats and lock in your lineup. That's it. And if you're someone who likes picking teams instead of individual players, Prize Picks has you covered there too. You can now pick the winner, the spread or the total on games and even fights. Prize Picks is available in most states including Texas, California and Florida. So chances are you can jump in today. And one of my favorite features that you can follow users on the app, if you like the pitch they're making, you can talk tail them with one click. Now here's the best part. If you've never tried Prize picks, play your first five dollar lineup and if you win, you'll get 150 in bonus lineups. Just make sure you use code HMA when you sign up. They actually just updated the offer, so there's never been a better time to get started. Download the Prize Pick app today. Use code HMA, play that first five dollar lineup and if you win, you'll get 150 in bonus lineups. That's prize picks, code HMA.
- [23:45]
Jeff Howe
Good up, good luck.
- [23:46]
Bobby Burton
And as always, play smart. Play responsibly. Play Prize Picks. Jeff, final thoughts from Tampa. Before we close up,
- [23:56]
Jeff Howe
I'll be honest, my final thought. I'm. I'm kind of ready to get back to Austin.
- [24:01]
Bobby Burton
Same. Same. Ready to see the significant other.
- [24:04]
Jeff Howe
I'm. I'm ready. Talking season's over. I'm ready. Ready for camp to get here. Let's, let's talk about stuff actually happening on the foot.
- [24:11]
Bobby Burton
I talked to Sark a little bit about that in that local media deal. August 4th, August 5th. So we're about two weeks away from today. Them getting the chin straps buckled up again, shoulder pads on. I'm ready for it, man. I'm ready for it. All right. That's going to do it from here in Tampa, I'm Bobby Burton. He's Jeff Howe. Thanks especially to our producer, Matt Hutchison, carrying us through technical difficulties as always. You guys have a good week. Take care. Now. Hook the horns. We'll have a lot more video content and written content on texas football.com Coming soon.