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Steve Sarkisian on Arch Manning’s Growth, Chasing Georgia & Culture | Texas Football
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Steve Sarkisian on Arch Manning’s Growth, Chasing Georgia & Culture | Texas Football Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going for it? This exclusive place that dad has connections with. They have more cars for more dealerships than like anywhere else. You have to put me in touch. What's it called? It's Dune Dial. Where? Dune Dial. There's an accent on the E. Do you mean. Yes. I got it undone. Dale. Cars. Lift, please. You going past Kimage? Oh, Kimmage. No. Done deal cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else. Good afternoon, y'. All. Like they say, they saved the best for last. Right now, y' all are ready to go home, so I'll make it brief. No, I'm just kidding. First of all, just some thank yous before we get going here. First of all, I'd like to thank Commissioner Sankey. I know his job is not easy, and I know in midst of college football today and college athletics, there's. There's a lot of change and there's a lot that goes into his job. 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 Del Coni. 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 Crystal 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 where 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's 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 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 different places 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 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. All right. We signed a heck of a high school class, which I think we're. 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've 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. 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. The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going for it? This exclusive place that dad has connections with. They have more cars for more dealerships than like anywhere else. You have to put me in touch. What's it called? It's dune dial. Where? Dune dial. There's an accent on the E. Do you mean. Yes, I got it on Dundeele cars. Lift, please. You going past Kimage? Oh, Kimmage. No. Done deal, cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else. 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. 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's. 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. He's a great player for us at DB that we couldn't be more excited to have on board with us. So with that, open 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. 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 Moseley 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 a much notoriety as the one on the front. How, how did the growing pains of last season, how would that benefit him this year? Yeah, you know, 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 and 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. 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 and 28 and 20? Yeah, no, I think that that's, that's always a, it's always a tough topic because I'm, you know, I try to move on, right. 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 10 and 2 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 times. 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 lot of lot of sayings and quotes 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. The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going for it? This exclusive place that dad has connections with. They've more cars for more dealerships than like anywhere else, you have to put me in touch. What's it called? It's Dune Dial. Where? Dune Dial. There's an accent on the E. Do you mean. Yes. I got it undone. Deal cars. Lift, please. You going past Kimage? Oh, Kimmage. No. Done. Deal cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else 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 is 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 no cars to one another because we have to become a connected football team like that. 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 on the 48, scavenger hunt on the 40 acres. And it comes down to Arch and Collins team sweating, competing in the 50 yard line of DKR. Like, 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 out 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, Tayanthony 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'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 Brian Spiro, 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 this year. Well, you know, I, 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 must 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 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 righty, y'. All. The car is beautiful. Where did you end up going for it? This exclusive place that dad has connections with. They have more cars for more dealerships than like anywhere else. You have to put me in touch. What's it called? It's Dune dial. Where? Dune Dial. There's an accent on the E. Do you mean. Yes. I got it undone. Deal cars. Lift, please. You going past Kimage? Oh, Kimmage. No, done. Deal cars. You couldn't possibly go anywhere else. Thank you. Create something more with Kash and carry kitchens and get a free Kukker instant boiling water tap worth over €1,500 with your kitchen. From preparing dinner to making quick cups of tea, a cooker tap will elevate your Kitchen. 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