Steve Sarkisian calls Rice a perfect fit for JT Daniels
Rice isn’t going to be your usual smaller opponent that’s going to roll into Austin to play Texas on Saturday. That’s because the Owls made quite the quarterback pickup this offseason in JT Daniels.
Ahead of what will be Daniels’ third start against the Longhorns inside DKR this weekend, Steve Sarkisian spoke highly of him during his press conference on Thursday. He pointed out how much of a great fit that he thinks Daniels is going to be for them considering what he can do at the quarterback position.
“They have a veteran quarterback who, quite frankly? I think this is a perfect fit for JT,” Sarkisian said. “Knowing how they want to run plays at Rice and all of the audibling and things that they do at the line of scrimmage trying to get into the best play? I think JT is a great fit for them.”
“He can make all the throws. And then their style with the run game, the play-action pass, I think, really fits him,” said Sarkisian.
Daniels is a former five-star from California in the 2018 recruiting class. Per On3’s Industry Ranking, he was a Top-15 prospect overall, the No. 3 QB recruit, and the top player out of the state. He has since become a well-known face on the transfer scene as he started at USC and then made stops at Georgia and West Virginia before finally landing at Rice.
As he enters his sixth overall season of collegiate football, Daniels has just under 7,000 passing yards to his name. He pairs that with 45 touchdowns, 25 interceptions, and a 62.9% completion rate from his time in Los Angeles, Athens, and Morgantown.
Again, Daniels isn’t the typical quarterback that you see for a team that’s currently a 35-point underdog to Texas. That’s why, considering how well he sees the sit between him and his new program, Sarkisian wants his defense prepared and ready for anything in the team’s opener this weekend.
“I think it’s a good marriage for JT and it’s a great get for Coach Bloomgren and Rice,” said Sarkisian. “It creates a lot of challenges that way. They’re not going to run a lot of bad plays schematically on Saturday. We’re going to need to be sound.”
Sarkisian reveals how Texas will handle their quarterback rotation during season-opener
Many are calling Texas’s quarterback room the best in the nation. On Saturday when the team opens up the season against Rice, fans may get to see all of the Longhorns’ quarterbacks on display.
Saturday is going to be a hot one at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin. As a result, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian revealed that a lot of the Longhorns’ two-deep will play in the team’s opener.
“At a lot of the positions, we’re going to roll a pretty fair amount of our two-deep. We have to from a weather standpoint. It’s going to be in triple digits Saturday,” Sarkisian said according to On3’s Joe Cook.
Sarkisian had previously said that the Longhorns’ backup quarterbacks will play only “if the opportunity presents itself” during the game.
He also answered a question about whether either Manning or Murphy had separated themselves as the No. 2 quarterback. He kept his answer brief and forecasted that Saturday’s game could play an impact on their standing behind Ewers.
“We’ll find out,” Sarkisian said.