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Everything Steve Sarkisian said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook2 hours agojosephcook89
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Steve Sarkisian (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Here’s everything Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday.

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Opening statement: “This is a great opportunity for us and our team to really show the resolve this team has. This will be our fourth straight week of going on the road. One of those weeks we played in Dallas against Oklahoma, but this is a very challenging portion of our schedule. I think we’re learning a lot about one another. We learned a lot about our team, and this week’s going to be no different. Going to Starkville to play a very much improved Mississippi State team. (Jeff) Lebby has done a great job of building that program in year two. They’ve been in some very tight ballgames here in the SEC, including last week at Florida. We know we’ve got our work cut out for us in this week’s ballgame as well.”

Steve Sarkisian on Michael Taaffe: “He’s out. We don’t know how long. Obviously a significant loss. We’ve got Derek Williams, Xavier Filsaime, some nice guys to step in for him.”

Steve Sarkisian says in year two, Mississippi State is more comfortable in Lebby’s scheme with vertical threats like Brenen Thompson and Anthony Evans catching footballs from Blake Shapen while also running the football well as a team. Also mentions that on defense, MSU has evolved the style of defense it plays with a deep front and aggression.

Steve Sarkisian on approaching an October away from Austin: “I think the biggest thing is for us is to stay really well-connected as a team. I think we’ve done that. I credit the leaders on our team. I credit the assistant coaches. These guys have really grown together. You get on the road, in the airplanes and busses and hotels, and you’re on that sideline with 74 guys, you got to really stay connected. I’ve seen numerous stats of SEC teams playing back to back road games and how poor the records are. There’s a bunch of them this week that have back to back road games. I was thinking to myself that this is our fourth straight road game really. You find out about yourselves. Like I said, credit to the leaders on our team because this has been a tough journey. I’d be lying if I told you any different. This four game stretch started with a loss in Gainesville, and for these guys to bounce back against OU, to find a way to win last week at Kentucky, I thought was a real culture win for us. Now, to go to Starkville in a very tough place to play, I think you need everybody. You’ve got to lock arms. You’ve got to stay really well connected. And you’ve got to fight through. None of these are easy. You’ve just got to find a way to win by any means necessary.”

Steve Sarkisian on Xavier Filsaime: “High football IQ. Very athletic. Can cover. Can tackle. Kind of the prerequisites of being a good safety. I think he has all the attributes to do that. We’ve seen him be very successful in special teams as well. He played a pretty significant amount of football against Oklahoma, so we’ve seen him having to play at a high level. He’s got all the attributes and IQ to be a good football player for us.”

Steve Sarkisian says they played crowd noise with cowbells this week during practice.

Steve Sarkisian on coverage gameplans without Michael Taaffe: “You put together a gameplan, you go play it. It’s like every week. There’s variations to what we do defensively, there’s calls, there’s checks, then you get into the game and you’ve got to call the things necessary that try to give you the best chance to have success defensively. Sometimes that’s the original plan. Sometimes those are contingency plans you have to get to within a game. I think between (Pete Kwiatkowski) and (Johnny) Nansen and (Duane) Akina and (Mark) Orphey and those devising our coverage plans, that’s the gameplanning and that’s ultimately the in-game adjustments that get made. Then, conveying that to the players. Some of those things are going to be very similar to what we’ve done in the past and some things might be a little new this week. That’s probably no different than any other game.”

Steve Sarkisian on being away from home and therefore not being able to host recruits: “We stay connected to the guys we’re recruiting obviously via phone calls, FaceTimes, things of that nature. We do a lot of those calls sometimes when we get to the stadiums on the road and even sometimes after games to try to give them a sense and feel of being there with us. But you’ve got to be creative, and then you’ve got to try to maximize the opportunities that lie ahead. We have three home games here in the month of November. Not ideal, the first one is an 11 a.m. kick because those are the ones that are hard to get players here for. A lot of our guys have to drive in or fly in. To get here after playing Friday night at 11 a.m. can be difficult. But we’ve got to be creative. As I told the team, yeah it’s been four road games in a row and yeah it’s had its challenges. There’s challenges to our schedule. But it’s our schedule. We’ve got to embrace it, make the most of it, and squeeze out every opportunity we can out of it. There’s some unique opportunities for us. We just have got to make sure we maximize them on a recruiting front as well.”

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