Everything Steve Sarkisian said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference

Steve Sarkisian began Wednesday’s often light press conference with a bang, addressing and denying rumors around him leaving the University of Texas and looking towards the NFL. The full transcript can be found on Inside Texas.

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But Sarkisian also addressed a number of other topics, from the College Football Playoff to the Arkansas game this weekend:

Here’s everything Steve Sarkisian said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday afternoon.

On the SEC in the CFP Rankings: Well, I think the one thing about the SEC is how challenging it is from week to week, and it’s not a once every three weeks, you got to get up for a game. You have to get up for every game in our conference, week in and week out. And if you don’t, you’re going to be in for a dog fight. And it’s going to be very challenging. It’s going to be very challenging because of, A, the quality of coaching, B, the quality of players. Like, just to put this into perspective, in the National Football League, right now, today, there are 451 active players from the Southeastern Conference. The next closest conference with players in the NFL is the Big 10 with 288, then the ACC with 218, and then the Big 12 with 207, so that should just speak to the to the volume of quality players that are in this league. Granted, there’s great teams, there’s great coaches, and so it’s not about the one time game getting up for the one time game. It’s the grind of eight straight weeks of playing our schedule and playing in some of the environments that we play in, and now next year, going to nine conference games. And so hopefully the committee can look at that and say, Hey, what is the gravity that it takes its toll on your team of playing in these types of games, week in and week out, against the quality of player and against the quality of coaching. But we’ll see, you know, we’ll see how this all shakes out, what it all looks like. What I do know is, you know, on our end, by the end of the regular season, we’ll play five top 10 ranked teams out of our 12 regular season games on our schedule. And four those teams are in the Southeastern Conference.

The difference between Ohio State and Georgia: Both really good teams, both really good coaches. Great environments, I have to say. Playing at Ohio State, playing at Georgia, both great environments.

Facing a Bobby Petrino offense again: I think Coach Petrino, obviously, he’s been doing it a long time, and he’s been doing it at a high level at various places. I think at the end of the day, you know what they’re able to do that makes them so difficult is they’ve got all the pro style offense that you want, the pass game, the run game, the play action game, the multiple personnels. You add it with the designed quarterback runs, which is a real problem, and then the ad libbing of the quarterback when the play breaks down. Coach Petrino is going to exploit your weaknesses when he can find them, and if he can find them, he’s going to attack you that way, and he’s going to have layers to those plays in which he attacks you with, and so like I said, he’s great coach, been doing it a long time, and we got to work it out for us.

On how to address rumors with his players: I think it varies. I think because in this day and age, you know, unfortunately, people weaponize coaching rumors to their benefit, whether it’s in recruiting, whether it’s in the transfer portal, or whether it’s trying to get players tampering with our players that are on our current roster. And so trying to weaponize somebody’s future and the future of a university to benefit yourself to some degree seems unethical, but it is what it is. And so there’s a time and place when I try to address it, and hopefully that’s the only time that I have to, because I don’t want to be a distraction. It should be about our players. It should be about the season and the journey that they’re on. But I also want to give them peace of mind, and give their parents peace of mind of who their coaches and who their coach is going to be in the future.

On teaching the history of the old Southwest Conference to his players: Well, it’s huge, you know, when you think about what this game meant for decades. Going back to Coach Royal and Coach Broyles and some of those great teams and great games that they played, one versus two for a national championship and so on and so forth. And so I think that that’s very important. I think history lessons are really good for our players and for our youth in general. We live so much in the now, right now, and what’s next that sometimes we need to take a step back and look at how did we get here, and how did the university get here. Part of how the University of Texas gets here is because of the rivalry with Arkansas and some of those great players and coaches and teams, and so we definitely take the time to honor and recognize what this game has met for so many decades in the past.

The challenges of ending the year with two rivalry games against SEC teams: I do think it’s a great challenge. And not only two SEC games at the end of the year, but two rivalry games. So much talk was made when conference realignment started and teams moving from one conference to the next, and people losing rivalries, long-standing rivalries. You know the reality of us, we gain two back. You know that the rivalry with Arkansas has been historic. Obviously, the rivalry with A&M has been historic, and we get to play OU in the middle of the season. So we’ve got three great rivals that we get to play. It’s one of the beauties now of being in the SEC.