Joey McGuire on Steve Sarkisian, "He really is one of the best play callers in the game."
For Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns there’s one Texas high school coaching legend down and one to go. On Saturday, Sark and the Horns knocked off former Gilmer head coach Jeff Traylor and his spirited UTSA Road Runners 41-20. This Saturday at 2:30 p.m. they’ll seek a similar outcome against former Cedar Hill head coach and current Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire.
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In his weekly press conference, McGuire mentioned not knowing the second year Texas coach well, “I don’t know Steve really really well, I’ve gotten to know him a little bit through Media Days and different things like that. Really good guy, he’s got a great reputation as a play caller.”
In the offseason McGuire was hired at Tech after a successful tenure as assistant coach at Baylor under Matt Rhule and then Dave Aranda. That means, while he may not know Sarkisian on a personal level, he does know him from a film review standpoint stemming from last season. Last year, on the strength of 14 fourth quarter points, the eventual Big 12 conference champion Baylor Bears defeated Texas 31-24.
This appears to be a different Texas team, however, with improved firepower in the hands of one of the game’s best play callers. Said McGuire, “Their strength is what he can do with his skill players and he has a lot of skill on that team. Really excited to play against him. He really is one of the best play callers in the game.”
McGuire further discussed the weapons at Sark’s disposal, “The two running backs [Roschon Johnson and Bijan Robinson] are special. They’re guys that really make that team go. They’re physical. You can tell as the game goes on they just get stronger with the carries that they get. So, something we have to do a really good job of is tackling this week and trying to minimize extra yards. Two really good receivers. I have a little bit of history with [Jordan] Whittington just from the standpoint I got a kid out of Cuero the same time he went to Texas so I spent some time recruiting there and recruiting him. Their young receiver [Xavier Worthy] he was All-American last year. Those guys are playmakers.”
Tasked with slowing down the Texas offense is veteran defensive coordinator and former Fresno State head coach Tim DeRuyter. McGuire did mention DeRuyter having more familiarity with Sark, “I know Coach DeRuyter has some history just being on that side of the nation and in the Pac 12 at different times. I know they have some history together, knows him, and he has some great things to say about him.”
This will have zero relevance to the game this weekend, but Sarkisian and DeRuyter did lock horns when Sark was at USC and DeRuyter was at Fresno State. The Trojans won that 2014 contest by a score of 52-13.
Sark will once again have the talent advantage, and of course the advantage he carries with him just about everywhere he goes as a tremendous play caller.
