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LIVE UPDATES: Steve Sarkisian recaps win at Mississippi State, looks ahead to Vanderbilt

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook9 hours agojosephcook89
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Steve Sarkisian (Petre Thomas-Imagn Images)

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will be available to the media at 11:30 a.m. on Monday to recap the Longhorns’ 45-38 overtime win over Mississippi State and look ahead to the matchup with No. 9 Vanderbilt this Saturday at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin.

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You can watch the press conference HERE.

Updates from Steve Sarkisian’s Monday press conference

Steve Sarkisian: “I thought in the passing game, we found a way to create some explosive plays.”

Steve Sarkisian on Arch Manning: “I thought he was a warrior. He stood in there and competed like he always does. There was a couple of protection breakdowns for sure in the game which we need to clean up, but there was a couple others where he knew he was going to get hit and he stood in the pocket and delivered an accurate ball.”

Steve Sarkisian: “It’s awesome to be back at DKR. 42 days ago on Saturday will be our last game at DKR.”

Sarkisian on the passing game: “We found a way to create some explosive plays. Ryan Wingo had some big plays there. Two tremendous touchdown catches by Parker Livingstone and Emmett Mosley.”

Sarkisian says Vanderbilt limits possessions, is an efficient offensive football team, and plays “collectively together” on defense. Also praises the Commodores’ FG kicker and returner.

Steve Sarkisian on Diego Pavia: “Obviously the QB is the tip of the spear. He’s one of the more competitive players I’ve competed against. He’s their leading rusher. He obviously passes the ball. He makes plays at critical moments when they need to have it. All the praise that he’s getting is well deserved.”

Steve Sarkisian: “Consistently, we aren’t quite in unison the way we need to be. There’s run timing that’s involved. There’s runners setting blocks. There’s linemen and tight ends understanding angles of where the runs are going, where they should hit. We need to spend more time on that. We need to be diligent. We need the run game. I thought the run game was relatively effective, but then the game went the way that it went and we had to kind of divert away from that.”

Sarkisian highlights work on special teams from Jordon Johnson-Rubell and Marshall Landwehr, also Lance Jackson, Matthew Caldwell, Jack Endries.

Sarkisian on Matthew Caldwell: “The good thing for Matt, he’s a very even-keeled guy. I thought he had a great practice today. The players have a lot of confidence in him. He’s very engaged even when he doesn’t play.”

More Sarkisian on Caldwell: “He’s played well every time that we’ve put him in the game… What gives me confidence is who he’s been, so I feel very comfortable with Matt whenever he’s in the ballgame.”

Steve Sarkisian says they “looked at a few (quarterbacks)” in the transfer portal: “It felt like the right fit with Matt.”

Sarkisian says they challenged the wideouts on Friday night about the way they needed to play. He mentions they played some old clips from Texas and prior stops to show the expectation and “why they were brought here.” — “They competed and they played fast, and we’re at our best when we play fast on the perimeter and when the quarterback trusts their play speed that they’re playing with.”

Sarkisian on playing at home this weekend: “It’s a two-way street. We can’t just go into this thinking we’re at home, we’ve got our fans, and everything’s going to be great. They’re an added bonus, we need to still play our brand and our style of football against a very good football team.”

Sarkisian on KJ Lacey: “Every time we’ve been in scrimmage settings… he really performs at a high level. He’s a gamer. He’s got a natural feel for passing the ball. He has a natural feel in the pocket and anticipating throws. He uses his legs really well. I feel like the more this guy grows within our system, he’s going to really elevate his game and he continues to grow and that’s what he’s done.” — “The ball moves forward when he plays.”

Steve Sarkisian on successful roster construction truisms that haven’t changed in the new era, mentions there’s a lot of ways to skin a cat: “I just still believe in developing players in your program. I still believe in recruiting high level high school kids, and we can here at the University of Texas.” — “Then you lead into your developmental process, whether it’s in the weight room, the football field, the classroom, the 4Ever Texas program.” — “On the flip side, there’s opportunities in the portal you can tap into.” — “But there are schools that live (in the portal). I’m just not in the mindset of living there. We do portal recruit, I just think it’s really hard to recreate our culture every year when you bring in 30 new faces from schools who have learned a certain way. I can bring in 5-10 every year and I can get them assimilated to our culture because it’s so strong, but the moment you start going higher than that, whose culture is it? Is it ours? I think about guys like Cole Brevard, Hero Kanu, Emmett Mosley, who now they are making our culture even better because they’ve bought into it.”

Steve Sarkisian on Michael Taaffe’s sideline impact at Mississippi State: “His leadership is tremendous. Michael was almost back to where he was day one when he first got here when he was the walk-on that wasn’t going to paly. He didn’t change. He believed. He was confident. He knew the defense. He was always a guy that picked other people up, so he just went right back into being Michael Taaffe.” — “He could probably be a great coach someday, I hope he goes and does something way bigger than being a coach. He deserves more than that, than doing what the heck I’m doing right now, that’s for sure.”

Sarkisian said AJ Milwee was in the box on Saturday. He started his Texas tenure in the box but moved down as part of an idea that it would help Quinn Ewers. Sarkisian said they switched Mike Bimonte to the field and Milwee up top Saturday. “We’ve been together so long that it felt like some of the information from him was going to be helpful from me real time and allow me to watch and allow him to watch the game as opposed to being on the sidelines with the same view that I had. On the flip side of that, I thought Mike could provide a little more energy and juice. He’s got great rapport with all of our players. Not only Arch, but all those guys on offense. I thought it was a win-win.”

Steve Sarkisian on Ryan Niblett: “It’s easy to say don’t punt it to them, but you risk the challenge of ‘okay, we’re going to punt it out of bounds.’ Are you going to be okay with a 20-yard punt if he doesn’t hit it perfect? I think there are people trying to directional punt. We’re trying to be creative in how we’re rushing punters and how we’re blocking people and doing different things. A credit to coach Banks with that.”

Steve Sarkisian says they turned in a few plays to the SEC to get a better understanding of how officials are calling certain plays: “That’s not uncommon.” With reference to the hit on Arch Manning that knocked him out of the contest, he said he hasn’t heard back from the league office yet.

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