LIVE UPDATES: Steve Sarkisian set to speak to the media to preview Ohio State (+ Humann announcement)

Sark says he’s been impressed with Connor Stroh, Connor Robertson, Jaydon Chatman and says they are players who he feels “very comfortable” with.

Sarkisian: “I think the personality of this team is a unique one. These guys are very fun. I know you’re going to think, ‘oh it’s a fun team?’ They’re fun in a way that they do a lot of things with a lot of confidence. They do it with a real sense of vigor, they’re hungry. They’re tough but yet they can have fun doing it along the way. I enjoy that because that’s a little bit of my personality. I’m very intense in the moment, but I do like to have a good time. We work too hard not to enjoy what we get to do, and these guys give me that sense and that feeling so I do enjoy that.”

Steve Sarkisian says Emmett Mosley V has been “limited.” — “I think we all would want him to be be able to have been going the whole time with us right now. He’s a very good football player, a guy who had an immense amount of production in only nine games at Stanford a year ago. I think that for him, the growth is going to be as the season continues.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I think we’ll find out more after this game about who we are. It’s a little bit of coachspeak, but I think it’s true. This one game is not going to define our season, but we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves. Naturally, we want to win.”

Sarkisian: “I think it’s development. These guys come in and we can’t get them ready to do everything, so you’re just trying to put them in position to do some of the things that they do well. Ryan was a great example of that a year ago. We ran reverses and shots down field with him. All the while, we’re trying to develop his game to be a more complete player. To his credit, like Anthony (Hill) the most important thing in Ryan Wingo’s life is being a great football player. He pours into it every single day, and the result is he’s become a better player. I think that now it’s our job to try to put him in more positions to have some success.”

Sarkisian: “You lean on those guys. You lean on them throughout the week. You lean on them in the game, in the moment. You want to make sure they’re there in critical moments to make plays.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I don’t know. That’s the thing. We’re a long ways away from January 19. I’m focused on August 30.”

Sarkisian pointed out that two years ago Texas was just around 50% touchdown rate in the redzone, but was at 64% in 2024: “We did make some improvements. We just need to continue to improve.”

Steve Sarkisian says his message to Arch Manning, and all his other players, is just to go be you: “You don’t have to do anything you’ve never done before. We’re not asking any superhuman effort of you to do anything that’s extraordinary. Just go be you. What you’ve done is good enough to get us to this point.”

Sarkisian: “I think we trust our process.” — “Mostly it’s staying connected, staying connected on those sidelines, being enamored with what we need to do, and not getting so caught up in what’s going on around us.”

Sarkisian: “If it’s both of our (teams’) first game, you feel okay. I’d be really uncomfortable if this was our first game and they had already gotten a game under their belt.”

Steve Sarkisian on Ohio State: “Naturally, this is a tall task. We talked about this at length before the season, but we’ve got a tough road slate this year. This is the first of a few to come. It serves us good to have to go on the road early, find out about ourselves, find out where we’re at as a program, where we can improve, and where we can continue to get better because we’re going to travel more than any other SEC team this year in our conference.”

Texas HC Steve Sarkisian: “As far as the ballgame goes, pretty epic matchup when you think of 1 vs. 2 in at least one of the two major polls for the first game of the season. It’s great for college football in my opinion.”

Chris Del Conte says he has heard from Texas student-athletes that Humann’s products are “the cheat code to success” and a key part of why the Longhorns have won four of five Directors’ Cups.

Humann CEO Joel Kocher says that his company’s products have “helped power more than 20 national championships at this great university.”

Humann CEO Joel Kocher: “After 15 years of working together, Humann is honored to take this relationship to the next level as the official cardiovascular brand of UT Athletics. To be the first company brand on the hallowed field of the stadium and on every sports venue of this great university is humbling beyond words.”

Texas athletics chief medical officer Allen Hardin mentions that Humann products have been a key part of Texas’ successes and athletes would consume it despite a disagreeable taste.

While adding it now tastes better, “one of our dieticians have called it the cheat code. I might call it our secret sauce.”

Chris Del Conte says financial terms of this agreement “will all come out in due time.”

CDC also said he conversed with the chairman of the BOR and the UT president about this partnership.

Chris Del Conte on why he changed his tune on on-field sponsorship: “What changed is these guys. This story. I was not interested at all in putting a logo on the field, as you all know.”

Del Conte said the connection to UT and Nobel Prize winning faculty, plus an ability through the partnership to “change the world” altered his thinking.