Steve Sarkisian describes several players as "doubtful to out" for UTEP

Steve Sarkisian just wrapped up his weekly Thursday Zoom with the media and described a handful of players as “doubtful to out” for the Longhorns’ game versus UTEP this Saturday.

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Sarkisian was asked about DeAndre Moore, Emmett Mosley, Alex January, and Quintrevion Wisner. Moore played against San Jose State but left during the contest due to injury. Mosley, January, and Wisner were not active on Saturday for the game against the Spartans. All were in that “doubtful to out” category, though Sarkisian did not offer any specifics about which players were in specific categories.

“I don’t have concerns about long term effects about any of them, but I think we would be putting them at risk for long term effects if we forced them back too soon,” Sarkisian said.

More updates from Steve Sarkisian’s Thursday Zoom

Steve Sarkisian: “I think first and foremost, great opportunity for us.”

Sarkisian emphasizes the need “to play more consistent and clean football than we have through two weeks. It’s easy to see from an offensive perspective what that looks like in areas where we need to improve. I think that’s collectively. I think our penalties need to come down. We need to play a cleaner brand of football. With that, I don’t want to lose our edge. I don’t want to lose our aggressiveness, our speed, our physicality, because I think that’s something we take a lot of pride in.”

Sarkisian has had to play a lot of running backs that are lower on the depth chart over the past couple of years: “I think the running back position, at any level, it’s really important to continue the development of players that maybe aren’t the ones that are getting the bulk of the carries in game. As we all know, injuries can occur, guys get forced into action, so you’ve got to make sure you’re prepping and preparing those guys.”

Sarkisian says he was glad to see Christian Clark in the game and is hoping to get a chance to play James Simon this week. On Jerrick Gibson’s fumble: “I hated it for him last week because he’s worked really hard at the ball. He’s a physical runner. He’s not afraid of contact. It was a great punchout.” — Sark says the puncher was Larry Turner-Gooden.

Sarkisian on explosive plays, mentions they’re not reliant on one or two players for those plays: “I think we’ve got a roster now full of players that can do that. The ball can be distributed equally and evenly around.”

Sarkisian on his LBs, namely Anthony Hill, Ty’Anthony Smith, and Liona Lefau, making plays on the ball mentions that “the really good player sees opportunities to get the ball whether they’re the second man in, they’re coming in from behind and they punch the ball out from behind, or they know they have him squared up and they can punch on the ball and still wrap tackle. We look for some of that stuff, but when we get them here we definitely train it, we drill it, we work on it.”

Steve Sarkisian on what Emmett Mosley may bring, mentions Mosley was efficient in his appearances for Stanford: “He’s got really good size, he’s an excellent blocker, and he’s got really good hands.” — “I think he’s going to be a nice mix for us, a guy who’s not a one dimensional player that’s really going to fit into our style of offense.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I thought the intensity was as high as it’s been all season Tuesday and Wednesday. I credit that to our scout team players… They raised the level of intensity and that put a challenge on the first team offense and the first team defense to perform… We owe a ton to the guys that were working on scout team this week because I thought they gave an excellent look.”

Steve Sarkisian on play-action from under center: “I think Arch is very comfortable under center in his mechanics. Here’s a guy who’s been studying the quarterback position his whole life. I’m sure watching his uncles and mimicking those things in the backyard when he was a kid, it’s a little more comfortable for him. I feel like it helps our run game some in that, when you look at a back like (CJ Baxter) for him to be able to line up 7.5 yards behind the quarterback, run downhill, get his pads square and be physical. I also think it helps the play action pass game. I do think there’s something to be said about the quarterback turning his back to the line of scrimmage, the offensive line with an opportunity to fire out, it gives a little bit of a different feel than when the quarterback is just in the gun and the running back is coming across.”

Steve Sarkisian ID’d how well his defense has played this season: “These guys are physical, they’re fast, they’re smart, they’re ball-hawking. We are balanced on defense, meaning we can stop the run, we can stop the pass, we’re attacking.” — Sark calls that the “strength of our team, and we’ve got really good depth over there.”

Sarkisian: “I think offensively, we all can feel and see potential. It’s our job as coaches to continue to push them and try to propel them so that we can drop the word potential and we can say who we are. We see glimpses of it, and we’re seeing things that can definitely excite us, but we’re seeing things that can be frustrating too as coaches. That’s our job as coaches, to find this level of consistency on the offensive side of the ball.”

Steve Sarkisian on Daylan McCutcheon: “I think it is a great opportunity for Daylan. I give him a lot of credit.”

Sarkisian mentions Daylan McCutcheon picked up the offense really well earlier this year: “It was really natural to him. He wasn’t perfect, but his ability to learn multiple positions, his ability to be fearless, and I think that’s something that as a freshman receiver you need to be.”

Sarkisian mentions the Miners will try to present a lot of movement on the D-line: “I don’t know if we ran a snap this week on the scout team defense where the D-linemen just stood in the same spot.”