Steve Sarkisian isn't a fan of the lack of uniformity in SEC scheduling + Thursday Zoom updates

Texas has three SEC games remaining on its schedule in Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas A&M. Saturday marks Georgia’s last SEC game ahead of a non-conference battle with Charlotte followed by an out-of-conference rivalry game with Georgia Tech.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and ONE MONTH for $1!]

Texas didn’t start SEC play until October 4 at Florida, a game that followed the season-opener at Ohio State and three home games against Group of Six opponents. Georgia started SEC play on September 13 versus Tennessee after two Group of Six wins.

Is that lack of uniformity something Steve Sarkisian is comfortable with?

“I am not comfortable,” Sarkisian said Thursday. “I don’t think there’s enough continuity from a scheduling standpoint in the SEC. I understand with us being new to the conference and schedules get set earlier, years in advance. I think there’s some distinct advantages that some people have where they spread out their non-conference games throughout the season, they play non-conference games in the second-to-last game of the season and we’re playing all ours on the front end. They’re playing conference games earlier in the year when their team is 100% healthy.”

Out-of-conference rivalry games on Thanksgiving weekend have long been a part of the SEC schedule equation. Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Florida all traditionally play in-state rivals from another league in their final contests of the season. That logically moves SEC play up for them in order to accommodate those games.

But in the eight-game SEC schedule, one that requires an out-of-conference game against another team from a Power Conference, teams have had the ability to play four out-of-conference games. Georgia, as mentioned, is playing a team from The American Conference in Charlotte in the penultimate week of the regular season. Meanwhile, Texas is playing an SEC team.

Further illustrating that point? Missouri has its sixth SEC game on tap this weekend at the same time Georgia is playing its eighth.

Sarkisian hopes that’s something that the move to a nine-game SEC schedule solves. It’s also something that he hopes the Texas administration can look into in the coming years understanding there are already games on the calendar as far out as 2033.

“I don’t love our schedule, but it’s our schedule,” Sarkisian said. “So I do love it in the same breath because it is what it is. You play the schedule. You play the hand you’re dealt. But I just don’t think there’s a lot of parity from a scheduling standpoint of who’s getting non-conference games when and who’s getting what level of non-conference opponents because of the impact that it has down the road when you start talking about the playoffs.”

More updates from Steve Sarkisian’s Thursday Zoom

Opening statement: “I think for us this week has been one very focused, very intentional by the players. I think our guys really understand where we’re at in the season. It wouldn’t matter who the opponent is, how important this game is when you look at the grand scheme of things. When you can do that, you can focus on the game and you focus on the opponent. Then you recognize this is Georgia, they’re a very good football team — a top five team in the country. They garner even more attention that way.

“From a player’s perspective and I think as a staff perspective, I think it’s been very intentional. I think our guys’ approach has been really good. It hasn’t been about the hoopla. It hasn’t been about last year’s games. It’s been about what we need to do in the next five to six days starting earlier in the week to get ourselves in the best position to perform against a quality football team in a tough environment.”

Steve Sarkisian on Zachariah Branch: “He’s an electric player. He’s got elite speed, elite change of direction. They do a really nice job of getting him the ball on advantage throws, bubble screens, hit screens, receiver screens. They utilize him down the field. I think they do a nice job of complementing plays off of those screens, the and-go’s to the tight ends and the different players. You’ve got to be mindful of it’s all about him, then they hurt you with the tight ends and the other receivers in behind him. He’s also a factor in the punt return game, the kick return game. He’s electric there as well. Definitely has garnered a ton of attention from us.”

Steve Sarkisian on players who might have forced turnovers in practice: “I think that we’ve got a really good corps of players in that it’s really innate in the way they play.” — Mentions Anthony Hill, Ty’Anthony Smith, Jelani McDonald, Michael Taaffe, Liona Lefau, and Colin Simmons. — “We always say the ball finds you when you play the game the right way. We’ve got a nice corps of players that does that, but I think that has spread amongst the defense. They know the value of the ball in this game. The offense, on the other side, they know the value of the ball as well. We put in a lot of extra work on ball-security drills, tackling drills, to make sure we’re prepared for that on both sides.”

Sarkisian on Taaffe:

"Michael's a pro. He was very engaged even when he wasn't able to play."

"He plays with a great deal of confidence. He's a high-level communicator for us, and I think those two things are comforting for guys around him."

— Evan Vieth (@EvanVieth) November 13, 2025

Steve Sarkisian on the tight ends, says the entire room has gotten better throughout the season in their own ways in blocking, route-running, playing in space and in the red zone: “They’re going to have a role in the game. They’ve all got different parts of the game where we’re going to try to feature and get them involved in. But you never know. Every game takes on a life and a shape of it’s own. We’ll see how involved they get. We’ll see how the game goes.”

Steve Sarkisian on his O-line improving and how to carry the Vanderbilt performance into this game, says continuing individual growth and development plus continuity growth is important. Also mentions confidence as being an important factor.

Steve Sarkisian on Georgia’s LBs: “They’ve got really good players, and all those three linebackers can rush. They’re all really good players. They have nine sacks between them. They’ve got really big interior players who are very athletic. I think Georgia does a fantastic job of what we would refer to as cage rushing. They don’t give quarterbacks a lot of opportunities to escape the pocket, and the pocket shrinks on the quarterback and they make it difficult to make those throws. There’s a lot of different ways to skin a cat to try to get to the quarterback. Georgia’s way is a high level way of doing that and they’re very good at it.”

Steve Sarkisian on Georgia being ‘tough to kill’ as Kirby Smart mentioned: “I think it’s all of it. I think they’ve got a culture in place. They’ve won a lot of games for a long time. They’ve won a lot of games where they’ve come back. One thing that happens is when you come back in a game at Tennessee when you’re dead and gone and you come back and win in overtime, when you come back in a game against Ole Miss when you couldn’t stop them and then you find a way to get a couple stops in the fourth quarter, when you come back in a game against Alabama — even though they didn’t win — they believed that they can come back. Sometimes you have to get in those positions to find out if that’s truly who we are. No different than us. I think we needed that Mississippi State game to come back and win so that we can instill that belief in us, too. I think we fought hard all year. We came back at Ohio State and had the ball at the end. We fought hard at Florida, came back, had the ball at the end. When you finally get over the hump that one time, that instills belief in everybody in the organization. I think Georgia believes it doesn’t matter what the score is or how much time is left on the clock, they’ve got a chance and they’re not going to go away. I think that’s a credit to a lot of people in the organization. Year in and year out, recreating that is vitally important as well. They’ve created that this season.”

Steve Sarkisian on if these games are important for planting flags in new recruiting turf, mentions it’s overblown. He then gives his normal recruiting pitch but identifies Austin as a “different city and a different college town than the towns in the Southeastern Conference,” highlighting the city atmosphere. Says playing in places like Georgia and Florida presents prospects from those places the knowledge that they will play near their families in the best conference in college football.

In response to a question about Billy Napier being sighted at a Georgia practice, Steve Sarkisian said that when Lane Kiffin was let go from USC, he brought Kiffin up to Washington "Thursday through Saturday when we were getting ready to play Oregon."

— Inside Texas (@InsideTexas) November 13, 2025

Steve Sarkisian on Colin Simmons and instilling that his impact may not always be reflected in sacks: “That’s what we had to do with him earlier in the year. I think he was in such a search of getting sacks that he wasn’t playing his best football early. I think that he made a change in the Florida game. He stopped the run against Florida. He was an impactful run defender in that game. When you just start playing and you start being the best player you can be, next thing you know the sack numbers start to grow and they start to happen for you. It’s being the best player that you can be. You don’t have to chase sacks. The sacks will find you if you just keep playing the way you’re supposed to play. It’s a credit to Colin. I think he’s playing at a very high level right now. It’s not just sacking the quarterback. He’s stopping the run very well. He’s playing with fantastic effort. He’s creating opportunities for other players because of the relentless effort he’s playing with right now. Credit to him, I think he’s playing at a very high level.”

Steve Sarkisian on what his pregame thoughts will be between the hedges: “How awesome is this? We’re going to be playing at 7:30 in Sanford Stadium in a top-10 matchup against Georgia in front of 90,000 people and there will probably be another 17-18 million people watching it on TV. How lucky are we? That’s what I’ll be thinking about.”