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Steve Sarkisian takes the spotlight at College GameDay

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook10/19/24josephcook89
Steve Sarkisian
Steve Sarkisian (Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was live on the College GameDay set on Saturday morning, and was recruiting like any good coach should be doing ahead of a big matchup.

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His target? Ben Herbstreit.

Sarkisian had the chance to reunite with Nick Saban, who gave the Longhorn program a mountain of praise.

“You’ve done a heck of a job here building this program like an SEC team,” Saban said. “Physical up front, really good defense, quarterback is playing well. You’re doing a great job here, and appreciate the fact that your team is No. 1.”

The GameDay crew broke down a few plays from Sarkisian’s offense that rely on condensing the formation as opposed to spreading teams out. Sarkisian was able to show off Silas Bolden’s effort against Oklahoma, Quinn Ewers’ no-look touchdown throw against Colorado State, and the scoring toss from Ewers to Xavier Worthy last year at Alabama from the condensed looks.

The coaches also explained why motion is so important for the Longhorn offense. Sarkisian said they don’t run all that many plays but run motion and change formations in order to throw defenses off their scent.

“It’s a way for us to kind of hide some of our plays,” Sarkisian said. “We’re not on run a bunch of new plays every week. We’re big on run our plays that we run out of new looks, new formations, new personnel.”

Sarkisian also doted on Ewers, saying he starts to think like the fourth-year head coach. He also praised Gunnar Helm but mentioned No. 85 might need to go lighter on the hurdles.

The crowd on the South Mall was excited on Saturday morning. Could it be indicative of a rowdy bunch in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium?

“We’re going to try to break that record tonight,” Sarkisian said in reference to a decibel record set at Tennessee.

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The Longhorns are set to play at 6:30 p.m. later this evening.

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