Updates from Steve Sarkisian's Thursday Zoom

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was available to the media on Thursday for his regular Zoom.

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Here are a few selected quotes from the near 15 minute call.

Steve Sarkisian’s opening statement: ”I think in general, the one thing I’ve learned about our team throughout this season is that we’ve got a great deal of resilience, and we respond to adversity when it presents itself. Naturally, coming off of last week’s game, it was a tough loss. But like these guys have done and have continued to show me that they do, they bounce back. They have a great week of work. They’re very intentional in their approach day in and day out. This week has been no different. Now ultimately, it’s putting it all together on Saturday but I can’t commend them enough for the job they’ve done this week and coming back to work, understanding a new gameplan, the intent, what’s at stake big picture, yet honing all the way in on what was at stake each and every day at practice. And then, getting ourselves prepared to play Kansas on Saturday.”

Steve Sarkisian on other players besides usual leaders who have stepped up this week: “I think throughout this process of growth over the last two years and even into this season, a guy who to me has stepped up as a leader has been JT Sanders. He’s a true sophomore. You really see his development from a leadership perspective starting to come out. I thought that’s been really impressive. Think Keilan Robinson has been another guy. He was new to the program a year ago, obviously is in a great room with Bijan (Robinson) and Roschon (Johnson). His leadership has definitely stepped up in a different manner, which has been positive and I think great for all parties involved. A third one, I would say Ryan Watts. Again, transfer and is kind of now getting through his first season. I think his leadership is starting to show. I know the usual guys which we talk about a lot, but those three stand out off the top of my head of guys that are really starting to step up and finding their niche in the program.”

Steve Sarkisian on preparing for Jalon Daniels and Jason Bean: ”We, I think, on both sides have been involved in the quarterback situations on our end and opponents. Again, I guess we’re getting used to it. The system isn’t going to change, and they’ve got a very good system offensively. They utilize the option game and they tax you that way in the run game to where you have to be very disciplined in defending all three phases of the option game — the give, the quarterback, and the pitch. Then, they do a nice job with their play action game off of that. If you’re not disciplined there, it’s that fourth layer to it which is that play action pass game where they get their chunk plays in the passing game down the field. I think both quarterbacks are very equipped at running it. I would probably say Bean may be faster than Daniels. When he gets to the open field, he’s got straight-line speed. I think one thing Daniels has is he’s got a really good feel for the game of football. We felt that last year in our game when they started him and we didn’t know it. He’s got a knack for layering throws down the field. He’s very elusive and can slip out of tackles to extend plays with his legs or his arm. You have to prepare for the system, but I do think it is important to know in-game which quarterback is in there and how we need to defend him as the game goes on.”

Steve Sarkisian on big picture conversations he’s had with the team: ”The reality of it is this. We have an opportunity. If we can win our final two games, there’s an opportunity there that presents where we could be in the Big 12 championship game. I like to do that with the guys because I don’t like them to act like I’m not aware of what’s happening. We’re aware and I’m transparent with them, but then I turn right around and I drill right down what’s the most important thing. That’s this week’s game. Then, what’s the most important thing to this week’s game and that’s today. In our world, we say it all the time, today is the most important day. Making sure that we have the focus, the mental intensity on today, what we’re doing, what we’re trying to accomplish, why it’s important to accomplish these things, then what it can mean for Saturday. That’s how we layered it with them without getting into all the particulars that we touched on.”

Steve Sarkisian on Devin Neal: ”Very good player. Very good runner. I think what he does and what concerns you is he’s a home run hitter. Feels like once a week, he gets a big run whether it’s 50, 55, 70. We pride ourselves on minimizing the explosive plays. We’ve done a really good job of that this year. It’s unfortunate we gave up the long run last week when quite frankly we shouldn’t have. It was a bust on our part, we had an unblocked defender. We don’t make the play. This week is going to be the same way because Devin Neal is a guy that can hurt you. He can hit you. He can hit a big one on you if you aren’t assignment sound and gap sound in the run game because he can create explosive plays on your.

Steve Sarkisian on what he sees effort and production wise from Xavier Worthy: ”I think Xavier is a great player. Extremely hard worker. I know you guys can’t come to practice, but he’s the first guy to practice every day working on his craft. One of the last guys to leave every day. Very detail oriented. We ask a lot of him and he competes at a really high level. The guy has scored 21 touchdowns in 22 career games. He’s got nine touchdown catches on the year. I think he set the standard and the bar really high for himself and for all of us, and that’s something that we all should strive to do. We all want to create as high of a bar for ourselves. That means you’re performing at a really high level. Now, you try to meet that standard and exceed it, and he goes about his business that way every single day. Really proud of him. I’m aware the better we go offensively, that means the better he’s going and we’re finding ways to get him the ball in space to make explosive plays. We’ll continue to do that but I couldn’t be more impressed with what he brings on a daily basis.’

Steve Sarkisian on how Quinn Ewers has handled blitzes this year and how he can improve: ”I think he’s done well. There is always going to be plays where we want it to go better. I think it’s two-fold. We have to make sure we’re protecting at a high level, that’s the first part. I think there’s an awareness level for him on where are those throws based on the concept that we have that are blitz-beater throws. Sometimes they aren’t always down the field. Sometimes they’re the short, intermediate throws where there’s catch and run opportunities. That’s all part of the growth and maturation process that I think he’s evolving into. You see him take advantage of it at a high level at times, and you see other times when we don’t. I think it’s not all on him that way. Everybody’s awareness has to be heightened when blitzes occur, whether it’s protection, route-running, and him throwing the ball on time and accurately so that we can take advantage of it.”