Texas Longhorns College Football Pregame Quote, 01/03/2025

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEAD COACH STEVE SARKISIAN: I’d just like to say, first of all, it’s an honor to represent the Southeastern Conference in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. This game has been one that is notorious for great games, great teams over the years. You know, obviously this being the semifinal game of the College Football Playoff, it’s definitely an honor to be a part of this.

It’s a heck of an opponent in Ohio State. The job that Coach [Ryan] Day has done with that team, their staff, they’re playing really good football right now. We know it’s going to be a heck of a challenge but looking forward to opportunity.

Q. I’m sure you’ve taken note of Ohio State’s fast starts against Tennessee and Oregon. What are your impressions of what you have seen from that? And how daunting is that, as a coach, to know that the other team can do that?

COACH SARKISIAN: I think it’s a credit to their coaching staff, first of all. Game planning, putting together a nice plan on offense, defense, and special teams, and instilling that with the players, and the players playing with confidence. I think that’s one thing that jumps out when you watch it is how confidently they’re playing.

They’re definitely calling it aggressively, but the execution is at a really high level. So that’s what jumps out at us.

Q. Steve, I wondered if you could give us a quick update on how Isaiah Bond is doing, and how you came out of the game physically. And also, Quinn Ewers’ finish to that game, three passes, three scores? Is that the kind of thing, especially with the season on the line, that can ignite a player’s confidence and really lift him as a former quarterback yourself?

COACH SARKISIAN: So, yeah, I think we’re going to be healthy and good to go by the time the game rolls around. As far as Quinn goes, it’s a guy making plays at a critical moment. I think for any player at any position, when you’re at your best, when your best is needed, naturally that instills confidence in you.

Q. Steve, I know you kind of are what you are after 15 games. Addressing the running game and your problems there two of the last three games, do you feel like you’re going to have to just lean into the passing game even more, or do you have to kind of keep forcing it the whole game?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, I hope not. I hope that we can find balance, and I think that we’re more than equipped to do that.

I think that in really evaluating the last ball game, we really couldn’t get our backs free into the second level. I thought Arizona State did a nice job. I thought their safeties and secondaries tackled well and got us on the ground. And we didn’t get a whole lot of reps to find the rhythm of it, so everybody’s kind of got to take some responsibility for that.

But we’re at our best when we can run it, and that gives us balance. And so I’m hard-pressed not to kind of just walk away from it and abandon it. So we’ve got to do a great job as a staff of putting together a good plan and making sure that our players can execute it at a high level, versus the myriad of looks, especially, that Ohio State can give you.

Q. Steve, after losing to Georgia in the conference title game, you guys had to get right back at it. Was that an advantage for you to have to keep playing, because the conference champions all went down, and the seeding process is under fire. What’s your take on that? Do you think they will tweak it?

COACH SARKISIAN: You know, I don’t know. I’ve referenced this before. My initial thought on all of this was similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, that if you win your conference championship, you get an automatic bid into the tournament, like they do in basketball.

And then the Committee seeds the tournament. I’ve referenced these two schools just because they’re in the same conference. But how many times have Duke and North Carolina both been number one seeds coming out of the ACC for all those years?

And so, like in this instance, if this year were that way, we would have been the three seed, and we would have gotten a bye. And so, but because of the guaranteed spots as one seeds, we went in as the five seed, and we had to play.

And so, I don’t know if there’s necessarily an advantage or a disadvantage to it that way. I know our guys were chomping at the bit to get back out there and play and compete. But I also know we’re going into our 16th game here coming up this coming week, and without a real significant rest.

We’ve been finding our spots to get healthy, but we didn’t get that massive rest that I think a lot of the other teams do.

Now, I don’t know if that’s beneficial or not. I think there is something to be said about playing football consistently, and rhythm and routine, and so on and so forth.

So I’m not sure I have a great answer for what is best, but what I do know, that would have been my one recommendation to the seeding process.

Q. To your earlier point about Ohio’s confidence, Will Howard looked incredibly comfortable against Oregon, just continuing to feed Jeremiah’s [Smith] momentum. What do you guys have to do to come in and disrupt that level of comfortability in the pocket?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, I think we’ve got to be really good at the line of scrimmage against the run and the pass. Ohio State is similar to us in that way. When they have balance, they’re very difficult. And so, got to be good against the run.

We’ve got to try to affect him (Will Howard) in the pocket, and we need to disrupt timing in the back end. We need to disguise our coverage as well. We need to be sticky in coverage. We need to get hands on footballs. We need to make throwing lanes difficult. We need to get our hands up at the line of scrimmage.

So there’s a lot of factors to that. Not an easy task, I’ll say that, but one that I think is going to be necessary if we want to be successful.

Q. Steve, you guys got Quinn [Ewers] from Ohio State three years ago. How have you seen Quinn develop from the time he came to you guys from Ohio State to where he is now?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, like anything, when he went to Ohio State early on, he should have still been a senior in high school. And when we got him back, he was still, in our eyes, a freshman at that time.

And so there’s been a lot of development, I would say physical development, but I would also say probably mental and emotional development.

To watch him grow into the leader that he’s grown into for us, his ability to have the poise and composure he has, not only on the field, but off the field. To look into the face of adversity and come out on the other side of it time and time again, whether it be injuries, whatever that looks like. To be at his best when his best was needed, similar to the Peach Bowl there at the end of the game and in overtime.

So, I think that’s all from a seismic shift from maturity standpoint, like I said, physically and mentally.

Q. Steve, I wanted to ask you a little bit about the journey as far as where you guys have played this postseason. You guys started the SEC title in Atlanta. You had a home game. You returned to Atlanta for the quarters. You get to play in your home state for the semis. And if you win, could potentially go back to Atlanta. What have you thought about that path? And has there been a benefit to your team, either playing in familiar surroundings or playing in the same place multiple times?

COACH SARKISIAN: I think it’s been really fun. I’ll be honest with you, I thought in our first year in the SEC, to play in Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the SEC Championship in Atlanta, I thought was an awesome experience for our guys.

Coming back home and being part of the first round of the College Football Playoffs and having a home game, I thought was another really cool experience. The fact that we hosted one of the inaugural home games in the CFP was really cool.

And then, an opportunity to play in the Peach Bowl, an iconic bowl, and for us to win that, and to be the first team to win all the major bowls in that fashion, I thought was fantastic.

But now to be in the semis and play in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas is huge. We’re going to need our fans. We’re going to need our fans’ support. I need Longhorn Nation to show out in Arlington. We’re going to need everything we’ve got to try to win this game.

Clearly, we’re massive underdogs. Nobody’s going to give us a shot. So we’re going to need all that we can to try to win this game.

Q. Will Howard, the last game he played at AT&T Stadium was Kansas State beating a TCU team that was undefeated. You saw a lot of him last year, obviously, and you’ve seen what he’s done this year. What have you seen from Will Howard as you’ve watched him play and the challenge that he brings?

COACH SARKISIAN: Yeah, I would say the first thing is he’s a much better athlete than people probably give him credit for. He snapped off about a 70-yard touchdown run against us a few years ago, so he has good speed. He’s got great poise and composure in the pocket. You can tell he’s very bright. The system they ran at Kansas State put a lot on the quarterback, and knowing Coach [Charles] Kelly and Coach [Ryan] Day and what they do.

So him managing offenses that way. He’s got intention. He’s got athletic ability. And then his ability to throw a catchable ball. I’ve seen that now for a few years. He throws passes where they need to be thrown, and guys make plays for him. And his poise and composure in critical moments is something that has been very impressive as well.

Q. Just wanted to ask about how you love making your call sheet every week? I know that for sure. So when it comes to this game particularly, when you have a guy like Caleb Downs in that secondary, especially after moving him into the box a lot more, how much does that affect your building of that call sheet? And also, how much does it help that you have a Jim Thorpe Award-winner to practice against to prepare for this game?

COACH SARKISIAN: Yeah, Caleb’s a fantastic football player. Obviously, we played against him last year, his freshman year at Alabama, and made some impactful plays in that game. You can sense and feel his football IQ, his awareness, but yet the athletic ability to cover ground to make plays; but then the physical ability to get people on the ground, to take on blocks.

So he’s a complete player. He’s an all-around player. And again, we’ve got to look at the scheme first when we start building the call sheet, and Coach [Jim] Knowles is a fantastic defensive coach. Been doing it a long time. Very good at developing plans that put his best

players in position to have success, Caleb being one of those.

And so we’ve got to look at the schemes before we even really start dialing in to the specific players, and then try to put our players in the best position to have success.

So that’s always a process. It’s a fun process to have. But again, that’s the opportunity for our guys to go against our defense every day, which we think is pretty good. That always helps our guys kind of prepare for the speed, the closing ability on the ball that is going to be necessary on game day.

Q. Beginning of the season, you spoke about the obsession with winning a national title, and obviously, you’ve got a long way to go, two more games. But just curious, having gone through 15, 16 weeks, as you said, not much rest, how does that obsession kind of manifest itself within you now, being so close?

COACH SARKISIAN: We didn’t come this far just to come this far, I guess would be what I’d tell you, how it’s manifested itself.

The journey is not done; the mission is not complete. It’s still a driving force behind what we do every day. Why we wake up so early. Why we stay so late. Why our players are coming in on an off day when we’re asking them not to be here, and they’re in here watching tape, stretching, striding, getting rehab.

It’s all that. It’s all that continues to push you because none of this is guaranteed. Today is not guaranteed.

But none of this is guaranteed. But it’s not like: Well, we’ll just get back here again next year. We’re back in the Final Four for the second consecutive season. And those other three teams that were here a year ago with us didn’t make the 12-team playoff, never mind the Final Four.

So, nothing’s guaranteed. It’s difficult to get to this spot, and we want to make sure that we maximize this opportunity and put our best foot forward and see what happens.

Q. In terms of, obviously, everybody talks about NIL, but you talked about preparing for a 16-game season. You’re pretty much playing an NFL schedule in terms of just the number of games, especially with the byes. Outside of the portal, how important is it for the sports science department and you, as a coach, to be on the same page? And just the money that would go into that to keep guys healthy, making sure your training and healing process is up to par? How crucial and overlooked does that get? Does that get overlooked in a time like this?

COACH SARKISIAN: It definitely does not get overlooked in our building. We believe in sports science. We believed in it before the 12-team playoff came into existence, but we definitely poured into it even more so when we found out that this could be the path and the journey that

we’d go on before the season.

We definitely altered some things before the season in how we worked. We altered some things from a recovery and rehab standpoint. We did a bunch of research and studies on NFL teams and how they practice, not only in-season, but as they get into the playoffs.

And we try to put our players in the best position to perform. As much as it is, it’s about Xs and Os. It’s about taking care of their bodies, taking care of their minds, so that they’re physically ready to compete at a high level but also mentally and emotionally.

And so, sports science, sleep studies, all those things are hugely important in our building.

Q. I wanted to ask you, just from afar, being able to watch the wide receiver tandem at Ohio State of Emeka [Egbuka] and Jeremiah Smith and how they’ve been able to change the course of games and the threats that they pose against opposing teams.

COACH SARKISIAN: Yeah. They’re both big, physical players. They have length. They have speed. They have playmaking ability on the ball. They have really big catch radiuses. They’ve got the scheme to go with it, with Coach [Charles] Kelly and Coach [Ryan] Day, and they’ve got a quarterback who delivers on the ball.

So, you add all that up, these guys are impactful players that are real issues, and we’re going to have a hard time guarding them.

Q. I don’t know how you view maybe the first round, but the Peach Bowl is the first time you as a head coach lifted up a bowl trophy in your program in ten years. Do you allow yourself to reflect on that? Or is there still just too far to go before you can start thinking about what that means for your career?

COACH SARKISIAN: No, I mean, we took a moment. We took a moment after the Clemson game and took a moment after the Peach Bowl. It’s always probably a good thing when the confetti is falling on you, and it’s your colors. So, we try not to miss those things.

As much as there’s the big prize at the end that we’re striving for, there’s victories along the way, and those small victories need to be celebrated. And this, by no means, was a small victory.

But you’ve got to celebrate your victories as you navigate your way through it, because they’re hard to get. If they weren’t that difficult, there would be a lot of other teams in this position.

But we’re fortunate to be here. And like I said, I’ve been so proud of our staff, so proud of our team, with their work ethic, with their determination, with their resiliency week after week after week. And it’s been a credit.

Ourselves and Penn State are the only two teams now that actually played in the conference

championship game and had to play a first-round game. So we’re the two that really haven’t gotten any of the time off that Notre Dame and/or Ohio State have gotten, and even those teams that got the first-round bye.

So we’re just trying to take it all in stride and continue to move forward. But, again, along the way, enjoy the victories as they come.

Q. I was just wondering if there’s anything that Arizona State did specifically to make things difficult for y’all on first down? And what you need to improve at to be more effective on that down against Ohio State?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, I thought they were very active. I thought they did a good job of running their defense. I didn’t think it was so much of that there was something new or different, but they executed. I thought they won some of their one-on-ones, which we’ve got to improve upon that.

At the end of the day, first and second down wins are really important for us to try to minimize some of the third-and-long situations that you can get yourself into.

But that’s when we’re at our best. And so for them, I just thought they executed what they do on defense, and they did it better than we did for a lot of that ball game.

Q. Steve, just wanted to ask you about the way you feel like the defense has answered the bell multiple times here in the postseason, all these situations they’re getting put in. And I don’t know if you want to brag on Michael Taaffe or maybe defend him a little bit. Multiple games now, you guys have been laying some really hard licks that are not targeting. Is that a sign of how good y’all are coaching them to maybe play the right way?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, I think our defense has been tremendous all year. That was a hard game the other night. They played over a hundred snaps. And it was an odd game.

You think about, we really lost almost three full possessions on offense. Any time you have a scoring return on special teams where we had a punt return for a touchdown, that would have been an offensive possession that we lost.

Our first drive on offense, we scored in two plays, and then we have the safety in one play. And so, we really lost three possessions that unintentionally put our defense continually back on the field. I just thought originally, man, we weren’t getting off the field. We were doing okay, especially in the first half of that game.

But over time, that can wear on you. And so, I thought those guys showed a lot of grit, a lot of guts in that game, to fight through. We’ve got players playing a hundred snaps on defense, not including special teams, Michael Taaffe being one of those. I think he played 101 snaps on defense, not to mention he was on punt, punt return, and kickoff return.

And so that’s a lot on these guys. We’ve got to get them healthy and get them back.

As far as football goes, hey, we don’t play flag football, man. This isn’t seven-on-seven. This is tackle football. We believe in playing a physical brand of football. We try to do it the right way within the rules.

There were numerous plays I thought in the game that I’m sure they were upset about a call. There was numerous plays I didn’t agree with the call. But that’s football. That’s the way it goes.

But we’re not going to change the way we play. We play a physical brand of football. We’re always going to try to impose our will on our opponents, and Michael’s a great example of that. He plays the game the right way.

Q. I was just curious, going back to Ohio State’s wide receivers. I guess, how do you kind of balance ensuring Jeremiah Smith doesn’t kind of take over this game, while they’ve got two other wide receivers who are 600-yard guys? How do you kind of conceptualize that defensively with resource management there?

COACH SARKISIAN: I just hope we’re good enough to guard them. These guys are really good players. We’ll find out.

Q. You talked this season about the depth and talent of the SEC and the competition of this conference. What does it mean in year one to be the last team standing from this conference and be representing this conference on this stage?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, I still hold true to this. I really believe this is a premier football conference in America because of the week-in, week-out tasks that it requires physically and mentally. It’s not a one-time thing where you just play one SEC team, and then you get on to go do the rest. You have to do it week in and week out. You have to go into some really difficult environments.

And over time, that’s what takes its toll on your team, physically and mentally. And so, you’ve got to make sure that you can kind of recharge those batteries, stay as healthy as you can.

Clearly, we’ve endured our fair share of injuries this year, and I think have done a pretty good job, a decent job of navigating our way through it. I know, unfortunately for Georgia, they lost their starting quarterback in our game, in the SEC Championship game.

And I’m sure other teams in our conference had to endure things that can take their toll on your team, and that’s no excuse. At the end of the day, we have to find a way to navigate our ways through it.

But to be here on this stage, to be back in the Final Four wearing that SEC patch on our jersey, we’re going to do our best to represent it because this is a heck of a conference.

Q. Do you feel a lot of pressure being the home team and the state school in the big state of Texas, going and playing in the Cotton Bowl with the history of Texas being in the Cotton Bowl? Do you feel a lot of pressure? Or do you just feel like it’s just another game each week?

COACH SARKISIAN: I don’t necessarily feel pressure upon that. When you take the head job here at the University of Texas, you’ve got to know what you’re signing up for. And there’s an expectation and a standard here to compete and to win championships, compete for and win championships.

And so, you acknowledge it. You accept it. And you start charging forward.

I think of this as more of a great opportunity to play in the Cotton Bowl and the Semifinals of the College Football Playoff against an unbelievable opponent in Ohio State. They’ve got a great fan base. They’re going to travel. I’ve played against them in the Rose Bowl and different opportunities.

So, their fans travel really, really well. And so the challenge for us is to stay composed in that arena. The challenge for our fans is to show up, buy tickets, and support us so that we can make it as tough an environment as we can.

Because like I said, we’re going to need all those factors in this game. This is the best team in college football, and we’re going to have to make sure that we put our best forward to give ourselves a chance to win the game.

Q. Ryan Day was just talking about the NFL and his experience there, and you have NFL experience. You said it kind of is starting to feel like an NFL playoff late-season thing. Does it feel that way to you, and not that you have an advantage, but can you use that experience moving on from one game with the quick turnaround?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, it definitely feels like that. You think about — like I said, we’re going into game number 16 here. And so how you manage the players, how you utilize your time, how you try to keep them as fresh as you can, not only physically, but mentally, but also, you know, make sure you’ve got a good plan that you can execute.

The further you go into the playoffs, the better quality opponent that you face. And so your quality of play has to continue to improve. The coaching has to improve. Everybody’s got to improve. We’ve always got to continue to strive to get better, all on the same time, trying to get everybody fresh and back and putting them in the best position to have success.

And so, it’s a challenge. But that’s the beauty of it, right? To be on this stage and to be with this opportunity, you embrace it. You try to balance it as best you can, so that when the ball is kicked off, you’re putting everybody, your staff, your players in the best position to have some success.

Q. What is your response to those who see this as a home game for your program, with it being at AT&T Stadium?

COACH SARKISIAN: Yeah, I don’t know. I think both schools get the same number of tickets. I’m not certain. [John] Bianco might be able to answer that for you, but I think everybody gets the same number of tickets.

And then from that point, who’s going to buy the rest? And I know we’ve got a great fan base that travels. I know Ohio State’s got a great fan base that travels.

So, I don’t know. If it was at DKR (Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium), I’d probably say something like that would be a home game. But, you know, it is what it is.

Q. In Ohio State’s first meeting with Oregon, they didn’t sack [Dillon] Gabriel once. In their second meeting, they sacked him eight times. What stands out most about their pass rush? Are they similar to Georgia in any way?

COACH SARKISIAN: Well, they’re ferocious up front. Got a great pass rush. Big on the inside. Big edge players that are very talented.

I think getting ahead 34-0 in the second quarter was helpful. Oregon got a little limited where they had to just start passing the ball, and that’s generally when a lot of sacks occur. It’s when people have to just really throw it to get back into the game, and quarterbacks can hold the ball, and so on and so forth. And D-linemen can start pinning their ears back and going because there’s not the threat of the run.

So I think, inevitably, that’s where that balance comes in that we talked about of why it’s important that we continue to lean into the run game and find balance there to try to neutralize those guys up front because it’s a ferocious pass rush, for sure.