The Craig Way Show

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian on CJ Baxter's injury, the RB room, and Tre Wisner's role

Hour 1 continues with updates from the Paris Olympics. Texas Longhorns football coach Steve Sarkisian began hisThursday's media availability with comments on CJ Baxter's injury and his thoughts on the second week of practice. He then answers questions about the depth at running back, the possibility of adding another player to the position, Tre Wisner's role, and the importance of Saturday's scrimmage.

Duration:: 13m
Broadcast on:: 08 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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It's the Craig Way show, with the voice of the Texas Longhorns and Hall of Fame broadcaster, Craig Way. Under 92nd remaining in the first quarter of that Olympic men's basketball, Semifinal Serbia, and so far, Team USA, having a tough go of it, they have struggled to take care of the basketball, they've been turning it over, and the only guy who had been struggling was Steph Curry. Yes, 17 of the U.S. 23 points. 17 of their 23, and that coming in the first quarter, otherwise they've had some struggles, and it hasn't all been Nicole Yokech either. They've had a balanced attack, so a minute 14 to go in the opening quarters, 29, 23 Serbia. They've led by as many as seven. They're up six right now, and we'll keep you updated on that one. But right now, the U.S. looks like a team that is a team of all-stars that hasn't played together that much, even though they've had all of those practices and the Olympic exhibitions, and then rolling through all the pool play, and then through the medal round to get to this point, but looking, I don't know if sloppy is the right word, I guess in some respects it could be, but just looking a little stale in offense other than when Curry is hitting shots. So again, down six, 29, 23 with a minute remaining in the first quarter. All right, a long-word football team that was back at practice this morning, and of course, the news spread pretty quickly yesterday that CJ Baxter was going to be gone for the season because of the knee injury, as you might imagine, that would be part of what long-word head coach Steve Sarkisian would be asked about in the post-practice media availability today. It was, but Sark addressed it as part of his opening comments following this morning's practice. First of all, I'd like to say today was a heck of a practice. I was proud of our guys. You know, we went, we'd practice Saturday, we had taken Sunday off, we went hard Monday and Tuesday, we took Wednesday off, and came back and worked today. We'll have a little lighter practice tomorrow and then we'll scrimmage Saturday. And I thought the energy, the work ethic, the physicality of practice, the intent, which our guys practice with today was really impressive. I committed them for that up there on the field right now. So, we're making good strides across the board in all three phases. Special teams is really starting to come now, looking what it's supposed to look like. We're getting into all of the different phases of the game now, whether it's base downs, third downs, fourth downs, you know, red area, low red, goal line. So we're really working those things and then we'll introduce two-minute tomorrow. So the game is starting to come together for our guys now, which is encouraging. You know, obviously, we got some unfortunate news coming out of practice the other day with Cedric Baxter being lost for the season. I hate it for the kid the same way I talked about Leungo LaFalle the other day. If you pulled our team, we were the top three teammates on our team. Cedric Baxter would be in that top one, two or three as well. And as much as we love him for the player that he is, we love him more for the teammate that he is, and you know, our thoughts and prayers are with him. We're encouraged by all the doctors that he's going to make a really healthy recovery and we'll have him back for the next season. So again, from our perspective, you know, we'll be okay. Naturally, we're going to have to make some adjustments like anything. Anytime you lose a player, you've got to make some adjustments. But I think that's the value of trying to recruit and recruit at a high level in the way we practice, the way that we do with a lot of the two spots. A lot of our guys are getting reps. And so we're plenty deep enough to still be a very good football team. Again, we would love to have him, but that's the nature of football. And you have to be able to withstand and deal with injuries whenever they present themselves, whether they're in training camp or whether they're late in the season, potential playoff injuries and such. So that's why you have to develop your entire roster. And I think our staff doing a really good job of that right now. Obviously, within the context of developing the entire roster, SARC was definitely going to be asked about this running-back situation and the running-back room now with Cedric Baxter out. So with CJ Al and, you know, Jane Blue there, probably at the top of the heat, but there are plenty of other names as well. So the question for SARC is, is he happy with the depth he has at running back? And if not, or even giving it some more thought, is there the possibility of moving a different player into that position? As of right now, I feel really good about the four guys that we have. They're all playing at a high level, you know, with Jayden and Trey, and then Christian and Jerrick, you know, to be fair to the rest of the guys on the roster, I kind of want to give them through this first scrimmage. They've been working out of position to give them a chance to play in this first scrimmage. And then, you know, we'll assess on a staff, as a staff on Sunday, when we evaluate the entire roster, if that's something that we may do. Okay, so continuing on the theme about the running-back, you heard SARC say he wanted to give those four guys. Jayden Blue there along with Trey Weisner and Christian Clark and Jerrick Gibson, he wanted to give them a fair shot to show them what they can do in the scrimmage when they have that. So now, with Baxter out, does that make the scrimmage all that more important? No, with that, with no question, but we always think kind of down the road, we're always thinking contingency planning. And so, you know, we've touched all along from day one that more guys are going to have to play for us this fall, and we're just going to require our freshmen to to get indoctrinated to college football quicker. Essentially, we have four kind of pre-season games before we get into SEC play, and we want to play a lot of people, and to play a lot of people, that means young players have to play, most notably those two backs. And so, hopefully, you know, they can get some good experience this weekend and continue to grow as players. I've been impressed with both those two young guys here early on in camp. They're working really hard. They got natural ability. They're both physical players, so it's not a development in a sense of, man, they need to get bigger over and off season. These guys are more than equipped physically to do it. They're just going to need to get them their reps. Remember that Baxter was a freshman a year ago, and that Trey Weisner was as well and got a chance to get some carries. He was mainly used on special teams, but is Weisner the number two guy right now? Again, there's always camp competition, but Sarc was asked about Trey Weisner. Trey's a baller. He, you know, we saw the physicality that Trey possessed last year on special teams. I mean, he was a demon on special teams force last year. That was a deep running-back room that he was sitting in, you know, with Jonathan and Kielen and then Cedric and Jaden. So, you know, when you were sitting there as the fifth back and then we had Savion, even at Wildcat, he didn't maybe get as many carries in game, but we saw what he could do at practice. And then, you know, when he got his his few shots there against tech and against Oklahoma State, he ran hard. He ran physical. He's fast. But the one thing he possesses, he's a really versatile player. And even going back to high school, you know, that championship team they had at DeSoto, it's a heck of a team, Trey was all over the field and catching balls, running the ball, playing physical. He provides great energy. He's an awesome teammate. So, like I said, we're really fortunate to have him. And so if Weisner is indeed, and like he was at DeSoto, and he was, as Sark mentioned, all over the field, he was used by Claude Mathis. They had coached in so many different roles, running back slot receiver, even Leinemo's wide out special teams DB. He used him all over the place. And of course, Trey was largely used in special teams a season ago with lining up with the slot occasionally and then obviously getting some carries in the backfield. So now does Trey Weisner's role on special teams, which was important last year, does it change with the injury to Baxter, which might cause Weisner to need more time, more work there in the backfield? Well, I don't know about that. You know, I remember in 2020, when Devontay Smith won the Heisman Trophy, he was a gunner for us on that team and he became the punt return when Jalen Wattle got hurt. So, guys love the opportunity to play on special teams for us. We take a lot of pride in that. Now, granted, we have to be mindful of that. And that's why we're pushing so many of these young guys to step up and show what they can do. And that's where your depth has got to kick in, right? Whether it's at a specific position or on special teams. And like I said, we feel really good about the depth we have. And Coach Banks does a great job. He's the best in the country at getting those guys ready to play. All right, so it's going to be interesting to see how those players will have a day off tomorrow. They have the they have the scrimmage on Saturday. So, actually, they'll work tomorrow. They have a scrimmage on Saturday and then off on Sunday. So, we'll see how it goes from there. And we'll hear more from Sarg during the course of the day and we'll hear from long-run players as well. We should tell you right now, Team USA is in trouble. They're down 14 points to Serbia with 740 to go in the first half. And it doesn't seem to matter right now. What lineup Steve Kerr is putting on the floor? LeBron Durant, Steph Curry, it doesn't seem to matter. One thing that is very apparent in this game, obviously was different from the first two meetings between the US and Serbia. But even it's different from the other games that the United States has played both in pool play and in the middle round is they're being deed up. They are being defended at, you know, quite the clip. And it was 25 to 20. And right now, this is a 14 to 5 run for Serbia to run this out to a 14-point advantage right now. Now, the US is trailed by those kinds of mounts, like they did in the gaming at South Sudan. But that was in the pool play. This is serious in the semifinal round now. So, the US is going to have to find an answer here somewhere because Serbia is doing it, and they're doing it with total team basketball. It's not all Nicole and Yokic. He's had his contribution, but they got other guys contributing. Yeah, great ball moving all around, good shooting, and a lot of these, a lot of the buckets they're getting are just kind of wide open looks. So, some sloppy defense, some sloppy miscommunication from team USA, sloppy turnovers, and then one right there, if you're watching, you just saw LeBron try and find Bam on a bio wide open on the basket. She'd be an easy dunk and said the pastor behind was out of bounds in Serbian basketball. So, just little things like that, but only a 14-point deficit, still second quarter. These are the best players in the world on team USA. I still think they find a way to pull it out. But they're going to need more than Steph Curry to do so in offense. Yeah, they are indeed going to have to turn it back around and figure out some things there to get to go because right now it is a problem for them. So, we'll see. Again, a lot of that has to do with combinations and which units kind of click together and got to shoot well, and they're not doing that right now. So, you have to shoot the basketball better than what they're doing. So, that makes a big difference also. Okay, coming up, we'll have inconceivable, which includes an Olympic note. It's got a fast food note, and it's got some freaky stuff thanks to our friend CB. Tomorrow may be Florida Man Friday. Today is Florida Fish Thursday. So, we'll get to that. That and a lot more as we continue here on this Thursday afternoon. 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