The Craig Way Show

Steve Sarkisian addresses questions about the RB room after injuries to CJ Baxter and Christian Clark

The injury bug has bitten the running back room. With C.J. Baxter and Christian Clark out for the season, Sark was asked about the possibility of adding a non-RB to the unit. Sark was also asked about Barryn Sorrell's growth, the conerback position, and more.

Duration:: 9m
Broadcast on:: 13 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

The law warrants are preparing for a brand new football season and they continue. They come off of scrimmage number one at a practice yesterday afternoon. They have a practice tonight or early this evening. And these are kind of in these dog days of August and of fall camp training camp workouts pause for civil water and SARC has continued to say he's impressed by how his guys have approached this even though we're still 18 days away from kickoff and there is the grind of practices going on. There's one more scrimmage to come this Saturday, but there's work to be done and they come off of that that scrimmage on Saturday and SARC was asked and this is kind of a salient point now, especially with a second running back being injured. But he was asked which running backs stood out or made an impression on him in the Saturday scrimmage. Yeah, no, I thought I thought Jaden played well. I thought Trey played well. Both those guys did a nice job. I thought Christian and Jerick got their introduction to college football a little bit, you know, both guys put the ball in the ground once and that's part of it. Jaden had to go up and remind them of his first scrimmage and Cedric had to remind him of his first scrimmage and what that's like. But they also did some really good things too. And so they're definitely further down the road than maybe some would think, but we've definitely been impressed with them. Okay, and then of course that again was before more was known about Christian Clark being injured in yesterday's practice. So the extent of which has not yet been announced released, whatever. And we'll see. It is hoped anyway that it's certainly not as serious as the one that has taken CJ Baxter out of the entire 2024 season to come, but not yet knowing what the situation is. Only time will tell and eventually the football program will tell us now. There are veterans on both sides of this team who in some cases, like an Alfred Collins or some guys on the offensive line that have been kind of biting their time. I think of a DJ Campbell, those kinds of guys who now have the opportunity because they would appear to be the one stepping into a starting role at those specific spots to be able to step forward and to deliver and with it being their time and maybe have a real breakout year. One of those guys that has been mentioned in that category is Baron Sorrels on the defensive off the edge. That's for a variety of reasons. One, let's be honest, the defensive front has been good the past few years. And there's this anticipation, if you will, of who's the next guy to break out, who's the next guy to step forward, who is the next guy to have a big impact from that defensive front. Now, it's pretty easy to go to the inside guys because we've seen the inside guys going all the way back to Poona Ford and then through that for guys like Moro Ojamo and Keandre Coburn and then obviously to Vondre Sweatt and Byron Murphy, all these guys who have stepped up in the interior of the defensive line. But and Sorrels said to me, what I asked him about is it, if not unfair, is it kind of expected that folks are going to zero in more on that than maybe they should on the outside guys? And he said, yeah, probably so. But he said, our outside guys, give us really good work. You know what? Ethan Burke had some real quality snaps last year. And obviously Baron Sorrels had real quality snaps last year. So the question for Sark about Sorrels was coming off of that scrimmage on Saturday. Does he look to be positioning himself for a breakout year? You know, you guys have heard me say this, I think so many times we get so caught up in instant kind of instantaneous like success. And Baron's a prime example. Juan Davis is another one guys who are going into year four in our program. And part of that is the development in the weight room. It's their own physical maturation. Part of it is a real understanding schematically and then having confidence. And part of it is them growing up in our culture. So that whole developmental process for them, we're seeing the best version of a Baron Sorrel right now that we've seen in any of the previous three years. Obviously, physically, he's in great shape. But I think he's in a great mental space of coming into this season. And for me, you know, it's like new crop of leaders. I mean, Baron Sorrel is one of the leaders on our team because he does all the things we ask of the players and he's holding his teammates accountable. And so we're benefiting on a lot of levels of an older version, a truly whole heartily committed version of a Baron Sorrel. So that's good to see. And he's one of those guys. And if you talk to Sorrels, by the way, who's the name is free, if you talk to him, he'll tell you he expects it of himself, not just because of what's come before him, but what he feels he's capable of accomplishing. Same to me except for the running backs. If you talk to Jay Blue, Trey Weisner, I've known the kids since he was in high school and he's always never ever lacked for confidence. And it's a good thing now with this running back room being thinned a bit that those guys are capable and could do it. So question for Sark, now with the bang ups going on in the backfield is the option still being considered to add a non running back. In other words, convert somebody. You know, remember, he did that with Savion Red. Obviously, the prime example certainly Rochon Johnson going from quarterback to running back. Although I can tell you, when Rochon got here, the expectation was that he probably wasn't going to remain a quarterback. And what he did is running back was amazing. And that's why he's in the National Football League now. So the question went back to Sark is he still considering adding a non running back converting him over and into the running back room? Yeah, no, we're looking at some different options. And I think we're looking at it creatively, you know, whether it's a couple of guys on the offensive side of the ball of the potential player on the defensive side of the ball or two for that matter. So we're kind of taking it day by day again, we've got plenty of time. We're just trying to get a sense and a feel of how not only will they play on offense at runner, but how does that impact us at other positions if we take a player? So we're looking at it, not just kind of the immediate fix at running back, but also kind of from a 10,000 foot view of how it could affect other position groups too, if we take a player from there. Yeah, it's a very good point, Robbing Peter to pay Paul, you're trying to shore a point area. Maybe you if you plug one hole, you heavily get another. So that's part of what they're having to do. And then finally, one other thing, Sark was asked for an update about the battle on the corners with a cornerback position, but he was also asked for an update on one specific guy that you've heard him describing glowing terms. And that's Leunga Lefau, not only for what he gives them in terms of the energy and all that sort of stuff, but his ex, his leadership in the locker room, what he does on the field, how he, how hard he works on special teams, how hard he works in the linebacker course. So Sark was some thoughts on Lefau and also the guys who have stood up and stood out at the corner position. You know, Leunga is, is such like the, the do right player, you know, he's, he's always spot on with what he's supposed to do, run fits, you know, pass coverage, special teams. The thing that I've been impressed with him this year, as opposed to his true freshman year, I really feel like he's cutting it loose more. You know, he's, he's confident and, and knowing and what he needs to do and he, he's letting it go. And in turn, I think he's in and around the ball more often than he was a year ago. So that's been impressive. I think Manny has played at a very high level at corner. I think Jada and Jalen when they've, when they've gone out to corner have done some really nice things. I think Kobe Black has made really good strides from spring to, to fall camp. And I think we're getting the best version of Gavin Holmes right now. So we're, we're in a pretty good spot there right now. Okay. There's some more thoughts from Sark and again, the team will have a practice late this afternoon early this evening and as they continue their work and we'll probably hear from a couple of Longhorn players tomorrow as well. All right. We've got some baseball notes we need to get to. Those are next when we continue on sports radio AM 13 under the zone in the IR radio