The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
12.15.2021 | Football
Football head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke with the media about the Longhorns' 2022 signing class on Wednesday.
Texas Football Head Coach Steve Sarkisian Opening Statement
"I always joke about people saying, 'Everybody has a really good signing date.' I've never heard a coach get up and say that they didn't have a really good signing day and a really good effective signing day and address the needs of their team and all those things. I feel like I'm the cliché here today, I feel like we did that. Today went really well for us; it's not over yet. It's obviously a pretty unique time, having an early signing period that inevitably now becomes the real signing day. What used to be the first Wednesday of February, now we're mid-December. It's interesting that way, we're not done yet. I think there's still some things to come. But inevitably, credit to the staff, not only the coaches, but the recruiting department identifying the players, not only from a skillset standpoint, but from a character standpoint, from a football IQ standpoint, from finding the right mesh on our team, to go where we want to go from a cultural standpoint, I think all of which were big. I think, clearly, we address some pressing needs that we felt like were on our roster. Clearly, getting both quarterbacks (transfer Quinn Ewers and incoming freshman Maalik Murphy) in and on board were big for us, (as well as) addressing some needs on the offensive line, addressing some needs on the defensive front, and then clearly addressing some needs in the defensive secondary. So, all in all, the days have gone well. I like the mix of the guys that we have. I said early on have to have big humans. You have to be able to play big upfront, and I think we addressed that. But I do think we (also) addressed some of the needs in the secondary, which are important for us moving forward. That's not to neglect the other positions where we got players, but clearly those were the areas where we needed some numbers, and they needed bodies, and we needed quality not just quantity. I'm glad that we didn't settle. I think there was a time earlier in the year when there was a lot of talk that we didn't have enough linemen and what were we going to do. I mentioned then that we didn't want to settle, we want to recruit the best players that fit us the best. We stuck to our guns and for the most part, it worked out. You don't win every battle in recruiting and you don't get every kid that you want in your program, you just try to get the majority of those. I think that we did that, so, all in all, pretty good day."
