The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Video: Allstate Sugar Bowl Head Coaches Press Conference
12.31.2023 | Football
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke with the media ahead of the 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Transcript from the Allstate Sugar Bowl Head Coaches Press Conference
WASHINGTON HEAD COACH KALEN DeBOER: Good morning. Great to be here. It's been an awesome week. Our guys, I asked them yesterday, and they said it's been flying by. So I guess that's a good sign they're having fun and enjoying the moment that comes along with being in this position. So proud of the way our guys have handled the work, whether it be before we got here, once we arrived, and just ready to play. It's a long month, a lot of work. Coach Sark (Steve Sarkisian) and I were just talking about everything that happens here in December. But it's been a great month for our guys and leading up to this game. I also want to congratulate Coach Sarkisian with the work he's put in. We played a year ago. You can just see the growth and development of the football team he's overseeing, and the staff's obviously done a great job there. So, we're looking forward to a great battle. It's going to be certainly a challenge, and Coach Sark has done a great job of getting his team to this point here this year.
TEXAS HEAD COACH STEVE SARKISIAN: Good morning, everybody. I think a lot of what I have to say is going to echo Coach [Kalen] DeBoer. This has been a great week for us. I would just like to thank the Sugar Bowl, their representatives. The hospitality has been tremendous. The efficiency that we have been able to work with at the hotel, at the Superdome to make our players' lives as seamless as possible. To enjoy the experiences has definitely shown out to be that way. I do, again, echo Coach DeBoer. This has been a lot this month, so it's finally fun to be a day away from the ball game. I know our players are excited to play in the game. They're looking forward to it. They feel like they've earned this opportunity to be in this position, and they're excited for it. As far as University of Washington and Coach DeBoer, they have got a heck of a team. We know that firsthand from a year ago. Got a ton of respect for that program, that university and my time there, but even more so for the job that they've done over the past couple of years. They've assembled a great team, great staff. It shows on tape. They win a lot of games. They win a lot of close games. I think that shows a sign of leadership and culture that they have there. So, it's going to be a great challenge. It's going to be a great game. What a setting for college football, primetime Monday night with all eyes on us.
Q. Speaking with Jordan [Whittington] twice throughout the week, and he said something. I want to get your thoughts. He said a lot of the young guys on this team, they are cognizant of the moment. They aren't taking this moment for granted, understanding they don't have two or three years to try to get back in this position. They are cognizant of what they can accomplish this year. I wondered if you could expand on his comments a little bit.
COACH SARKISIAN: I think to get to this stage in a season is really hard to do. There's only four of us left. And the four teams left are all very good football teams, and there's probably another six or seven teams that are saying we should in that position and watch what we would have done. Like I say, ourselves, University of Washington, we've earned the right to be in this ball game. And it's an unbelievable opportunity not just for this season but for, I think, anybody throughout their career, whether you're a player or coach, because you never know when you get this opportunity again. So, I think his messaging is, if I'm understanding it correctly, is cherish the moment, cherish the opportunity, don't take it for granted because you never know. We could have a great team next year or two years from now, but because of the way the chips fall, you don't get into this final four. And I understand that the playoff is looking to change and expand in the next year or two. And however, that looks, none of us really know. So to be in this position this season and today I think is one that we definitely don't want to take for granted. We want to cherish the moment and make the most of it.
Q. Coach Sark, you talked about the guys getting really dialed in 24 hours before the game. What do you do to get dialed in?
COACH SARKISIAN: I relax. (Laughter.) I get dialed in by being around our players, being around our coaches, finding my own rhythm, my own routine. But I'm not the guy that wakes up at 4:00 in the morning and goes for a 10-mile run. I can promise you that. Just look at me. So I just kind of go with the flow, and that gets me dialed in. When I find our own rhythm and I see our players in their rhythm and our coaching staff and everybody on board, that kind of gets me in the space of it's time to go. And we've got a long way to go, still. 7:45 kick, there's a lot of time between now and then. And I think that's one thing that we need to be aware of, is not trying to get too high too soon, right? You have to build for this. And so hopefully we're in the right frame of mind when that ball's kicked.
Q. Really for both of you, if we were to walk around your hotel tonight and talk to members of your staff, your players, or ask them, "What's the philosophy of the program? What matters most around the program," what do you think they would say within both of your respective programs?
COACH DeBOER: I think, hopefully, our guys would feel like it's a player-led program. It's one where the coaches give the direction and show the roadmap to success and show what accountability looks like. Provide opportunities where we can build family amongst and brotherhood amongst our team. But in the end, our program's brought to life because of the ownership that our guys have and how we do things and what we do. And that accountability isn't just coming from the coaches. That's from the players to each other. So, I would hope they would say player-led, that there's a culture of family, accountable, toughness in everything that we do, both on and off the field.
COACH SARKISIAN: I would say for us, I would say -- I would imagine one of the things out of the mouths would be our culture. I know that because the players have put so much time and effort into our culture, I think that they take a lot of pride in that. So I would imagine that would be one of the first things out of their mouths. And I'd say the second thing would probably be the standard. They understand there's a standard to which we do things here on and off the field, in the classroom, in the community, whatever that is, that they hold each other to. And so those would probably be two of the first things that would come out of the mouths of the majority of our players.
Q. Kalen DeBoer, first of all, congratulations. I'm curious, since watching your team, it seems to me that they thread this really delicate needle of being able to lock in and have this complete, intense focus and, yet also play free and loose and with joy. I just wonder how you -- I don't know if you cultivate a culture where you are playing with that freedom and that joy but also being able to keep the pedal all the way down. And how rare is it?
COACH DeBOER: I think it always comes down to communication. And we are very intentional, not just in season but out of season when the work needs to be done. The guys always say the work is the work and being able to flip the switch from having a great time in the locker room before you walk out on the football field for practice and being able to flip that switch and go to work. And understanding that the preparation is what's going to lead to confidence and your success and production on game days. So, I think that's a big piece of it, is just our guys really -- us communicating and talking about it, being intentional. And the maturity of our football team, I think, also helps us maybe go above and beyond maybe most teams. They've put a lot into this. They have invested a lot of time. We have nine sixth-year guys in the program that have poured a lot into this program, UDub. Other sixth-year guys that have maybe joined us, Michael Penix, for example. Those guys don't take anything for granted, much like the question I was asked earlier. They are certainly very cognizant of the moment we're in. They've worked hard to get to this spot. They've made sacrifices to stick around another year and get to this final four and this opportunity to compete for a national championship.
Q. For Coach Sark, how have you been able to keep your players focused with such a long break after the Big 12 championship and this week being here in New Orleans?
COACH SARKISIAN: I think a couple of things we've done over this month is compartmentalize the month. When we got out of the Big 12 championship game, I felt like we needed almost two full weeks to one, recover. That was a long grind. That was a long season. It was a physical season. We had bumps and bruises just like every other team in the country. Two, we were heading into finals, and I wanted to make sure that our guys did a great job finishing up school with papers and taking their finals. And three, I think they needed a little time away from us, too. (Laughter.) As players and coaches, when you go through that long of a season through August, sometimes getting away a little bit and then coming back together was important. So, we did that for almost the first two weeks. We came back together and then had almost training camp-like practices or spring ball-type practices where it wasn't about game planning. It was just keeping our competitive juices flowing and going against one another good on good. Then we started to get into the game plan, and we started giving it to them kind of in small pieces to keep them hungry for more. And then we took a little bit of a break for Christmas, and everybody went home to see their families. And then when we came back here, it was all this was a business trip. But in the end, I want to make sure our guys enjoyed their time here. And I appreciate the leadership on our team for what these guys are doing. Two different times this week I've kind of gone down by the player hospitality suite in the evening, and it almost feels like our entire team is in there together. And as a coach, that's what you're looking for. You're looking for that bond. You're looking for that connectivity with your team. We don't have a bunch of kind of lone wolves out there running around. Our team is sticking together. And to me, like I said, I think that speaks to our culture, that these guys are focused on the task and they're doing it together.
Q. Steve, would you call Coach [Kalen] DeBoer a big trick-play guy? And everybody knows you've thrown a touchdown pass to your defensive tackles. Do you go back to Sioux Fall days to check out what he's running?
COACH SARKISIAN: I'd call Coach DeBoer a good coach. I'd start with that. Excellent, excellent schemes and they tax you a lot of ways, from the run game to the precision-passing game to the play-action pass down on the field shots to the trick plays. And I think that's a sign of a really good coach that he's got versatility to their scheme. And they keep you on your toes. You have to defend all of that. And I think, like I said, that's a good sign of a really good offensive football team. That's a sign of a really good coach, which Coach DeBoer is, and he has been throughout his career. And it definitely shows up with this team at Washington. They have got the scheme, and they have got the players to execute it. And put those two things together, that's why they're a very dangerous team.
Q. You mentioned coming in here that you've been talking about the last month and everything that you have to balance. When the playoff expands, that first round is going to start on December 20, which interestingly enough was the early signing period. So do you have any suggestions to the other coaches and the other staffs that are going to have to go through trying to balance everything that goes into a busy December?
COACH SARKISIAN: I don't know. This was really challenging, especially those first two weeks coming out of the conference championship games, which we obviously both played in. I'd have a hard time trying to imagine having to prepare for a playoff game and have Signing Day and talking to players on your own team about if they're thinking of going into the portal, trying to look at who's going in the portal from other schools, having other coaches that just got new jobs trying to hire coaches off your staff. So, there's -- there's a lot in that month. And so, I'm hopeful people that are a lot smarter than me can figure out a calendar that best suits what college football is today. I think the calendar that we had was very good for the original model, but that model has changed dramatically. Early signing period changed it. The portal changed it. But because of early signing period, coaches are getting fired earlier so that schools can hire new coaches to recruit to that early signing period, which now exposes your coaching staff to getting hired and going somewhere else. There's a lot of moving parts going on right now in college football that I hope people are sitting down and really being thoughtful to what is best for our sport right now in the timing of some of these things. I don't have all the answers. I don't pretend to right now, but I do know it was taxing for us. And I think to speak for Coach [Kalen] DeBoer on this, I think for them as well. I'm hopeful it's only going to be more with an earlier game. Hopefully, they can figure out a better mechanism to get all of this done.
COACH DeBOER: You saw how quick I was to push that question to Coach Sark (Steve Sarkisian), right? I thought it was a great explanation of what we've been through as well in December here. And I think we're so in the moment right now with what our season is and the schedule is now, but I know thinking ahead and understanding that a year from now, there will be another game added here in December earlier, you start thinking about those things. And just like Coach Sark said, I don't have the answers right now. Certainly, I think as coaches we need to be open to working together here in the months ahead to have input and come up with ways to try to always improve it. You've always got to think it's going to evolve and having tweaks here and there every year. There isn't probably a perfect model. You just live and learn and try to continue to improve things. So again, I don't have the answer either right now. It was a crazy month, especially the first probably three weeks. Like Coach said, getting ready to play a game on December 20, one that means something as far as going to -- working your way to a national championship, that seems pretty taxing, just thinking about that component and that possibility.
Q. Coach Sark, with this Washington team, what are some of the keys you need to see from your guys on both sides to combat what they do?
COACH SARKISIAN: Well, I think the first part, one thing that gets lost in -- when you watch Washington, everybody wants to talk about Michael Penix, the receivers and the high-flying explosive plays and all that. This is a physical team. And so, I think the level of physicality in which we play the game is important in this ball game. I think naturally they're a big-play, explosive offense. How do we try to minimize those to the best of our ability? How do we on our end try to create some of those? This is a very opportunistic defense. They create turnovers. Protecting the ball, the ball will be critical. And then knowing that having a month layoff that our players can find their rhythm in the game as quickly as possible by having not played for about a month.
Q. For Kalen, I'm just curious as you go into the game tomorrow and tonight what your temperament is like. As you're getting ready for bed tonight or whatever it may be, are the butterflies starting to crop up? Are there nerves there? How would you describe as a coach what you're feeling in this moment?
COACH DeBOER: Yeah, I think you're trying to make sure all the preparation for the guys tonight, we'll have some meetings this afternoon and evening and a chance to get together as a team. I think there's always perspective, right? And I think that's what's helped our team. I referred to the maturity that we have, but understanding what the keys are to the game and the things and what that looks like tomorrow with our schedule leading up to kickoff and just them feeling confident, that there's going to be nothing that's coming their way that they weren't alerted to. The preparation for the game has been ongoing for a couple weeks now. They're pretty well-versed in what they're to expect and what our plan is. I hope our guys, just like we've always talked, trust and believe in the preparation they've had. There should be a few butterflies and probably more of an excitement to get to kickoff. I think having done this for so many years, you get to that first snap, that first play, and then you just kick into coach mode, player mode, and you're back to doing what you've done for hundreds of games. And so, obviously, there's more at stake, which makes it more exciting. And all the pageantry around the game certainly doesn't fall on us and get lost there. But, man, it comes down to playing the game when the kickoff happens. And there's excitement around it, but our guys are going to hopefully be in the mindset to just cut it loose and let it be and trust and believe in who we are and let the results take care of themselves.
Q. For both of you, unique paths here. When you look back on your careers, was there ever a point maybe when you were riding buses in South Dakota or you had a setback in your career like you did, Sark (Steve Sarkisian), where you thought this wouldn't be possible for me, to be in this position? Maybe you looked at the playoff game and thought, "Hmmm, I wonder if I'll ever be able to do that."
COACH SARKISIAN: Yeah. Hell, yeah, I did. Geez. I was out of work. Couldn't get an interview, never mind a job, never mind thinking about the College Football Playoffs. Sure, it did. I think that's what makes part of this journey with this team this year probably so gratifying. Naturally, you appreciate the commitment that these guys put forth and all of that. But when you take a moment to reflect, like I'm doing right now, you think back to that moment when -- like I said, you don't have a job, you can't get an interview, and you're just trying to get back into the profession, never mind thinking about being here with an opportunity to go play for a national championship. So, I think part of that puts things into perspective in that you appreciate the opportunities that you get. You appreciate the people that you're around every day. And you try to pour into those people. And when you pour into them, sometimes you get results like this, and you get on teams like this, and you get to be part of special seasons like this. So very grateful and thankful for the opportunity here, from the University of Texas, but also from the opportunity and appreciation for these players and the staff and the work that they've done to get us to this point. So, it's fascinating to think of the journey that me personally, that I've been on, to get to this point. But I'm hopeful that my story can serve as some sort of motivation to others. We don't have to stay where we are in life. If we have our goals set on something and we live a life of doing things the right way and do the next right thing and treat people well and work hard, be disciplined, be focused, hold yourself accountable, be committed to something, have some mental toughness to overcome the adversity that we have, we can change, right? Life can change. Life can change for the better. And that's no different for our players, either. So, hopefully, I can serve a little bit of a model of that, that we can change the narrative for ourselves, and we can build towards something even greater than we have right now. And like I said, there was a moment there where, yeah, for sure I thought that way. But not anymore; here we are.
Q. How have your teams changed the most since you played a year ago?
COACH DeBOER: I think probably just another year of being in both offensive and defensive systems, special teams as well. I think we've continued to improve it with our special teams play. I think our defense, I think, the latter part of last season started picking up some steam and has just continued with that consistency here this season. I think offensively, we've become not just a pass first and only pass. I think, again, at the end of last season, we got that balance toward the end of the year. And this year as we had a couple new pieces added to the offensive line and even at running back, I think here the second half of this season we're a different team that way as well with the feeling that we can play a physical style of football and run and pass equally effective. So, I think those are the areas. I think just everything is just raised -- we've just raised the bar in all areas. A lot of it has to do with the continuity of our coaching staff, and the continuity of the players that are out there making plays on game day.
COACH SARKISIAN: I would say for us, probably the maturity of our team has really improved. A year ago, we were relying on a couple, two or three leaders to kind of lead, which we all know. Bijan [Robinson], Roschon [Johnson], DeMarvion [Overshown], those guys were great leaders in our program. As they moved on, there was a group of guys that really had to step up. And I credit them because they've done it. Whether on the offensive side of the ball, whether it was Quinn [Ewers], JT (Ja'Tavion Sanders), Christian [Jones], Jake Majors, J. Whitt (Jordan Whittington), Xavier [Worthy], those guys have really stepped up. Defensively, what [T'Vondre] Sweat and [Maalik] Murphy have done. Where we had [Keondre] Coburn and Moro [Ojomo] a year ago, for them to step up. Jaylan Ford, Jaron Thompson, Jahdae Barron, those guys have really stepped up. Like I told them going into the season, they didn't just buy in to what we were talking about, they elevated it. And I think to me, that's probably the biggest change on our team, is that we don't have 115 guys looking at three to lead them. I feel like we've got 30 to 40 true leaders on this team now that's kind of spread throughout. And guys are holding each other accountable on a much different level than we were a year ago at this time.
Q. Coach Sarkisian, talked to Jaylan Ford, Christian Jones, and other guys and they said like the moment they really started to believe in you guys as a staff, it really occurred at that Alabama loss the previous year. Do you feel like that was the moment that you felt like that the guys started to believe? And if it was, then how important was it? Even though it was a loss, how important was that moment?
COACH SARKISIAN: Well, I think naturally -- and year one was a really difficult season in that we were -- we were trying to -- trying to turn the ship, right, in the right direction. And we lost a couple really tough games against good teams. And we were struggling to kind of get our footing back in. You end the season 5-7, you're wondering is this the right path as a player. As a coach, I felt great about what we were doing. I knew it was going to be a process. So when year two came and we had a great offseason, I felt like we had a really good roster. And we played Bama earlier in the year with a very talented team, with Bryce Young and Will Anderson and that crew. To play them the way we played them, I think for the players it was an a-ha moment in that everything Coach is talking about, we actually are capable of. Now we have to put the final pieces together to really learn how to finish. That was a whole process. That took a whole other year to really get that done for us. But naturally, now, I think there is a level of belief in the fourth quarter of these games, when the games are tight, that we can find a way to win, that we're versatile enough to find a way to win in whatever phase, offense, defense, or special teams, to make that play in that critical moment. I do think there's something to be said for playing those types of games early in the season because it does give you -- it gives you a sense of a little bit of a bar of where you are at, where you need to improve, and what another one of the best teams in the country looks like and how you measured up against them early in the season.
