Sarkisian recaps first UT scrimmage
The first snap of the 2023 football season at Texas won’t be taken until Sept. 2. That means the Longhorns don’t really need to start worrying about wins and losses until Rice comes to town in a few weeks. Any statistics compiled in early August don’t count.
Still, there was some meaningful football played in Austin over the weekend. Texas held the first scrimmage of its fall camp Saturday morning. Two days later, UT coach Steve Sarkisian reflected that “it was a very good first scrimmage for us.”
“It was highly competitive,” Sarkisian continued. The coach added that he felt his defense tackled well. The Longhorns also didn’t add any names to their injury report, which was a win in itself since the team lost offensive lineman Junior Angilau and receiver Isaiah Neyor to knee injuries during the first scrimmage of last year’s fall camp.
Only family members were allowed to attend the 130-play scrimmage at Royal-Memorial Stadium, so reporters had to wait until Monday to ask how the quarterbacks fared. Sarkisian said that Quinn Ewers, the incumbent starter, was efficient. The pass that Ewers had intercepted by veteran safety Jerrin Thompson in a two-minute drill? “Not on him, but that rapport with his receivers that we’ve got to keep working on,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian hinted that redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy is struggling with consistency. Sarkisian, though, declined to say whether Murphy or true freshman Arch Manning has secured the backup spot behind Ewers.
Speaking of Manning, the five-star newcomer showcased his legs in Saturday’s scrimmage. Sarkisian said that Manning extended a drive with a thirddown run. He also had a long touchdown run on another third-down play.
“I think he hit 20 miles-an-hour (on the touchdown run), which was pretty impressive,” Sarkisian said. “He didn’t even know he could go 20 miles-anhour, so it’s a nice play by him.”
Manning wasn’t the only member of UT’s 2023 recruiting class that stood out. Sarkisian said defensive backs Jelani
McDonald and Derek Williams, running back Quintrevion Wisner and linebacker Anthony Hill all had nice days.
Freshman cornerback Malik Muhammad was responsible for two turnovers. He returned an interception for a touchdown and forced a fumble from star tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders. The 6foot, 181-pound Muhammad was a fourstar prospect who won two state championships at Dallas South Oak Cliff, and Sarkisian said he’s helping UT create depth at both the boundary and field cornerback positions.
“You can tell that he’s been coached, like he had a great coach in high school,” fellow cornerback Ryan Watts said of Muhammad last week. “Everything he knows, from formations to plays, he plays like an older guy.”
There were three turnovers recorded, which Sarkisian remarked “is too many for the offense.” Sarkisian also saw a handful of pre-snap infractions, which is not ideal for a team that is coming off a season in which it was one of two Big 12 teams to average six penalties a game.
Additionally, Sarkisian expressed concern about the team’s conditioning. The players are in shape, but Sarkisian retorted that “there’s a difference in being able to run, there’s a difference in being in game shape. Games last threeand-a-half hours, right?” He said there was a notable lack of energy after a simulated halftime break that lasted eight minutes. The focus of the players and consistency in play also dipped in the scrimmage’s second half.
“What I didn’t like was not that it was about the physical conditioning of what we were about, there were too many mental lapses late,” Sarkisian said. “So that’s what I was stressing upon the guys, and so that’s why we kind of structured practice the way we did today. I thought today was much better. That’s as much on me as it is on them as a coach of putting them in those situations to get them comfortable handling it.”
Texas returned to practice on Monday afternoon. The team’s next scrimmage is this weekend. Sarkisian said last week that the team’s depth chart should start to solidify after that second scrimmage.