Sure, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian knows it’s hot. He just spent a couple of hours Wednesday in the mid-day heat in a black Longhorns T-shirt, orchestrating the first summer practice of the season at the Frank Denius Fields on the eastern edge of campus.
Yes, Sarkisian also knows his talented team has genuine hopes of playing football until Jan. 20, the date of the Bowl Championship Series title game that caps the first 12-team playoff.
But he also knows he can’t worry about pacing his squad just quite yet — especially as he and his coaching staff try to set the tone for a program coming off a 12-2 season, a Big 12 championship and the school’s first appearance in a BCS playoff.
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Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers drops back to pass during the first summer practice for the Longhorns at Denius Fields on Wednesday. Texas enters its first season in the SEC with high expectations after going 12-2 and reaching the College Football Playoff a year ago.
“We’re going to go hard for the first two and a half weeks,” Sarkisian said during his first press conference of the preseason. “I think that’s a mindset. You know, we believe in the toughness in our program. And we have to push them (the players) to places where maybe they think they couldn’t go and then excel in those places.”
Sarkisian tempered that tough talk with a shoutout to his medical staff and the “sports science” that he says increases the efficiency of practice as well as the safety of the players. But the message was still sent with the two-hour practice that kicked off just before 3 p.m., and the players seemed to embrace the challenge.
“We had really good energy, and the guys came out with really good intent,” Sarkisian said. “It just felt…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/steve-sarkisian-sets-high-tempo-001210372.html
Author : Austin American-Statesman
Publish date : 2024-08-01 00:12:10
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