Below are Coach Steve Sarkisian's complete answers to questions today involving the transfer of freshman quarterback Ricky Town.
Opening statement:
SS: "Obviously, you guys have probably heard the news, Ricky Town has decided to transfer. I wish him the best of luck. He’s worked extremely hard. He’s been a great member of our program. I’m sure wherever he decides to go he’ll be a great member of that program as well."
Is that something that’s been brewing?
SS: "Today was the first I'd heard of it. I just met with Ricky and he decided that he wanted to move on. I wished him luck."
There are probably a lot of kids that have those thoughts. Do you make any attempt to tell them take a couple days to think about it?
SS: "I think every scenario is different. I think you assess it all. I think at the end of the day, it’s like anything, you want somebody that wants to be here. And if they don’t, the timing was kind of right for him. We haven’t started school, he could potentially go somewhere else, get in school, redshirt this fall and be able to go. If it were January, it might be a different scenario. But I think the timing was kind of right for him, if that’s what he wanted to do. And that’s what he did, so we wished him luck."
Do you have enough quarterbacks to make it through the season?
SS: "We’re great."
Any chance that Jalen Greene moves back to quarterback?
SS: "He’s doing really well at wideout right now. He’s helping us. He’s done a good job. I think all this really does is give Sam (Darnold) more reps. We’re really pleased with what Cody (Kessler) is doing and what Max (Browne) is doing and now Sam gets more reps. If we go through three quarterbacks in one year we’re going to be in trouble at any level, never mind ours."
How have you felt about Darnold?
SS: "I think Sam’s doing well. He’s playing good football. I think this is a lot of football going on right now for him. There’s a lot of offense, there’s a lot of defense, there’s a lot of special situations and scenarios going on. He’s working his way through it. He has some really cool flashes where he’s making some plays and he has some other plays where we got to coach him. That’s our job. And we have to help him develop."
Do you think Darnold’s play affected his decision?
SS: "I don’t know. You’d have to ask Ricky that."
Do you know where he’s going?
SS: "I have no idea."
Do you think it’s inevitable or probable that at some point one of those kids is going to leave?
SS: "I don’t know that to be true. I can go all the way back to Matt Leinart and Billy Hart. We took them both in the same class. They both stuck it out all the way through, one guy wins the Heisman, the other guy’s probably going to be the GM of the New York Yankees here someday. Everything is different. Cody and Max (Wittek) came in together, for unforeseen circumstances, Max isn’t here. But you work your way through it. The quarterback position is unique because you don’t get to play two of them at the same time. It’s not like a wide receiver or a DB. It’s a unique position that way and it takes a certain type of makeup to envision three or four years down the road, and it not always about what’s going on right now, but what s happening down the road.
"I think Cody is a great example of that. The guy was barely third string when he first got going here and now he’s on the cover of every magazine in America. But his story’s not always like everybody else's. Matt Cassel’s a different story, where the guy never started a game, he’s still playing in the NFL today. It’s just a unique position that way. Everybody approaches it differently. Hey, I transferred when I went to college too. I don’t judge anybody for staying, leaving, for anything. You have to make decisions for what you think is in your own best interest and then you move forward. That’s what life is all about."
Does it impact recruiting for the next class in term of quarterbacks?
SS: "We’re not going to force it, I guess is the best way to say it. I have to be delicate in how I address recruiting. If it feels right, we’ll take the necessary number of quarterbacks we need for our roster, but we're not going to force it."
Opening statement:
SS: "Obviously, you guys have probably heard the news, Ricky Town has decided to transfer. I wish him the best of luck. He’s worked extremely hard. He’s been a great member of our program. I’m sure wherever he decides to go he’ll be a great member of that program as well."
Is that something that’s been brewing?
SS: "Today was the first I'd heard of it. I just met with Ricky and he decided that he wanted to move on. I wished him luck."
There are probably a lot of kids that have those thoughts. Do you make any attempt to tell them take a couple days to think about it?
SS: "I think every scenario is different. I think you assess it all. I think at the end of the day, it’s like anything, you want somebody that wants to be here. And if they don’t, the timing was kind of right for him. We haven’t started school, he could potentially go somewhere else, get in school, redshirt this fall and be able to go. If it were January, it might be a different scenario. But I think the timing was kind of right for him, if that’s what he wanted to do. And that’s what he did, so we wished him luck."
Do you have enough quarterbacks to make it through the season?
SS: "We’re great."
Any chance that Jalen Greene moves back to quarterback?
SS: "He’s doing really well at wideout right now. He’s helping us. He’s done a good job. I think all this really does is give Sam (Darnold) more reps. We’re really pleased with what Cody (Kessler) is doing and what Max (Browne) is doing and now Sam gets more reps. If we go through three quarterbacks in one year we’re going to be in trouble at any level, never mind ours."
How have you felt about Darnold?
SS: "I think Sam’s doing well. He’s playing good football. I think this is a lot of football going on right now for him. There’s a lot of offense, there’s a lot of defense, there’s a lot of special situations and scenarios going on. He’s working his way through it. He has some really cool flashes where he’s making some plays and he has some other plays where we got to coach him. That’s our job. And we have to help him develop."
Do you think Darnold’s play affected his decision?
SS: "I don’t know. You’d have to ask Ricky that."
Do you know where he’s going?
SS: "I have no idea."
Do you think it’s inevitable or probable that at some point one of those kids is going to leave?
SS: "I don’t know that to be true. I can go all the way back to Matt Leinart and Billy Hart. We took them both in the same class. They both stuck it out all the way through, one guy wins the Heisman, the other guy’s probably going to be the GM of the New York Yankees here someday. Everything is different. Cody and Max (Wittek) came in together, for unforeseen circumstances, Max isn’t here. But you work your way through it. The quarterback position is unique because you don’t get to play two of them at the same time. It’s not like a wide receiver or a DB. It’s a unique position that way and it takes a certain type of makeup to envision three or four years down the road, and it not always about what’s going on right now, but what s happening down the road.
"I think Cody is a great example of that. The guy was barely third string when he first got going here and now he’s on the cover of every magazine in America. But his story’s not always like everybody else's. Matt Cassel’s a different story, where the guy never started a game, he’s still playing in the NFL today. It’s just a unique position that way. Everybody approaches it differently. Hey, I transferred when I went to college too. I don’t judge anybody for staying, leaving, for anything. You have to make decisions for what you think is in your own best interest and then you move forward. That’s what life is all about."
Does it impact recruiting for the next class in term of quarterbacks?
SS: "We’re not going to force it, I guess is the best way to say it. I have to be delicate in how I address recruiting. If it feels right, we’ll take the necessary number of quarterbacks we need for our roster, but we're not going to force it."
