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Tonight is the first It’s Always Sunny on the Hilltop show. What follows are notes and observations — not quoted word for word, but ideas leading into Saturday’s opener against Abilene Christian.

Offensive coordinator Garrett Riley confirms Tanner Mordecai will start. Learned the offense, moved the ball, showed he can put us in position to score.

"Lot of value in that he has played ... some meaningful snaps at OU ... familiar with me and our philosophy."

Garrett Riley on Preston Stone: Better than (Riley) expected. Doesn't get phased, things roll off his back.

On Derek Green: made one of the biggest jumps, learned a lot from Shane Buechele, has gotten a lot better.

Ulysses Bentley was limited because of reduced depth last year, but very dynamic.

Tre Siggers is a pro, just what we needed, a big addition to offense

("How's Reggie Roberson?")

"I can't wait to see him play Saturday."

"Jordan (Kerley) has done a really good job — big, skilled, picked up the offense quickly, done a great job adjusting to our system"

"With him (Grant Calcaterra), there were some things medically. He was committed to Auburn, but there were some changes there. He's a pro, got a great mindset, heck of a competitor, ultra-skilled."

Beau Morris moves to left tackle, Jaylon Thomas to left guard, Justin Osborne to right tackle

(Osborne) is a heck of a player, a guy I would expect to see a big jump from this year

Sonny Dykes:

"This time last year, I was pondering whether we would have a game ... when we went last year to Texas State, we got to the hotel and got a call from TCU saying they were cancelling (the following week). The whole thing was surreal."

98% (vaccinated) ... it talks a lot about the culture. There's a lot of misinformation out there ... it's guys saying "I'm going to do what's best for my teammate, even if it makes me uncomfortable ... look out for each other ... really proud of them"

Weirdest part was getting to the hotel on Friday, lot of time to spend with each other, the only time of the week that was downtime ... I would bounce around at dinner, catch up ... we went to the hotel, went to our rooms and didn't see each other much. At some point, you've got to relax and get away a little bit, get to know them on the more personal level.

"I've been impressed with all of them (QBs). Derek made a huge jump in the spring, you could tell he worked really hard.

Preston rolled in here and competed from Day 1 — he's got a skill set that's really impressive. Best thing is the maturity, calmness — really a steady guy.

Tanner just kind of picked up where he left off. Solidified the position in the last 6-7 days, made a move in the middle of last week, really comfortable with what he's doing, got consistent. What separated him was that he's a mature guy, backed up Jalen Hurts (at OU) and almost won the job. Same thing last year with Spencer Rattler — Jalen was drafted pretty high, they say Spencer might be first draft pick. He can run, he's got a big arm."

"Shane had started 19 games at Texas when we got him — that's what made him a little different. These guys will have growing pains, they'll make mistakes, but at the same time, there's a really high ceiling with this group."

Sonny Dykes on 9-1 record the last two years at Ford Stadium:

"I think our guys are just comfortable. That's the big advantage. We practice with crowd noise/music — something distracting. So we're pretty comfortable playing in front of loud crowds on the road, but there's nothing like playing at home. They love our student body, who's getting more and more involved. That's part of having local kids ... having people walk out of the stadiums and have people there who care about them."

(On TCU)
"We're excited about that. We always want to play good people, and TCU is supposed to have one of its better teams in a while. We're not looking ahead — we would never do that."

On Shaine Hailey getting Jerry LeVias's No. 23 jersey

Shaine's just one of those guys who is so valuable to this program. Everyone respects him. Works so hard — not just on the field, but in the classroom, but he also helps off the field, helping people who need it. We (coaches) can't say enough about what he does.

"He's a Dallas guy, he loves the city, he cares about the city."

"You're never comfortable or satisfied. In some ways, we're a little bit ahead of where I thought we'd be — part of that is the transfer portal. But I like the roster, top to bottom. We're a little deeper, and we look a little different. We have more guys — the roster is much improved. That's important, because we want to be a team that plays as hard as anybody in the country. That's hard to do, but if you can play 35-50 snaps and then have someone else come in and do the same thing, it lets you play hard."

"Our standard has been raised every year, and our guys have a good of what excellence looks like."

(On preparation for November)
"Part of it has got to do with the depth that we talked about — when we have had injuries, we haven't been able to replace those guys with guys who are ready to play at that level. My hope is that we can spread reps out and keep guys fresh."