SEC Media Days: Why Steve Sarkisian Says Texas' Success Has Been 'A Long Time Coming'

The Longhorns last year had their best season in more than a decade, and the UT coach believes that created a hunger that can propel them to contend for an SEC championship.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian / John E. Hoover / Sooners on SI

DALLAS — Can Texas live up to the expectations?

The Longhorns are coming off a memorable season and have been a trendy early pick to slide seamlessly into their first year in the Southeastern Conference and even contend for another College Football Playoff spot.

But given the new conference landscape and UT being a front-runner this year instead of a hungry contender, does reigning Big 12 Coach of the Year Steve Sarkisian have reason to fear  a drop-off in 2024?

No way, Sarkisian said.

“Our goal is to come into this conference you compete for a conference championship,” he said on Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days at the Omni Hotel. “That's — it is what it is. That's why you go to the University of Texas.

“At the University of Texas, the standard is the standard.”

Sarkisian said part of that “standard” is the culture, which apparently needed a bit of a refit just a few years ago after some critics and even former players said the culture had slid into a “Club Med” mentality.

That’s now apparently a thing of the past. At least Sarkisian feels that way going into his fourth season.

“I think this team has been really, really focused,” Sarkisian said. “You know, it's been a long time coming for Texas to get back to this stage. Last year was a tremendous run. We fell short in the semifinals in the Sugar Bowl, coming off of being Big 12 champions.”

Sarkisian believes that rather than resting on their laurels, last year’s run created a hunger among the players on this team. Combined with the depth and talent of the roster, “It’s gonna be a great year,” Sarkisian said. 

“This is the deepest team we've had, probably the most talented team we've had, in my four years here,” Sarkisian said. “I can unequivocally say that.”

Sarkisian, 50, came to Texas with a career .554 winning percentage in stops at Washington and USC. 

The former BYU quarterback had built a reputation as a great offensive mind — and enhanced that during  his short stay as an offensive analyst and coordinator at Alabama, winning the Frank Broyles Award as college football’s top assistant coach — but won nine games only once (he went 9-4 in his first season at USC) before he was fired midway through 2015 due to numerous alcohol-related incidents and a stint in an alcohol rehab facility.

To his credit, Sarkisian has grown as a coach and as a person since then.

“I think I have a much better appreciation for consistency,” Sarkisian said. “And part of that, I think I got a fair amount from Coach Saban, but I didn't know that I would value it as much as I did. Right? Sometimes people think of consistency as mundane. And I don't think it is mundane. I think of structure. Think of organized. I think of discipline. And that suited me well.” 

At Texas, Sarkisian’s tenure started slow, with a 5-7 finish in 2021 and an 8-5 record in 2022. 

But the Longhorns pasted quarterback-less OU 49-0 in Brent Venables’ inaugural season in ’22, then won the Big 12 Conference (despite losing the Red River Rivalry) and advanced to the program’s first College Football Playoff in 2023.

“Hey, I’ll tell you this much: 5-7 in Austin, Texas,  sucks,” Sarkisian said. “That was hard. It was hard on me, it was hard on a lot of people. Then 8-5, that was a little more palatable.”

Now, shouldering the highest expectations on the Forty Acres since the Mack Brown era, fresh off a 12-2 season, a CFP trip and a brand new membership in the SEC, Texas is the preseason darling of college football.

“As far as our transition in the Southeastern Conference, I think the key word is respect,” Sarkisian said. “We have a ton of respect for this conference. We have a ton of respect for the teams, the coaches, the players and the fans.

“I think on the flip side of that, we have to go earn their respect. We're not going to get anything in this deal. Nothing's going to be free, OK? We're gonna have to go earn the respect of our opponents, the opposing coaches, the opposing fans — and that's going to be kind of on the forefront of what we do.”