Steve Sarkisian Joins Elite Texas Longhorns Company With Back-To-Back 10-Win Seasons

Steve Sarkisian is now the third Texas Longhorns coach to have back-to-back 10 win seasons

Nov 23, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian makes his way to Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium before a game against the Kentucky Wildcats. Mandatory Credit: Ricardo B. Brazziell/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images / Ricardo B. Brazziell/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

AUSTIN- With his second 10-win season in a row, Steve Sarkisian is now on the short list of Texas Longhorns head coaches who have done the same. Only two others have achieved the impressive feat, with Darrell K. Royal being the first and Mack Brown being the second.

Last season, Sarkisian led Texas to a 12-2 record and the Longhorns currently sit at 10-1 and are No. 3 in the AP Poll.

Royal achieved the feat two separate times, in the 1963 and 1964 seasons and 1969 and 1970 seasons. From 2001 to 2009, Brown had at least 10 wins every season, including an undefeated 13-0 season in 2005 that Texas capped off with its most recent national championship win.

While understanding the gravity of the moment and the importance of the stat line, Sarkisian is still hungry for more.

"I don't think in my opening press conference, I said, 'Hey, I want to, I came to the University of Texas to win 10 games,' you know," Sarkisian said. "We came here to win championships, you know. And that's that's been our goal, that's been the standard, and that's what we keep striving for, and that's the end result, right? So we always put that at the end."

There was a time when many would have doubted Sarkisian's ability to even get to 10 wins at Texas. After going 5-7 in his first year, he bounced back with an 8-5 record. He only continued to improve, and now with at least two games left on the schedule, he's already reached 10 wins. He left the Big 12 as the champion of the league and now has the chance to play for the SEC championship in Texas' first year in the conference.

To do that, he has built a championship culture from the ground up, involving every aspect of the game.

"Are we doing championship work every day?" Sarkisian said. Are we championship coaches? Do we have championship schemes? Do we have a championship weight program? Do we have a championship nutrition program? Do we have a championship study hall? Do we have a championship work ethic? Do we have a championship culture? Do we have a championship locker room? Yes, that's what we're striving for, and we're chasing that every day, but we got to make sure the way we're chasing it every day is at a championship level."

Sarkisian has his sights set on winning championships, but he starts with each championship being the game in front of his team that week. His players have fully embraced the championship culture and know the importance of playing the game in front of them.

College football is an unpredictable game, and any team could pull off an upset if the other team isn't focused. Keeping the championship mentality, he told his team that the game against Kentucky would be the most important game it played all season. It paid off, as with a huge rivalry game this weekend, Texas stayed focused and beat Kentucky.

Rival Texas A&M lost to Auburn, and people have cited that during his weekly press conference A&M head coach Mike Elko said his team was "fully focused on Texas... I mean Auburn." This week, the two teams will face off for the first time in 13 years with more than just bragging rights on the line- the winner has a matchup with Georgia in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta.

Texas will face Texas A&M on Saturday in College Station at 6:30 PM. The game will be aired on ABC and ESPN's College GameDay will be there ahead of the game.

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