Longhorns Focused On Week 1, Not Preseason Positioning

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is pleased that his players have their sights set on Week 1's game against Rice over their potential top-25 ranking.

For fans, it's a rallying cry of hope entering the new season. For coaches, it's just another day in August. 

And somewhere in the middle lies Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, a man tasked with keeping the Longhorns ranked past Monday's release of the Associated Press preseason polls, who's also a self-proclaimed fan of the sport he created a life in. In a sense, Sarkisian sees both sides of the coin. 

Sometimes, the latter side shows more often publically. 

"That’s the beauty of it," Sarkisian said Monday. "Man, I remember as a kid, I couldn't wait for the Sports Illustrated article with their preseason No. 1 on the cover and the top 25 and reading about every team. The preseason polls are synonymous with college football, and I love that side of it." 

Preseason magazines and top-notch websites haven't been kind to the Longhorns in recent years, often inserting the "is Texas back" innuendo somewhere in the writings. That isn't the case the summer and most outlets have Texas as a fringe top-10 roster entering the year. 

The coaches poll seems to be on the low side, ranking the Longhorns at No. 12. ESPN's ranking might be a tad rich, placing the Forty Acres' franchise in at No. 5. Most, however, like Athlon Sports and the AP, have the Longhorns at No. 11, their highest-ranking since 2019. 

Of course, preseason rankings mean little to the end results. Texas A&M and Miami finished below .500 last season after being ranked No. 6 and No. 16, respectively. Meanwhile, national champion runner-up TCU didn't receive a single vote before going on its improbable run to Los Angeles for a winner-take-all showdown against Georiga. 

“I know being in the fire right now, it really doesn't matter," Sarkisian said. "What we do ultimately is what matters. That's what I'm trying to get across to the players; what other people think of us really is irrelevant. What we do on the field on Saturdays is what ultimately matters, so that's the point I try to get across.”

Sarkisian knows much like the polls, anything can change at the drop of a hat. An injury could put a new perspective on the season's outlook. An early loss in a winnable game might lead to those in a position of power feeling the heat. 

Expectations can't be heightened once failures begin to set in. That's one area Sarkisian doesn't have concern over with his players, as practice attitudes from the spring have carried over to the fall. 

Putting down the fandom hat, Sarkisian said the preseason polls come with plenty of positivity but also serve as a motivational reinforcement for the locker room to remember the end goal. 

“I use it (a poll) both ways, like I have this year,” he said. “I can put up a slide in a team meeting, and I can have five articles with headlines of how great we're supposed to be this fall. And then right next to it, I can have a headline of five articles of, you know, ‘We're going to stink and we're Texas, and they're going to blow it again.’”

Texas, the preseason favorite to win the Big 12, started last year unranked before moving up the polls after a 20-19 loss to Alabama at home. The program reached as high as No. 18, but losses to Texas Tech and TCU sent the Horns back outside the top 25. 

Longhorns players know how good they can be on talent alone entering the season. Their final year as Big 12 members could end with a trip to Arlington, and perhaps even further east of Austin for a date with NRG Stadium come January. 

They also know their preseason positioning means nothing to their Week 1 opponent Rice. It likely means even less to their Week 2 opponent in No. 4 Alabama.

"Us focusing on Game 1 is a big step and what we have to do, because once you can’t start looking ahead," sophomore offensive tackle Kelvin Banks told reporters. "You have to get through one team at a time. We do that, we're going to be good.”

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