Texas football coach uses Notre Dame as warning to team

Notre Dame served as a stark cautionary tale for the Texas Longhorns, whose head coach used the Fighting Irish loss to Northern Illinois as a warning that an upset can come anytime.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian used a bad loss by Notre Dame as a cautionary tale for his own team this week. / Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images

Texas Longhorns football coach Steve Sarkisian is using Notre Dame as a warning for his own team as it comes off an emotional week and returns home against underdog UTSA.

Texas is back on the Forty Acres after making a statement in a 19-point win on the road against defending national champion Michigan, and Sarkisian wanted to give his team a wake-up call that an unexpected loss at home can come at any time.

To that end, he showed his Longhorns team a video of the moment Northern Illinois upset No. 5 ranked Notre Dame, itself a heavily-favored playoff hopeful who took a shocking loss on its home ground after winning a big game on the road the week before.

"I walked them through the Notre Dame scenario of them going into College Station a week ago and winning that game and being anointed a top-five team and going to the College Football Playoff and a week later losing to Northern Illinois," Sarkisian said.

"So I showed that clip of the field goal, and I showed that clip of Northern Illinois storming the field this morning as a good reminder: we're entitled to nothing. We're capable of anything.

"We've got a really good team. But we're entitled to nothing and we're going to earn everything we get. We're going to have to earn the victory here."

UTSA was talked about as a potential playoff hopeful from the Group of Five ranks back in the preseason, but the Roadrunners' 49-10 loss to Texas State pulled the emergency brake on that talk.

Still, it's a program that has had success recently, winning at least nine games in each of head coach Jeff Traylor's last three seasons and winning two Conference USA championships.

"The worst opponents, or the toughest opponents to play, are the ones that are wounded and that are backed into a corner," Sarkisian noted.

"UTSA has got a very talented team. Really well-coached. Coach Traylor's done a nice job there and they're a little wounded coming out of last week, so we know we're going to get their best shot. We're going to get their best version."

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