“I like our team. I like the hunger of this team. I like the energy. It’s youthful. They’re connected.”
The standard is the standard.
For many programs, including the Texas Longhorns when head coach Steve Sarkisian arrived in Austin in early 2021, it’s an aspirational statement.
On the Forty Acres, after back-to-back appearances in conference championship games and the College Football Playoff semifinals, it’s the only reality the program’s second- and third-year players know.
“These guys have grown up together. I was thinking about Arch [Manning] and Ant [Hill] today. These guys don’t know any different in college than playing for a conference championship and being in a College Football Playoff. That’s what their experience has been so far,” Sarkisian said at SEC Media Days last week.
Those experiences haven’t just cemented the standard of excellence established by Sarkisian, his staff, and the 23 players selected in the last two NFL Drafts.
Those experiences have created a hungry team of talented players looking to replicate their high school success by breaking through at Texas.
As the lone holdover from the 5-7 team in 2021, preseason All-American safety Michael Taaffe is an anomaly on this team in terms of his experience and his unique story as a former walk on, but he’s in good company as a former high school state champion.
So is Hill, the preseason All-American junior linebacker who was already a star as a sophomore at Denton Ryan when the program won its first-ever state championship to close the 2020 season.
So is Quintrevion Wisner, the junior running back who played out of position at wide receiver to help DeSoto win a state title in 2022.
So is Colin Simmons, the rising sophomore edge who recorded 22.5 sacks for Duncanville’s undefeated state championship team in 2022.
So are fellow edge defenders Ethan Burke and Colton Vasek, members of the 2022 recruiting class who won the state championship at Austin Westlake in 2022 in addition to playing with Taaffe on the 2020 title team.
“There’s a real sense of hunger on our team right now that I’m as much or more encouraged by of anything that they’ve done so far this summer. You can see the intent in which they way they’re working. We’ve got a ways to go, but the intent is there. The mindset is right to try to go be a champion,” Sarkisian said.
“That’s something that that you don’t just do one time. You have to live that life every day. It’s a championship lifestyle to ultimately become a champion. So I think they’re probably tired of being close, and they want to reach the summit here.”
Pushing through to that summit represents a different imperative for Sarkisian and his coaching staff compared to the culture-building efforts that came with taking over the program four and a half years ago.
“Different challenges, right, where in our early years we were trying to convince our guys that we were worthy of winning and the work that we’ve put in now, it’s making sure that that we’ve got the right mindset going into a season and reminding them of where we’ve come and how far we’ve come from where we were, but not making them feel bad about where we’re at today, because there’s been a lot of hard work and time and effort put into this, on the coaches’ part, on their part, and administration’s part, to us to this point,” Sarkisian said.
“We’ve strung together now three really good recruiting classes of very talented people, but really good people that I think represent the University of Texas the right way,” Sarkisian said.
After signing the nation’s consensus No. 3 recruiting class in 2023, the Horns inked the No. 6 class in 2024 and the No. 1 class in 2025.
By consistently recruiting at a high level, the program’s blue-chip ratio, one of the best predictive metrics of winning a national championship in college football, ranks tied for fifth nationally with Oregon at 78 percent.
Factoring in transfers drops the ratio by six percentage points, but doesn’t fully capture the extent to which players like Stanford transfer wide receiver Emmett Mosley, Cal transfer tight end Jack Endries, and Syracuse transfer defensive tackle Maraad Watson, among others, impact the team’s upside in 2025 as part of a portal class that addresses key needs.
“I think we’ve filled needs on our roster where players can have an impact on our team immediately, not just to fill roster spots,” Sarkisian said in Atlanta.
At SEC Media Days, the Texas head coach made his belief in this team’s upside explicit.
“I think this is a championship roster. Now we’ve got to play like a championship team, but I do think it’s a championship roster,” Sarkisian said.
A believer in the adage that defenses win championships, Sarkisian noted the consistent improvement under coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, culminating with the nation’s No. 3 scoring defense last year.
“We’ve grown exponentially from one year to the next. We’ve improved, and when we needed areas of improvement, we attacked it. Two years ago, we were not a very good pass defense. We came back last year. we dramatically improved that, whether it was the addition of a player or two, adjusted some of the scheme. So we’re forever trying to evolve,” Sarkisian said.
Beyond the ability to address critical deficiencies, Texas has stockpiled talent on the defensive side of the ball.
“I think this year, now more than ever, is probably our deepest defensive roster. We’ve got great depth and the multitude of guys that can go in there and play, and play at a high level,” Sarkisian said.
There’s more turnover offensively, including four of the five starters along the offensive line, but it’s a position where Texas has allowed players time to develop before pairing them with new starting quarterback Arch Manning, the SEC’s only returning 1,000-yard rusher in Wisner, and proven wide receivers in DeAndre Moore and Ryan Wingo who look poised for big seasons in 2025.
To break through, though, it’s going to be a long grind for the Longhorns.
“It’s going to take the resiliency, the confidence and belief, and doing our best when it’s needed, and that’s going to be late into December and into January to accomplish the things that we think we’re capable of accomplishing,” Sarkisian said.
But playing into next year won’t be possible unless the Longhorns continue to uphold the program’s burgeoning standards.
“It’s an exciting time. I like our team. I like the hunger of this team. I like the energy,” Sarkisian said in San Antonio. “It’s youthful, they’re connected, and that part’s always fun for me when you get ready to go to training camp.”
As preseason camp approaches, the message from Sarkisian to his team is not to look ahead.
“I think the key for us this fall, we’ve got to go enjoy this journey. We need to be present, and we need to be present in the moment, enjoy the journey, and then ultimately finish the mission. We’ve been close. We’ve been there. We’ve been knocking on the door the last two years,” Sarkisian said.
“But to go do that, we need to take it one step at a time as we embark on the summit that we’re looking for, and that’s going to take great discipline. It’s going to take great commitment. It’s going to take great toughness, mental and physical toughness. It’s going to take action and doing our job.”