The Texas Longhorns entered the college football season ranked No. 1 in the country, but finished the year 9-3 and will be sitting home watching when Alabama and Georgia battle in the SEC Championship Game.
So, how does head coach Steve Sarkisian feel about that?
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“I’ll probably watch it at the house, begrudgingly,” Sarkisian told reporters. “As the competitor inside of me, I wish we were playing Saturday, but I’m not going to apologize for going 6-2 in the SEC with arguably the hardest schedule.”
This was supposed to be a special season for Texas with phenom Arch Manning under center and a stingy defense that was supposed to lead the Longhorns to prominence.
But Texas lost its season opener to the Ohio State Buckeyes and then suffered a brutal road loss to the Florida Gators on Oct. 4, the latter of which likely sabotaged their chances of making the College Football Playoff.
Sarkisian’s group went on an impressive run to end the regular season, winning six of its last seven games and scoring big conference wins over Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, but barring a miracle or a very strange decision by the selection committee, it won’t be enough to get the Longhorns into the CFP.
Sarkisian has gone 47-20 at Texas since taking over as head coach in 2021. He put together back-to-back double-digit win campaigns in 2023 and 2024, guiding the Longhorns all the way to the Cotton Bowl last January before losing to Ohio State.
The 51-year-old began his head-coaching career at Washington in 2009 and spent five seasons with the Huskies before moving on to USC in 2014. He didn’t last a full two years with the Trojans.
Between 2016 and 2020, Sarkisian spent time working under Nick Saban at Alabama and also spent two seasons as Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator in 2017 and 2018 before ultimately taking the job at Austin.
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Sarkisian has gone 93-55 over the course of his NCAA coaching career.
Had it not been for the loss in Gainesville a couple of months ago, Texas would probably be competing for a national championship this winter.
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