Steve Sarkisian has already done the hard part at Texas. He dragged the Longhorns back into the national conversation, stacked up wins, and turned a once-frustrating rebuild into a program with playoff expectations. But the standard in Austin is brutal, and the latest ESPN coaching ranking makes that crystal clear: only a national championship is going to quiet the doubters.
ESPN slotted Sarkisian at No. 6 among college football coaches entering the 2026 season, one spot below where he landed last year. That ranking says as much about the job he’s done as it does about the pressure that still hangs over him. Texas looks restored, but the trophy case still doesn’t reflect the level of the program’s ambition.
The numbers tell the story of the turnaround. Sarkisian is 48-20 at Texas and has delivered three straight seasons with at least 10 wins.
That matters because before he arrived, the Longhorns hit that mark only once from 2010 through 2022. That’s not just improvement.
It’s a full-on revival.
Texas also beat three AP top-10 teams in 2025, matching the most in a single season in program history during the poll era. Sarkisian has also brought elite quarterback play back to Austin, developing Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning, while steering the Longhorns to consecutive College Football Playoff semifinal appearances in 2023 and 2024.
And yet, the missing piece is impossible to ignore.
Texas has not won a national championship under Sarkisian, and that absence is what separates the believers from the skeptics. For some, he’s already proven himself as an elite coach. For others, he’s still falling short at one of the sport’s richest and most demanding programs.
ESPN’s voter split captured that divide. One voter put Sarkisian fifth, crediting him with rebuilding a national brand that had gone painfully irrelevant. Another left him outside the top 10, pointing to coaches elsewhere who have done more with less.
That skepticism has some footing. Sarkisian has held major jobs at USC and Texas, but he has only two career top-10 finishes. At a place with Texas’ recruiting reach, NIL power, facilities and expectations, playoff trips alone don’t buy universal approval.
The 2026 season gives him another chance to change the conversation. Arch Manning gives Texas a quarterback who could be a top NFL Draft pick, and the roster looks built for another serious postseason run. Sarkisian has the talent, the financial backing and the stability to finish the job.
He’s already made Texas relevant again. The only step left is the one that decides how he’ll be remembered.
In Other News...
Texas May Have Finally Found The Backfield Arch Manning Needed
Texas spent the offseason reworking its backfield, and the shape of it now looks a lot more balanced around Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers. Brown arrived from Arizona State and gave the Longhorns the kind of burst and pass-catching presence that keeps a defense honest, while Smothers brings the downhill production and steady efficiency that can make a run game feel less one-dimensional. For a team trying to make life easier on Arch Manning, that kind of pairing matters.
The appeal goes beyond the top two names, too. Brown and Smothers give Texas a legitimate 1-2 punch, but the Longhorns also have Derrek Cooper and Michael Terry in the mix as young depth pieces who can develop into rotation options. If the room holds up the way it looks on paper, Texas may finally have the kind of backfield balance that lets the offense stay on schedule instead of leaning too heavily on the quarterback to create everything. [Read more 🡒]
Where Texas Portal Departures Are Suddenly Getting Another Shot
Texas spent the offseason watching a sizable chunk of its defensive depth chart and one specialist move on through the transfer portal, and the next stop for those players has already started to take shape. For a program that expects to reload every year, the more interesting part now is not just who left, but how quickly several of those departures found situations where they should matter right away.
A few of the exits were always going to land in places where opportunity was waiting, including at programs that need experienced help and are willing to give it. One of the seven departures was a starter for Texas, while others are stepping into spots where they are projected to be key pieces or even immediate starters, which says plenty about how the Longhorns roster churn is being viewed elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Awaits Final Word In Massive WR Recruiting Battle
Monshun Sales is set to put an end to one of the most closely watched wide receiver recruitments in the country, with the five-star prospect planning to announce his college commitment Friday, June 17, live on the Pat McAfee Show. Texas is among the finalists, along with Alabama, Ohio State, Indiana and LSU, and the Longhorns have remained in the mix as several heavyweight programs have made late pushes for the elite pass catcher.
For Texas, the timing makes this one especially interesting. The Longhorns have been working to stay aggressive in a battle that could come down to the wire, with Indiana long viewed as the hometown school and one of the programs that had held the edge for much of the process. However it breaks, Sales decision will be a major one for a recruiting race that has drawn attention from across the sport. [Read more 🡒]