When Steve Sarkisian arrived at Texas, the selling point was obvious: he was one of the sport’s sharpest offensive minds, fresh off helping Nick Saban win a sixth national championship at Alabama. But as he enters his sixth season in Austin, the biggest reason the Longhorns have climbed back into national title territory may be something broader than play-calling.
Sarkisian has built Texas through personnel. The roster, the staff, the quarterback room - that’s where he’s made his money.
The clearest example starts at the game’s most important position. Outside of his first season in 2021, when Casey Thompson was the starter, Sarkisian hasn’t had to fight through much chaos at quarterback.
He made up for the previous staff losing an elite in-state five-star by landing Quinn Ewers from the transfer portal before the 2022 season. Not long after bringing one of the highest-ranked high school quarterbacks back home, he added another historic five-star in Arch Manning.
That setup drew plenty of criticism while both were on the roster, but the way Sarkisian handled it was a masterclass in roster management. Neither quarterback left Austin.
There was never a real quarterback controversy, and even after Ewers was benched at halftime of the Georgia game in 2024, Sarkisian stuck with him. That patience paid off, with Ewers leading Texas to back-to-back College Football Playoff semifinal appearances before handing the job to Manning.
Sarkisian also understood from day one that quarterbacks need help. That’s why one of his first hires in Austin was offensive line coach Kyle Flood. The line was thin in Year 1, but Flood helped rebuild the trenches with talent and depth that powered each of Texas’s runs to the CFP semifinal.
The roster-building approach has been just as deliberate. Sarkisian hasn’t gone all-in on the portal, even in an era when plenty of programs lean on it almost exclusively.
Instead, he has used high school recruiting as the foundation, and the results have been strong: three top-five classes. The portal has served as the supplement, not the whole plan.
That balance has brought in players such as Adonai Mitchell, Matthew Golden, Andrew Mukuba, Trey Moore and, more recently, Cam Coleman and Rasheem Biles.
On defense, the first big call was Pete Kwiatkowski, and it was the right one. He brought a scheme that worked against the spread and air-raid offenses Texas kept seeing in the Big 12, and he built a unit that ranked top-15 against the pass in 2024, the Longhorns’ first season in the SEC.
Even after a disappointing 2025, when the defense slipped despite plenty of talent, there weren’t many obvious upgrades available. Will Muschamp was one of the few. Sarkisian’s move to bring him in from Georgia could end up being the kind of ruthless decision that pushes this whole list to No. 1 if it helps Texas win a national championship.
In Other News...
Steve Sarkisian Is Making An Early Statement In A Massive Texas Battle
Steve Sarkisian and Texas are already making noise in a recruiting race that could shape the next few years in Austin. The Longhorns are reportedly among the front-runners for Brysen Wright, the Jacksonville native who sits atop the 2028 class as both the No. 1 overall recruit and the No. 1 wide receiver, a status that has plenty of programs circling early.
Miami, Florida State, Florida and Ohio State are also in the mix, which makes this one feel less like a simple early offer chase and more like a national battle for a player whose upside is obvious on both sides of the ball. Wright has already shown he can impact games as a receiver and defensive back, and the next layer of this recruitment may come down to which staff can best convince him that its vision fits what he wants most. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Is Still Pressing USC For A Key 2027 Defensive Commitment
USC has spent the fall trying to quiet the noise around its 2027 class, and one of the more notable pieces of reassurance came from Honor Fa'alave-Johnson, who shut down speculation linking him to Oregon and Texas by reaffirming his commitment. For the Longhorns, though, the broader picture is still about staying aggressive on the West Coast and testing whether there is any room to pry loose a defensive pledge before the cycle gets too far along.
Texas inside linebackers coach Johnny Nansen is reportedly leading the push on a USC verbal who has become a priority target, and the Trojans are making it clear they intend to keep their class intact. Their no-visit approach for committed recruits adds another layer to the challenge, while USCs work with local high schools is part of a larger effort to prevent the kind of late movement that can reshape a recruiting board in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Baseball Suddenly Faces Major 2027 Roster Questions After Draft Night
Draft night left Texas baseball with a familiar kind of uncertainty, only this time the ripple could stretch well beyond the current summer and into the 2027 roster picture. Several Longhorns were taken in the 2026 MLB Draft, with Grady Emerson going second overall, Carson Tinney coming off the board in the second round, and Brody Bumila and Aiden Robbins both landing on Day 2, a reminder of how quickly pro interest can reshape what a college clubhouse might look like a year or two down the line.
For Texas, the immediate question is less about the picks themselves than about what comes next as the signing process plays out. The program has more draft-eligible talent and signees to monitor, and the next few weeks will determine how much of this class actually reaches campus, how much stays in the pro pipeline, and how much roster planning the Longhorns will need to do before 2027 even arrives. [Read more 🡒]