Josh Pate isn’t handing Texas any wiggle room heading into 2026.
On the latest edition of his show, the college football analyst put the Longhorns at the front of a six-team list of programs he believes are out of time, and his reasoning was simple: Texas has invested too much, upgraded too much and assembled too much talent to treat anything short of a major finish as acceptable.
The offseason told the story. After missing the College Football Playoff in 2025, Texas went all-in, landing what many consider the sport’s top transfer class and making a change at defensive coordinator. Pate said that kind of roster build is rare in today’s game, even if he stopped short of calling it a true super team.
"Obviously, Steve Sarkisian has not a super team. Super teams don't exist anymore, but about as close to it as you can get from a roster standpoint in modern college football, he has," Pate said.
He then walked through the roster in detail, and the praise came fast. Pate pegged Texas as top five or better at quarterback, receiver and running back.
He said there’s an argument for the best offensive tackle in the country, called the offensive line top 10, graded the defensive line as top five and floated the idea that the Longhorns might have the best edge player in college football. He also highlighted linebacker Rasheem Biles, who came over from Pittsburgh.
That’s why Pate thinks Texas is different from the rest of the sport’s usual championship-or-bust discussion.
"And that's why I've kept saying I think it's largely dumb when people do championship-or-bust type content. Except with Texas, that really is the vibe around them, and there's a reason that's the vibe around them. You cannot let that slip away," Pate said.
He did acknowledge that the road is brutal. Texas, he noted, has the toughest schedule in the country. But he wasn’t interested in using that as a cushion.
"I didn't say it was going to be easy, I said it's necessary," Pate said.
Even Pate’s own numbers like the Longhorns. His JP Poll power ratings put Texas sixth entering the season. That kind of preseason respect is nothing new for Sarkisian’s program, though, and last year’s expectations ended with the same familiar question: now what?
A source close to the program told Horns247 in December that Texas was planning to go all in, with 2026 framed as playoff-or-bust and the goal of upgrading the talent around Manning and Simmons. The Longhorns acted on that plan.
Auburn receiver Cam Coleman, North Carolina State running back Hollywood Smothers and Biles were the headliners of the transfer haul. Texas also brought in Melvin Siani and Laurence Seymore to help stabilize an offensive line that had too many breakdowns last fall. On the sideline, Sarkisian made another major move by replacing Pete Kwiatkowski with Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator.
That overhaul was driven by what happened in 2025. In the loss at Florida, Manning was pressured on nearly half of his 29 attempts and was sacked six times, with left guard and center both becoming problem spots. Texas still managed to finish 7-1 after that setback and reached 10 wins for the third straight year.
At SEC Media Days, Sarkisian described the noise around Manning this way:
"So many people built him up to be the greatest of all time, the first pick of the draft, the Heisman Trophy winner," Sarkisian said. "When we weren't good at the start of the year as a team, and (Manning) wasn't at his best, it was almost like the same people that built him up wanted to tear him down."
Texas opens the season against Texas State, hosts Ohio State in Week 2 and later takes on Tennessee, Oklahoma and Ole Miss before road games at LSU and Texas A&M in the final month.
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