Texas has built a habit under Steve Sarkisian: start with some bumps, then arrive at the finish line looking like a different team.
That pattern showed up again last season. The Longhorns missed the College Football Playoff, but they still looked like a team that could have made real noise in the 12-team field if they had gotten in. Early losses to Ohio State and Florida did real damage to the résumé, and even with Sarkisian and Texas fans pushing hard, it wasn’t enough to land a CFP spot.
Still, the bigger story was how Texas kept itself alive. The season could have unraveled during SEC play, but instead the Longhorns stayed in the hunt all the way to selection day. That late push has become a calling card for Sarkisian’s best Texas teams.
A big part of that has been the defense. Under defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, Texas has put together consistently elite units over the past few seasons, though last year made it clear the program was ready for a different direction. New defensive coordinator Will Muschamp now carries the pressure of matching what PK’s groups produced, but the expectation remains that Texas will field another elite defense.
There may be some early growing pains in the new system, but Sarkisian’s teams have shown defensive consistency over the last three seasons. Until that changes, there’s every reason to think Texas can once again use that side of the ball to build momentum when the calendar turns late.
The quarterback play has followed a similar script. Whatever people think of Arch Manning, he clearly turned his season around from the midway point onward last year. That mirrors what Quinn Ewers did during Texas’ runs to the College Football Playoff Semifinals in both 2023 and 2024.
In 2023, Texas took a painful loss to Oklahoma, then Ewers and backup Malik Murphy helped spark six straight wins to get the Longhorns into the program’s final Big 12 Championship. Ewers delivered historic numbers, and Texas crushed Oklahoma State, 49-21, to claim the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff.
The 2024 season followed a similar path. After an ugly midseason home loss to Georgia, when Ewers turned it over three times, Texas answered with five straight wins and locked up a spot in the SEC Championship. The Longhorns lost to Georgia again, but that late surge was enough to get them into the CFP.
This year, Manning will be looking for a cleaner start. Even so, he has already shown he can respond when the season gets messy early.
In Other News...
Arch Manning Just Got Another Reminder The Hype Means Nothing Yet
Arch Manning is still the center of the conversation in Austin, but the latest reminder is that reputation alone does not win preseason debates. David Pollack, the former first-round pick turned analyst, slotted Manning near the top of his quarterback list for the coming season while praising the Texas passers arm talent and pointing to a setup that should give him less pressure and better support than he has had before.
Even so, the broader message around Manning remains the same: the buzz is real, but the proof still has to come on the field. He is already being talked about as a possible No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, which only adds to the spotlight, but for now the Longhorns are still waiting for the kind of season that turns projection into something much harder to dismiss. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Just Got The Kind Of SEC Pressure Fans Feared
Texas walked into preseason SEC chatter with the kind of respect that can feel like a compliment and a warning at the same time. The Longhorns landed 11 players on the 2026 Preseason All-SEC Teams, a reminder that the league expects them to look more like a contender than a newcomer, and that expectation comes with the usual burden of proving last years close calls were not the ceiling.
Arch Manning is right in the middle of that pressure, even with his place on the preseason board, because the conversation around Texas now goes far beyond potential. Cam Coleman is in the same spotlight, and the sense around the program is that the effort is there, but the next step has to show up on Saturdays if Texas wants to turn all that preseason belief into the kind of season that actually changes the SEC conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Fans Wont Believe Sarkisian Is Already In This Conversation
Steve Sarkisians standing in Austin is the kind of topic that only surfaces when a program has climbed high enough for people to start gaming out the next move before the current one is even finished. Michael Brattons latest speculation has Texas fans doing a double take, especially with the conversation framed around what a disappointing season could mean and how quickly the temperature can change for a high-profile coach at a place like Texas.
Chris Del Contes track record matters here, too, because the athletic director has generally shown patience with his hires rather than rushing to judgment. Even with the Penn State comparison hanging over the discussion, the bigger picture is still that Sarkisian is not operating with the kind of immediate pressure that usually comes with hot-seat chatter, which is why this whole line of thinking feels more like a thought exercise than a verdict. [Read more 🡒]