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When you’re the head coach at Texas, there are two modus operandi: Greatness or discomfort. There are no in-betweens at a program in which every resource is given, and the expectations are clear, if not historically over-optimistic: national championship contention.
Sarkisian is familiar with the discomfort. He went 5-7 in his Texas debut, the worst debut record of any Longhorn head coach since World War II. The conversations about whether he could do the job were had by Thanksgiving as Texas lost five one-score games down the stretch of a weird season that saw it blow a huge lead to Oklahoma in 2021 — falling victim to Caleb Williams’ off-the-bench national breakout — and lose to Kansas back when it was, well, Kansas.
“I’ll tell you this much: 5-7 in Austin, Texas, sucks,” Sarkisian said in July. “That was hard. That was hard on me. That was hard on the players. That was hard on a lot of people.”
Sarkisian this summer could speak candidly about Texas’ challenges in Year 1 because, coming off a College Football Playoff appearance, they feel so long ago and safely in the past. The Longhorns went 8-5 in 2022, made the playoff in 2023 and now, just three weeks into the 2024 season, rank No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. It’s the first time the Longhorns have been No. 1 since 2008.
Greatness is back in vogue at a school where, as famed Texas booster Red McCombs once put it, “All the money that is not up at the Vatican is at UT.”
How did Sarkisian turn things around so quickly? Money helps. But when you dive into the roster, the strides are obvious in almost every area. They’re obvious to the coaches who’ve played Texas, too.
UTSA faced Texas in 2022 and entered halftime of that game tied with the…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/from-5-7-to-no-1-how-texas-transformed-into-college-footballs-top-team-in-four-years-under-steve-sarkisian/
Author : Chris Hummer
Publish date : 2024-09-17 07:00:44
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