Steve Sarkisian reveals he was reminded of Year 3 goal for build of Texas program
Head coach Steve Sarkisian has completed the rebuild at Texas. Now, in his third season with the program, the Longhorns have won the Big 12 and will be competing in the College Football Playoff.
During the College Football Playoff Selection Show, Sarkisian explained that he was reminded that he had long since been saying it was going to be a three-season rebuild at Texas.
“Ironically, after the ball game yesterday, you naturally get a ton of the text messages and different things and congratulations,” Sarkisian said. “But there was a few people that I really respect that texted me and reminded me I told them it would be Year 3. I don’t know if I quite remember those exact conversations, but I knew Year 1 would be difficult.”
It’s been a clear build for Sarkisian and Texas. In his first season, the Longhorns had a losing record. Then, the team went to a bowl. Now, the Longhorns are a Playoff team.
“I always leaned into what coach [Pete] Carroll taught me back in the day when I first took this job. He said, ‘You can do it the way it’s been done there and you’ll probably get a little better buy-in initially from the players, but you’ve got to be ready to accept similar results. Or you can go do it your way and you’ll have to endure some of the bumps in the road, but in the end, you’re gonna get the results that you’re looking for.’ That’s what we did. Year 1 was obviously extremely difficult for us. Nobody likes to be 5-7, especially not at Texas. Year 2, we made some progress but we were still trying to find our way through some of those tight games and really building our culture,” Sarkisian said.
“And as we got into Year 3, I just felt like there was such a belief. The culture is so strong now, that I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised at all that this is where we’re at today.”
Texas won the Big 12 this season for the first time since 2009. That season, the Longhorns also played in the BCS National Championship Game. Still, Sarkisian knows he has work to do.
‘I know there’s more work to do. Clearly, this will be a heck of a challenge for us. I’m so proud of our players because they bought into what we brought, believed in what we were talking about and what was going to be needed to be a championship team, and they’ve gone for it. Not only have they believed it and bought into it, but they’ve exceeded that and brought us to another level.”
Steve Sarkisian describes the feeling of seeing Texas officially make College Football Playoff
After it was announced that Texas would be in the College Football Playoff, Steve Sarkisian broke down his emotions.
“I think our players kind of exuded all of the emotions we had. When you don’t know, which is always the difficult part when there is a committee and you’re not an undefeated team, there’s always going to be that nervousness and anxiety because you just don’t know what the discussions are in that room,” Sarkisian said.
“I think you just saw the excitement from our players, our fanbase, everyone involved. This has been a heck of a journey for us, so to earn a seat at the table, to be in this tournament, is one that we’re humbled by but excited for as well.”