Steve Sarkisian snaps back at narrative Texas has 'underachieved' this season

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is proud of his team. On Monday, Sarkisian fired back after a reported asked if his team has underachieved this season.

“According to who?” Sarkisian said. “… This team has competed their tail off. They’ve been faced with a lot of different adversity and injuries, and a lot of stuff has come across this team’s plate. And I’m very, very proud of them with their resiliency. At the end of the day, at the University of Texas, we’re held to a very high standard, and the standard is to compete for championships year in and year out.

“We’re going to play the best teams in the country. We’re going to schedule the best teams in the country. But, by the end of the season, of our 12 regular season opponents, five of those teams will be top-10 teams when we played them—so, nearly half our schedule.

“We have an opportunity at the end of the regular season to do something that nobody’s done since 2019 and that’s beat three top-10 ranked teams in the regular season. The last team to do that was LSU with Joe Burrow. So, have we been faced with a pretty difficult schedule? Have we been faced with high expectations? Sure, but that’s why we came here. So we’ll be OK.”

On Saturday, Texas suffered a 35-10 loss to No. 5 Georgia. In turn, the Longhorns are 7-3 this season. Two of their three losses are against top-five teams. They also lost to unranked Florida.

With its latest loss, Texas is no longer expected to appear in the College Football Playoff. It’ll be an unwelcome change of pace for the Longhorns, who have appeared in the CFP semifinals the past two seasons.

While it’s unlikely, it’s not impossible for Texas to squeak into the CFP. The Longhorns will face off against undefeated Texas A&M in their season finale. If Texas defeats Texas A&M, the CFP selection could think twice about excluding the Longhorns.

Not everybody is as optimistic for Texas’ future. On Monday, ESPN College GameDay co-host Desmond Howard insinuated Texas could part ways with Steve Sarkisian at the end of this season.

“Don’t be surprised if that Texas job opens up at the end of the season,” Howard said on a post to Instagram. “You guys were shocked when LSU opened up. Imagine how you’re going to feel if that job in Austin pops open. I’m not calling or saying anyone’s going to get fired—maybe a mutual parting of ways, you dig?”

On Saturday, Texas will look to bounce from its loss as it squares off against Arkansas at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will air live on ABC.