Steve Sarkisian takes shot at Notre Dame, doubles down on case for Texas in College Football Playoff

In his postgame interview on ABC following Friday’s Lone Star Showdown win over Texas A&M, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian emphatically called for the Longhorns to be in the College Football Playoff. He double down in his press conference – and Notre Dame wound up in the crosshairs.

Sarkisian strongly defended Texas’ resume as the Longhorns finished the regular season with a 9-3 record with losses to Ohio State, Florida and Georgia. That also includes a 3-2 record against teams ranked in the Top 10 at the time of the games, including Friday’s victory over No. 3 Texas A&M.

As Sarkisian noted, Texas is the first team to win three games against Top-10 opponents since LSU in 2019. While evaluating the quality of Texas’ resume, Sarkisian then pointed out the blemish on Notre Dame’s resume a year ago en route to the national championship game.

The Fighting Irish went 11-1 in the regular season, but the lone loss came to Northern Illinois at home. Texas’ lone loss to an unranked team came to 3-8 Florida, which why Sarkisian pointed out that game.

“This whole idea that, ‘Well, you lost to Florida.’ Well, the team that played for the national championship last year lost to Northern Illinois at home,” Sarkisian told reporters. “So you’re going to punish us and you don’t want to punish them, but they were good enough to go play for a national title? So I have no doubt in my mind that the team we have in that locker room downstairs is a Playoff football team and worthy of an opportunity to play for a national championship.”

Steve Sarkisian: ‘We were willing’ to play Ohio State

Steve Sarkisian’s larger point centered around the fact the Longhorns went on the road to Ohio State for the season opener. That game, Sarkisian argued, should further enhance Texas’ resume. That’s why he said the CFP committee should not “punish” the program in its evaluation.

“We went on the road to Ohio State in Week 1 and lost to them on a one-score game when we had the ball at the end of the game and we out-gained them by nearly 200 yards,” Sarkisian said. “And no one else has been close to a one-score game against them. But I think more importantly, it’s the message that, what do we want to send to the head coaches and the athletic directors across the country? Do you want us not to schedule Ohio State? Because if we’re a 10-2 team right now, this isn’t a discussion. We’re in the Playoff. But we were willing to go up there and play that game.

“Now, when you play five Top-10 ranked teams in the regular season and you go 3-2, you beat three of them and you schedule an Ohio State out-of-conference play, I surely don’t think we want to punish us to do that because what are we all going to do? We’re all going to get out of those games – just like a lot of teams in the country have done. And they’ve got nice, pretty records right now. But they weren’t willing to go play these games out of conference. We’re willing to go play those games. I just hope we don’t get punished for doing that.”