Column: Analyzing Steve Sarkisian's response to questions about 2025 Texas underachieving

Yesterday, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was bluntly asked the following question: what would you say the main reasons are (why) this team has underachieved?

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Sarkisian’s response can be found here:

When asked by @kbohls about why Texas has underachieved, Steve Sarkisian responded with "according to who?"

Sark went on to talk about how he's proud of the team's resiliency and the expectations for the remainder of the season…

"By the end of the season we'll play of our 12… pic.twitter.com/hD4fsEpuT8

— Cory Mose (@Cory_Mose) November 17, 2025

Sarkisian mentions his team’s resiliency, battling through injuries, and the high standards that come with playing at the University of Texas. He also mentioned that five of the 12 teams Texas will play this season will go down as top-10 matchups. If Texas were to beat Texas A&M at the end of the year, the Longhorns would be the first team to beat three top-10 teams in the regular season since 2019 LSU.

None of this is incorrect, but it’s not exactly answering the question.

We don’t expect Sarkisian to truly give Kirk Bohls that answer. That’s because the answer probably won’t sound great in front of the cameras for the locker room or the organization.

Let’s look past the preseason No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll. At the end of the day, polling involves human error.

What doesn’t involve human error is past results and known expectations. Texas went to two straight CFP semifinals. They’ve made a conference championship game in both of the last two seasons.

To have three losses and be clinging to playoff contention with two games remaining in the regular season is underachieving what was expected from this program. It’s also underachieving how talented this team is. Whether you want to look at power ratings, blue-chip ratio, or just a pure talent composite, Texas had a top-five roster in the sport.

And yet, the Longhorns have three losses—more than six other teams in the conference.

KFord Ratings had Texas as the No. 1 team in the country heading into the season. They’ve now dropped the Longhorns to No. 14. Per the model’s season ratings change delta, just 12 schools have performed worse according to preseason expectations.

Yes, Texas hasn’t fallen as hard as Clemson or Penn State, but to drop from the best in the nation to barely top-15 is a steep decline.

Let’s address that point Sarkisian makes at the start of that answer.

“I guess that’s up to who votes us No. 1.”

I think Sarkisian knew what this team was heading into the season. Had you asked him where this team should be ranked, given the talent on the offense specifically, he probably wouldn’t have called them the No. 1 team in the nation.

In some ways, I do believe Sarkisian expected to see growing pains if he had been able to peer crystal ball knowing how good every team on his schedule would be. As he said, Texas has played four top-10 teams already. They’re 2–2 in those games. In theory, that’s acceptable.

But the loss to Florida sticks out like a sore thumb. He knew better than anyone the possibility of that result, but it doesn’t make it sting any less. A program the caliber of Texas shouldn’t lose that game, but the 2025 Texas team dropping a game it should’ve won isn’t all that surprising.

As a representative of the program at the University of Texas, the Longhorns have underperformed. But given what we really know about this team, did they really?

They beat a great Oklahoma team on a neutral field. They dominated three quarters against Vanderbilt in a win. The game against Ohio State was close on the scoreboard the entire time, and the Buckeyes are far and away the best team in the nation.

They also lost four of their five best players on offense and defense last year. They were introducing a new QB, a new offensive line and a defense that lost one of the best secondaries in recent memory and both coaches behind it. All things that didn’t seem to matter to AP Poll voters or the general public

But when you represent the University of Texas in the NIL era, clearly, you’re expected to do more. Beating your rivals is a given. Taking down one of the giants of the sport has to happen at some point. You shouldn’t be losing to a mediocre Florida team.

This argument isn’t fully over. Texas has two home rivalry games remaining. Were they to win those games, I do think a lot of the negativity from this season will be replaced with hope for the future. Going 9–3 with this schedule is quite the feat for the 14th-best team in the nation, but fans and donors expect Texas to be better than 14th. They expect championships.

At the end of the day, most of the failures of this Texas team can be linked back to an uncharacteristically poor offseason for Sarkisian. He didn’t address the offense enough in the portal, specifically at offensive line and running back. He put too much trust in Ryan Wingo as the No. 1 and didn’t surround Arch Manning with the pieces he needed. He probably made a poor hire on the defensive side of the ball.

So is this an underachieving season? From the program’s standard, the answer is yes. For this team in particular, the jury is still out. Beat Arkansas and A&M and these conversations look much different.