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Saturday provides Steve Sarkisian a chance to live up to his own preseason optimism

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook12/01/23josephcook89
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Steve Sarkisian, T'Vondre Sweat (Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Summer barnstorming tours are meant to build fan interest and keep an athletic department’s various programs relevant during the time where most fans are counting down how many days remain until kickoff. But looking back on the summer’s Texas Fight Tour and comments made during them with the benefit of hindsight indicates the 11-1 Longhorns are within grasp of fulfilling Steve Sarkisian‘s expectations for the 2023 season.

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Sarkisian spoke often throughout the offseason and summer about how much he liked this year’s team. He extolled the benefits of staff continuity on both sides of the football, praised the progress Quinn Ewers had made in his game, and hinted at excitement regarding experienced players on both sides of the ball.

“I think it goes without saying: I really like our football team,” Sarkisian said in San Antonio at a Texas Exes event on May 9. “This feels like our team. It looks like our team. They walk like our team. They talk like our team.”

That was a message he had relayed to the Pivot Podcast about a month earlier in April, days before the ho-hum Longhorn spring game. Between several years of strong recruiting and portal additions, plus all the work that he had put in to build a culture, Sarkisian thought he might have the team that could help obtain what he came to Texas for.

“I didn’t come here just to win games and be good,” Sarkisian said. “I came here to win a championship, and that’s why you come to Texas.”

This Saturday, a championship is within grasp, as are Sarkisian’s own preseason expectations.

His boss, athletic director Chris Del Conte, carried those same views. Speaking to that San Antonio crowd, Del Conte half-jokingly, half-seriously looked at Sarkisian and laid out the standard.

“When we left the Southwest Conference, we won the Southwest Conference championship,” Del Conte said May 9. “First year in the Big 12? We won. Steve’s under a lot of pressure this year to make sure he wins on out way out.”

“Hot dang,” Del Conte then exclaimed. “Let’s do this!”

Sarkisian spoke confidently about his team throughout the summer, even suggesting during the Houston leg of that tour that he’d like to bring his team back to Space City in January. Of course, that’s a reference to the College Football Playoff national championship game scheduled to be played at NRG Stadium on January 8, 2024. To get to that point, a win versus Alabama as part of at least an 11-win season was needed.

Check.

The next step is the Big 12 Championship, something only Oklahoma State stands in the way of.

Whether or not a chance at the CFP materializes is dependent on a Longhorn win over the Pokes and other conference championship game results, plus whatever the CFP selection committee decides.

And while this year’s focus was on Arlington, Sarkisian believed in the summer his program had a strong foundation for championship contention this season and for going forward in the SEC as well.

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“I think that we’ve built something here that is not just going to be for this year,” Sarkisian said. “I think we’re going to build something here that’s going to withstand the test of time, and it’s going to be something special for years to come.”

Sarkisian and company saw championship contention during the spring and summer and didn’t mind being public about their beliefs. Saturday provides the Longhorns an opportunity to make good on preseason optimism, both internal and external.

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