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What record does Steve Sarkisian believe constitutes a successful season? + Other updates from his Thursday Zoom

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook6 hours agojosephcook89
Steve Sarkisian
Steve Sarkisian (Dale Zanine-Imagn Images)

Prior to the introduction of the 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024, only two teams since the end of World War II earned the title of consensus national champion with two losses to their record: 1960 Minnesota and 2007 LSU.

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The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff saw a two-loss team in Ohio State that didn’t even participate in its own conference championship game, nor beat its biggest rival, win it all.

As the CFP field expands, there’s a diminished demand for perfection from college football’s national champion. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian even said Wednesday on the SEC Coaches Teleconference that, in the light of the way both college football and the SEC is moving, he’s heard other head coaches talk about the challenge of “how are we going to get our fan bases to wrap their brain around 9-3 is a really good season in college football?”

Some of it has to do with the expanded CFP field, some of it has to do with the nine-game SEC schedule that starts next season, and some if it has to do with certain metrics the CFP Selection Committee said it will value when creating a playoff bracket.

Sarkisian was asked to expand on the subject on Thursday during his regular weekly Zoom with the media.

“My job is to coach our team and put them in the best position to be successful and try to win as many games as we can, try to win an SEC Championship and a national championship like that’s what we try to do every week and every season,” Sarkisian said. “I do think, though, that fans are going to have to at some point wrap their heads around this, and I’m not just talking about Longhorn Nation, there’s a lot of prideful programs throughout the SEC and throughout the country that are going to have to get out of what the norm was. And the norm was an undefeated national champion or maybe a one-loss national champion. I just don’t think that’s going to happen.

“And maybe somebody’s going to prove me wrong, maybe they will. But I think back to Ohio State a year ago with this new format, they didn’t even make their conference championship game and they were a two-loss team and then went on to go win the national championship and they got hot at the right time. We are becoming more and more like the NFL.”

“We’re going to play nine SEC games. We’re going to play one Power Four non-conference (game). Next year we’ve got Ohio State. Year after that, we’ve got Michigan. I think after that we’ve got Notre Dame. Now we’re playing 10 top-10, top-15 programs around the country, then we’re going to go possibly play a conference championship game, which now is 11. Then we’re going to get into the College Football Playoff and now you’re looking at a handful of games like that. I just don’t know if it’s realistic to think that way.”

Sarkisian mentioned how, like in the NFL, the record may not be the main determinant of the national champion. The most recent Super Bowl Champion, the Philadelphia Eagles, was 14-3. Before them, the Kansas City Chiefs were 11-6. They were the best teams, no doubt, and they had stellar records. But they were not without blemish in the regular season.

These days, playoff performances after strong regular seasons determine who lifts the trophy at the end of the year. As mentioned, Ohio State lost to Oregon and Michigan yet won it all. In fact, Oregon had the best record in CFB last year with just one regular season loss and didn’t make it past the quarterfinals.

“It’s a different era of where we’ve gone to in college football in that we’ve all had to recalibrate,” Sarkisian said.

The standard does not change for Sarkisian and company. Texas strives to win every game.

Sarkisian is just noting that if the Longhorns do fall once or twice during the course of the season, it doesn’t automatically thrust the campaign into the failure category.

Other updates from Sarkisian’s Zoom

Jerrick Gibson
Jerrick Gibson (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Steve Sarkisian: “We’re obviously very excited. The SEC opener. We kind of wrapped up what we would call the preseason or non conference games and now we’re into regular season play. We’ve got eight straight SEC ball games, kicking it off Saturday at the Swamp against Florida.”

Steve Sarkisian on Jerrick Gibson, says he believes the Gainesville native’s best game last year was against Florida: “He gives us a different style of runner when he’s in the game with the physicality. He’s a great short yardage back, and I know he’s excited to go home.”

Steve Sarkisian on Emmett Mosley V: “I love Emmett as a player. I wish we had him in the first four games of the season. He was a very dynamic player for Stanford a year ago. He’s a guy that has length. He has very good hands. He’s sudden. He’s a really good route runner. Obviously, he’s an elite blocker, but it really gives you that third receiver that has some length to him.” — “I feel like we’re starting to formulate that group we were hoping to have.”

Steve Sarkisian on a fast start: “Any time you can neutralize a crowd, it’s obviously very helpful when you can do that, control the ball, try to create some explosive plays, create some turnovers on defense, and do some things to take some air out of the crowd. I think that’s important, but probably more important to start fast is this is a good team and you want to maximize your opportunities that you have when you’re playing against a team like this because you don’t know how many you have.”

Steve Sarkisian on a low-scoring game that could be rainy: “I’d say this about our team, and it’s been something I feel like we’ve evolved into. I think we’re very versatile, and I think that probably started two years ago where we felt like we could win games a variety of ways.”

Steve Sarkisian on the weather: “We always practice with wet balls every week. We don’t wait for the week of. Our quarterbacks and running backs work wet ball exchanges with the centers every week. Our receivers will catch wet balls at a minimum once a week.”

Steve Sarkisian says he anticipates Will Stone will be back on kickoff this week.

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