Steve Sarkisian recalls seeing a culture issue at Texas upon arrival

Texas is coming off consecutive trips to the College Football Playoff under head coach Steve Sarkisian. After years of the Longhorns struggling to regain its success, Sarkisian has turned the Texas football program into a national powerhouse once again.

The transition didn’t occur overnight, however. When Sarkisian arrived in Austin in January 2021, the first red flag he saw came at the end of his first spring as the head coach.

He saw that his team’s cumulative GPA was a 2.33, which Sarkisian thought wasn’t great considering Texas’ reputation as a prestigious university. That average was the writing on the wall for what that first season looked like under his guidance.

“Then the season rolls around and we go 5-7. We had blown six-straight second half leads,” Sarkisian recalled during a recent interview with Josh Pate. “Not very good. We have no draft picks. So what was the problem? What was our issue? I said we have a culture issue. We lack accountability. We’re entitled. … In that moment, it was like, that’s the real issue going on.

“Granted, we want talent, right? And we want to acquire talent, we want to retain our talent, and we put an emphasis on the line of scrimmage and those types of things. But it wasn’t a talent issue that we had that year. It was a culture issue.”

After year one, Texas improved to 8-5 overall in 2022 before solidifying the Longhorns as one of the best teams in the country over the past two seasons. They finished the 2023 season with a 12-2 record, which included a Big 12 Championship and a spot in the final four-team CFP.

The Longhorns followed that up with a 13-win season during its first season in the SEC, not to mention winning two games in the playoffs. Their success has set the stage for massive expectations for Sarksian’s group in 2025.

“And so now fast forward, going into year five, what has come out of this is we have a group of players on our team now that have grown up with us. … And I think about what Kirby [Smart] has been able to do at Georgia, or what Dabo [Swinney] has been able to do at Clemson, or what Ryan [Day]’s been able to do at Ohio State.

“They’re kind of in front of us in that cycle, but their cycle is well underway. Our cycle really now has just begun, because now we’ve got nothing but players that don’t know any different than what we do, and why those things are important.”

With Texas looking to make it three-straight appearances in the CFP under Sarkisian’s guidance, the Longhorns’ efforts begin during Week 1 on the road against Ohio State. The Week 1 matchup is a rematch from last season’s national semifinal, which the Buckeyes won en route to its first national title in a decade.