Aaron Murray believes Steve Sarkisian is on hot seat at Texas

Just one more season remains in the Big 12 for Texas. Steve Sarkisian is expected to lead the Longhorns into the SEC and those in Austin will be hoping on a high note. As much talk as the SEC move will get this season, delivering on the field is important for Sarkisian.

Important enough to where Aaron Murray thinks Sarkisian is on the hot seat. Originally talking about Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners, Murray switched up to say Texas may have a problem. In Year Three with the program, Murray is expecting results against Big 12 opponents.

“If anyone is on the hot seat, it’s Sark,” Murray said. “If Sark has a seven, eight-win team this year, you do question — ‘okay, you’ve had the time and you can’t have success in your third year in the Big 12. What gives us any confidence you’re going to have success in the SEC?’ That’s a problem.”

In two years on the 40 Acres, Sarkisian is a combined 13-12. Year One to Year Two was significantly better, finishing with a three-game improvement. Texas jumped to 8-4 in the regular season before dropping the Alamo Bowl to Washington.

A similar type of jump is to be expected heading into the 2023 season.

Having high expectations is nothing new for Texas. Seemingly every offseason, the conversation revolves around how their talented roster will make a Big 12 Championship appearance. Even through Oklahoma’s dominant stretch in the conference, people expected the Longhorns to figure it out.

In recent memory, that’s only occurred once, losing to Oklahoma in 2018 under former head coach Tom Herman.

This year is different though, as the expectation is for Sarkisian to raise a trophy in AT&T Stadium. Having around nine to 10 wins would be considered a success as well. Plenty of factors play into this, mainly Quinn Ewers returning and the stud weapons the quarterback has around him — something you would hope for in a Sarkisian-led program.

The age-old question is “Is Texas back?” While there is no true way to provide an answer of yes, it’s pretty easy to say no. Sarkisian has the opportunity of getting on the right side of the spectrum by winning, giving Texas momentum heading into the SEC.

Lean toward to ‘no’ side and Murray is ready to start asking questions. Especially when going up against a different level of talent on a weekly basis.