Steve Sarkisian reveals the biggest difference Texas faced during first season in SEC

Texas had a strong first year in the SEC, finishing the regular season with an 11-1 (7-1) mark and reaching the SEC Championship Game.

However, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t plenty of challenges for the Longhorns along the way. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke Monday ahead of the Peach Bowl about what it was like going from competing in the Big 12 to the SEC.

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“I think the natural thing to point out was the physical grind that the SEC puts on you – the body types, the speed, the physicality of which the game is played in the SEC,” Steve Sarkisian said. “But the thing that we worked a lot on, that I thought paid dividends for us, was the mental intensity needed week in and week out in this conference.”

Coaches in the SEC routinely discuss what a grind it is to play in the league. Yes, there is a physical grind, but as Sarkisian said, it also takes a mental toll on you as you try to avoid a letdown.

“From top to bottom, if you don’t show up and play well, you can get beat,” Sarkisian said. “And I think we saw that kind of across the board in the conference this year. I think a credit to our players, I thought they showed up every week ready to play.”

There were plenty of upsets in the SEC in 2024, including Tennessee losing to Arkansas, Ole Miss dropping a game to Kentucky and Alabama falling to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.

Texas was technically upset, too, losing to Georgia at home, but that wasn’t a situation where the Longhorns weren’t ready to play, according to Sarkisian.

Texas simply got beat by a better team on that day.

As the Longhorns prepare for the Peach Bowl against Arizona State in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, their only two losses on the season are to Georgia.

“Naturally, we didn’t win every game,” Sarksian said. “But for the most part, whether it was at home or on the road, we showed up ready to play. And we didn’t have those lapses that maybe some of the other teams had.”