Steve Sarkisian shares excitement about Texas' offensive line signings

If you’re familiar with football, you know the old adage that the game is won in the trenches. So, if you’re trying to build a solid college football program, that would be an excellent place to start. And Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has done just that over his past two recruiting classes. Recently the Longhorns head man shared his excitement about his offensive line signings.

“We’re going to give them their shot. And there is a variety of players in here; we’ve got a couple of really big humans. When you start talking about Andre Cojoe, Payton Kirkland, and Connor Stroh, those are really big physical players,” said Sarkisian. “And they look at guys that are more athletic, that maybe need to bulk up some.

“But either way, this is a really versatile group; with tackles, guards, guys that are physical in nature, that are leaders on their teams, that are players of the year—high-level group. And when you think about, in general, the idea that we signed 12 offensive linemen in the last two years alone. When you talk about transforming a position group, I think we’ve done a really good job. Coach Flood has done a really good job of identifying the players we’re looking for (and) the styles of players we’re looking for. In two years, we got 12 players in our program that are going to be in their first two years; we’ve got something to build on for our future.”

The Longhorns have the top recruiting class in the Big 12 and No. 3 in the nation. And Texas is home to two of the top recruits in the past three years in quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning. To keep them upright, Sarkisian has put as much effort into recruiting his offensive line as he did into bringing them in; maybe even more.

Sarkisian says recruiting winners was a ‘huge part’ of process

On the recruiting trail, college coaches tend to have one or two important details they’re looking for in a recruit that doesn’t necessarily appear in the box scores. For Texas Longhorns’ head coach Steve Sarkisian, the detail for him is winning. After Texas hauled in an impressive 2023 recruiting class, Sarkisian revealed how big winning was during his recruiting process.

“It was a huge part of my focus. I didn’t necessarily make it known to the staff, but I think the guys caught on to it,” said Sarkisian. “I think there’s something to be said about guys that know how to win. We had five guys win this weekend… So we’ve assembled a bunch of winners. And I think we’ve got a culture here that’s starting to understand the importance of why we’re here; to win. And the idea about being competitive in everything that we do. Now we’re bringing in another influx of players that is driven and focused. So my idea is that you surround yourself with like-minded people that are winners, and that should raise the level of all of us to perform to the point of we’re about winning. That’s what we’re here to do.”

The Longhorns have the No. 3 ranked recruiting class in the On3 Consensus team rankings after the Thursday flip and signing of DeAndre Moore Jr. Which makes it back-to-back top-5 classes for Sarkisian. The 2023 class was one that filled out several needs for the Longhorns. But the biggest need they help fill is bringing a winning mindset to the Texas program for years to come.