Steve Sarkisian on what making a bowl game would mean for Texas

Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian knows exactly what it would mean to the program to make a bowl game. But he can’t focus on that right now.

For the Longhorns to even have that chance, they must win both of their remaining games. That begins against the West Virginia Mountaineers at noon ET on Saturday in Morgantown.

“I think it would be great (to make a bowl),” Sarkisian said in a Thursday press conference. “Clearly that would be on a lot of fronts. To finish strong is big for psyche and I think everybody involved. Competitively, we would love to get however many practices we can get before the bowl game and experience that.

“But my focus isn’t really there yet. My focus is on Saturday and making sure we’re in a good frame of mind and have got the pieces in place to go win that ball game. Then we can worry about the next one next.”

Texas has not won a game since Oct. 2, when it defeated TCU by score of 32-27. The Longhorns hit a season low this past week with their overtime loss against Kansas, which was previously winless in conference play.

If they were to miss out on bowl play, it would snap a streak of four straight appearances. Texas made a bowl in every season that Tom Herman was coach. Herman was let go this past offseason after a 32-18 overall record that included 4-0 in bowl games.

To their credit, the Longhorns stormed back in the second half last week after falling behind three touchdowns at the half. They outscored Kansas 35-14 in the second half, but were done in on a two-point conversion in the extra period.

If Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns hope to make a bowl game, they’ll need to work on coming out stronger in the next two games. This could be particularly challenging against a Mountaineers defense that ranks fourth in the Big 12 in total defense.

At this point in the season, it can get easy to start thinking about the looming bowls. Although Sarkisian said he gets it, that’s certainly not where his mind is at the moment.

“I hear the question, understand the question and recognize it would be beneficial,” he said. “But quite frankly, our focus has got to be on Saturday right now.”