Taking the pulse of Texas fans entering Year 3 of Steve Sarkisian era

It is Year 3 of the Steve Sarkisian era at Texas and expectations are high. Not only is it the culmination of two years of program building, but it is also the final run through the Big 12 for the team.

On3’s J.D. PicKell said on The Hard Count that it has been difficult to be a Longhorns fan the past few years but there’s reason for hope that 2023 will be a year to remember.

“They’ve been through it now these last couple of years,” PicKell said. “It’s been tough. Because on the outside looking in, you hear this a lot if you’re a Texas fan: unrealistic fan base, arrogant fan base, you just every single year expect your team to be in the College Football Playoff race, you expect to win the Big 12 every single year and every single year, y’all just seem to underachieve. That is consistently the chorus of naysayers outside of Austin, Texas. I want to be clear, too. This is not something that is completely out of bounds to say because you do have expectations at Texas. 100%.”

One of the reasons PicKell says Texas fans also believe they can win every year is because of how well they recruit. The Longhorns consistently grab top recruiting classes but they have done a horrible job developing them over the past half-decade.

No players from Texas were selected in the 2022 NFL Draft. Bijan Robinson was the first first round pick this season since 2015.

“But honestly for Texas, the reason why they feel like they always have a chance is because they’ve consistently recruited well,” PicKell said. “Since 2018, they have been outside of the top 10 in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings one time. One time. So that tells me you consistently have a top-10 class, which should equate to typically a top-10 roster if you’re doing it right and developing right and have a good culture and all that. The talent in Austin, Texas, is always there. Talent is good reason for optimism, is good reason for expectations.”

Since the 2009 season, Texas has made only one Big 12 Championship Game appearance.

That happened in 2018 when they played Oklahoma in the title game and lost 39-27.

“Now here’s the thing, though, that Texas fans have been told internally rather has been sort of the message around the fan base within Austin, Texas, these last couple of years is be patient,” PicKell said. “Be patient. It’s Sark’s first year. It’s going to take some time. We miss a bowl game. Sucks. It’s not what we expect. It’s for sure underachieving, but there are some things going on within this team that need to get fixed. It’s gonna take some time. Be patient. And so you were patient through Year 1 and Year 2, you saw improvement. You saw eight wins. You saw Quinn Ewers look great. You saw him look pretty lackluster. You saw the defense play well. You saw the defense play poorly. You saw some inconsistency from this Texas team.”

Texas went 5-7 during Sarkisian’s first year leading the program and then 8-5 last year, which included an Alamo Bowl appearance down I-35 in San Antonio.

“But with that being said, now we’re going into Year 3,” PicKell said. “Now Steve Sarkisian should have a developed culture. Now Quinn Ewers should have his footing as the guy at Texas. Now you have some of those top-10 classes developed and the guys that chose to stay are bought in. The pulse for Texas, the pulse of the program at Texas, is let’s eat. Let’s eat. We’ve been told to wait. We’ve been told to wait until this meal was ready. Now we’re coming for everything that y’all have told us to wait for. We’ve built to this. We’ve built to a culture that should be solid. We’ve built to a year where we have a quarterback that’s experienced and we have a head coach that has all his guys on campus now, allegedly. We waited for this. Let’s eat. That is the exact same thing that the Texas locker room is saying.”