Steve Sarkisian opens up on the culture growth he's seen since taking over at Texas

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian did not have the year one he was hoping to start his tenure leading the program. The Longhorns began the year strong but collapsed down the stretch going 1-6 to end the year. But, on the verge of kicking off a new season Texas has a chance to correct course on the program’s recent history. And recently, Sarkisian opened up on the cultural growth his team has experienced from year one to now.

“Without question,” said Sarkisian when asked whether his team felt any agony about last season. “Two things — (first) we have a lot of leadership from returning players. They’re going into their final season, or maybe they are juniors and want to change the script and narrative of Texas football. And they don’t want to feel that pain and anguish anymore.”

The Longhorns added a ton of talent this offseason thanks to the transfer portal and Sarkisian pulling in the top-ranked recruiting class in the Big 12 and fifth in the nation. Leading that class is two of the top talents to come out of the state of Texas linebacker Devon Campbell and offensive tackle Kelvin Banks. Not to mention getting the original number one recruit from the 2022 class, quarterback Quinn Ewers to head back to his home state via transfer.

“(Second), we really flipped our roster. We brought in 35 new players, seven transfers, and then all the young kids that I think bought into the idea of what we’re doing here. We recruited really well to make that happen. We’ve got a very hungry team that is willing to take the necessary steps and go the extra mile so that they don’t have to feel that agony.”

Sarkisian on Texas’ struggles last year

It was not like Texas was devoid of talent last year. The Longhorns put together several impressive first-halves in their 2021 season. However, they found themselves on the wrong end of a come-from-behind victory more times than they would have liked last year.

“I don’t think it was about talent. I don’t think it was about understanding game plans or we wouldn’t have had those leads in the fourth quarter against quality opponents,” said Sarkisian. “But in the end, it’s that level of perseverance and accountability and discipline to do right at the critical moments, and relying on the guy next to you that he’s going to do his job all those things that sound very simple. But when you get pushed to the brink, sometimes it’s not as simple to do it. So, our guys have bought into that idea, and you feel it. Just culturally as a team we feel different a year later.”

For the Longhorns, last season spoke more about the team’s culture on and off the field than it did about the group’s overall talent. On3’s J.D PicKell was also critical of the team’s culture recently.

If Texas wants to reclaim a spot at the top of the college football index, then Sarkisian needs to find a way to get his abundance of talent on the roster to commit to a culture of winning. If not, the Longhorns will find themselves in a similar predicament, and the head coach will find himself out of a job.