Texas, Steve Sarkisian need to make a statement, not excuses in 2023

After two years of middling results in Austin, Texas can’t afford to wait around for success in Year 3 under Steve Sarkisian. Speaking on “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Wednesday, On3’s J.D. PicKell explained what he wants to see from Texas this year — and why there’s no more time to wait for next year.

In Year 1, there was the understandable pushback that it was Sarkisian’s first season and he needed to turn the roster over and build a new, winning culture. Last year, in Year 2, it was the first season for quarterback Quinn Ewers. PicKell doesn’t see any sort of excuse to bail out Texas this time around.

“I think Texas has to be a statement team this year. I mean there’s always been that ‘Yeah, but…’ built in with Steve Sarkisian, with Quinn Ewers. It’s ‘Yeah, the first year, it’s not really his team. He’s trying to get the culture right.’ And Quinn Ewers, making the excuse, ‘Well it’s his first year being the starting quarterback.’ So for Texas, going into Year 3, it’s like alright, you’ve had the Year 3 culture. Now you’ve got a quarterback that knows what he’s doing. You’ve kind of built to this. Year 3 is kind of like, ‘OK, make a statement.’ Show me that Texas is going to be a team that we have to deal with when we talk about the big boys in college football,” PicKell said.

In two seasons so far under Sarkisian, Texas is 13-12. The Longhorns went 5-7 in the first season with him at the helm before putting in a respectable 8-5 campaign in 2022.

But with a returning quarterback, plenty of continuity across the rest of the roster and the recruiting kicking up to another level as of late, Texas can’t afford another season of offseason hype fizzling out.

The Longhorns might not need to make the College Football Playoff for folks to feel good about Sarkisian. But a season with double-digit wins and contending for a league title are probably the thresholds that Texas needs to clear to make the sort of statement PicKell hopes to see.

“Because, Paul, I think the reason why Texas gets so much heat is there’s the brand and there’s the attention that comes with being at Texas. But Texas invests so much into their football program that at this point in time, it’s like ‘We’ve got to see some ROI now.’ We’ve put all we’ve been told to put into it, we’ve got the facilities, we’ve got the recruiting, now we want to get something out of it,” PicKell said.

“So, for Year 3, I think it’s very fair to expect Texas to be one of those teams that needs to make a statement.”