A few words provide the strongest indication of Steve Sarkisian's confidence in the 2023 Longhorns

College sports barnstorming tours are meant to fire up the fan base ahead of the upcoming season, and the recent Texas Fight Tour put on by the Texas Exes was no different. Longhorn coaches alongside athletics director Chris Del Conte sang the praises of the Longhorns’ accomplishments in 2022-23 and excited fans for the 2023-24 campaigns.

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Steve Sarkisian made appearances at all four events in San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas, and Houston. He offered plenty of reasons for burnt orange optimism and repeated much of what he said throughout spring practices and in various media settings.

It isn’t just Sarkisian who is confident in his program. On3 ranked Texas No. 9 in its Post-Spring Top 25 and as the No. 1 team in the Big 12. Plus, he mentioned a few times on the tour that his team would like nothing more than to win a Big 12 title during UT’s last football season as members of the conference.

Fans are excited, and that doesn’t bother Sarkisian in the slightest.

“I try to be honest and transparent,” Sarkisian said Tuesday in Houston. “I just try to talk about the things that we’re focused on and what we’re doing. I try to talk about the strengths of our team and what we’re trying to lean into, then areas we need to improve. Not trying to be boastful. I feel pretty good about our team.”

Confident words, but they pale in comparison to what he said to a gathered crowd a few minutes later.

Texas plays new Big 12 member Houston at TDECU Stadium this year, its first road game versus the former Southwest Conference rival since 2001.

Sarkisian knew that when he told the crowd at J-Bar-M Barbecue, “I hope we get a second trip to Houston this fall.”

Why a second trip to Houston? The Big 12 championship is held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Texas isn’t playing Rice in Rice Stadium, and an appearance in the Texas Bowl would mean a season that looked like the 2022 campaign.

The 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship takes place January 8 at NRG Stadium in Houston.

Sarkisian has made no guarantees about the 2023 season. He’s told nobody to make winter travel reservations for Houston, or for Arlington, or anything like that.

He’s expressed confidence in having 10 returning starters on offense, a defense that has benefitted from coaching continuity, a culture he’s proud of, and an improved quarterback in Quinn Ewers at the front of a star-studded position room.

But to even mention the CFP, which has rarely featured the Longhorns in the top 10 of its own rankings? That speaks to a level of confidence Sarkisian has in the 2023 team.

“Now, we’ve got to put it all together,” Sarkisian said to gathered media. “That’s the next phase of this thing. I feel good about the team we have and the structure of the organization and the people we have in place.”

Those kinds of words, ones that indicate Texas thinks it could be a part of the national championship picture this year, follow from back-to-back top-three recruiting classes, portal success, and marked year-over-year improvement during Sarkisian’s tenure.

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It would follow also that the Big 12 champion would be in the playoff picture. In the CFP era, the Big 12 champion has made the four-team invitational four times, and runner-up TCU still earned a spot in 2022 after falling to Kansas State in the title game.

To make Houston? That means likely winning the Big 12 and emerging victorious from either the Rose or Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2024.

Those are high expectations, expectations Texas hasn’t come close to meeting since 2009. To mention them means they’re seen at least as a possibility inside the walls of the Moncrief-Neuhaus football facility.

Sarkisian and company understand that, and hope 2023 is the year they are able to reach those lofty standards.

“The expectations are just as high or higher internally,” Sarkisian said. “That’s why every coach chose to come to the University of Texas to work here. That’s why every player signed on the dotted line to come play football for the University of Texas: to win a championship and compete for a championship year in and year out.”