Ahead of the 2023 season, Steve Sarkisian believes culture, staff continuity will help achieve lofty expectations

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is well aware of the expectations surrounding the Longhorns entering 2023. How did he go about preparing to attempt to meet them? All gas, no breaks.

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Well, except for one short one.

“The biggest thing I did this offseason was to stay connected to the team,” Sarkisian said Tuesday. “A lot of times in the summer, coaches go on vacations in July and do different things. We took the week of Fourth of July off, my wife and I took that week, but the rest of the time I was with the team.

“I wanted to be at the workouts. I wanted to be at everything I could be at to stay connected to them. That was probably the best thing I did. Outside of getting away, sometimes it’s getting closer. I tried to get as close as I could to them on a daily basis.”

Aside from the short time off celebrating the birthday of the nation, Sarkisian chose to remain in Austin and make use of the one-year old rule allowing him to work with the team on the field on a regular basis. That’s in addition to the casual time he dedicated to the team, whether in his office or in other parts of the newly renovated facility.

As preseason training camp starts on Wednesday, Sarkisian hopes those efforts, as well as those of his staff featuring a supermajority of assistants in their third year together, can boost the Horns to championship heights during the program’s final season in the Big 12.

“I’m always hunting for ways to connect with our team from a cultural standpoint, developing great relationships to motivate our players,” Sarkisian said. “I’m always looking for ways to motivate the staff to keep them engaged.”

That should be less of a challenge when it comes to assistant coaches. Eight of the 10 coaches Sarkisian originally hired are still with the program, with running backs coach Tashard Choice and wide receivers coach Chris Jackson as the two exceptions. Both of those coaches were brought to Texas by Sarkisian, with Choice replacing a Tom Herman holdover in Stan Drayton and Jackson replacing Brennan Marion upon his departure for UNLV.

Sarkisian believes the familiarity his assistants have with one another entering their third year should benefit the team in the upcoming season.

“As we grew together and as we started to develop the players that we had, then recruit the type of players that we wanted at positions, it all started growing together,” Sarkisian said. “I do think that staff continuity was critical going into year three now, where these guys are very comfortable with one another. They’re speaking the same language.”

Those assistants’ ability to stay around the team along with Sarkisian has provided a perspective on the upcoming season’s squad to the Texas head coach not previously available in years past. After three years of implementing the processes they prefer, learning how to operate together, and signing the type of players they want, there’s plenty of confidence about the team walking the halls of Moncrief on the eve of preseason training camp.

“We’re excited about our team,” Sarkisian said. “I think that as we went through the offseason program of winter conditioning, spring practice, and our summer training, I think our team has built a culture that we’re excited about. Clearly, we like the talent on our team, but when you start putting that together with staff continuity, the veteran players on our roster, and the influx of the newcomers, we’ve built something here that we’re excited about.

“Ultimately, we have to go out and play, and that’s what’s going to define us, by the way we play and the way we perform.”

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Since 2009, Texas hasn’t performed at a championship level. Even being in contention for the Big 12 title has eluded the Longhorns, save for 2013 and 2018.

Doubts may exist among talking heads, experts, and rank-and-file fans about Texas’ ability to contend for a championship in any form. While past performance doesn’t have that drastic of an effect on future results, Sarkisian does understand the reason for wariness and even admitted the lack of recent championship contention is an obstacle for his program to overcome.

“I think the biggest thing that’s standing in the way is, we haven’t done it yet,” Sarkisian said. “We have to go earn it. We have to go do it. Then, you have to do it with a level of consistency. That’s something we really evaluated last season and as we were getting ready for this training camp. One of the key messages to this team is going to be there’s a level of consistency that’s needed to be a champion.”

That’s where specific on-field matters for his coaches to address come into play. There are some areas where Texas is looking for continued growth and, as Sarkisian mentioned, consistency. Those spots include quarterback and defensive back, among several others.

There are also several unknowns at this juncture that Sarkisian mentioned during his Tuesday meeting with the media like the starting running back, the makeup of the secondary, and who plays alongside Jaylan Ford at Will linebacker.

Battles for first-team reps at those spots and even others will continue throughout camp. Sarkisian hopes those competitions among players familiar with how he wants things to operate in front of coaches who are aligned with Sark’s vision create a mentality that prepares players for what will be an eventful, and at times heated, final season in the Big 12.

“I think this team is on a mission,” Sarkisian said. “They’ve taken this mindset of being on a mission. They’ve adopted the John Wick mentality that Quinn (Ewers) has touched on and Jordan (Whittington) has touched on. They’ve really focused, and I think that’s probably the thing. They want to go do this. They want to be focused on the task at hand.

“I think they’ve assumed this mentality of embrace the hate. We get it, we’re the University of Texas. We get it, this is our last year in the Big 12. We can sit there and be a punching bag or we can go attack the people we’re going to play.”