Prepare for the SEC? Steve Sarkisian's focus is to bring back a Big 12 title

“When are we going to the SEC?” was a question directed several times to Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte during the Texas Exes’ recent statewide Texas Fight Tour. Though Del Conte and the rest of the Texas athletic department would love to exit its current conference as quickly as possible, and are likely working to do just that, Texas brass has remained publicly committed to the 2025 timeline so as not to tempt the Big 12 to assess additional financial penalty through fine or litigation.

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That said, SEC discussion is assuredly taking place in Bellmont Hall. Even a Texas athletic department promotional video released in March and played on repeat in front of alumni during the tour showcases the logo of Texas’ future conference home at the end of an inspiring video for burnt orange audiences.

This place is special.#WhatStartsHere 🤘 pic.twitter.com/imWYiQGRFi

— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) March 7, 2022

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was recently asked if he has discussed the SEC with his team since the move was announced last summer. In response, he said the focus around the Moncrief-Neuhaus football facility was on winning a championship in Texas’ current conference.

“I haven’t talked to our team about it at all,” Sarkisian said at the Touchdown Club of Houston last Wednesday. “We’re in the Big 12. We’ve got an opportunity to be a pretty good football team this fall with an opportunity to compete for a Big 12 championship, and that’s what our goal is. We have no reason to think otherwise, right? Our recent success, or lack thereof, should lend to we should be striving to go win a Big 12 championship. We’ve got to get ourselves to Arlington to do that.”

Plus, after the gut-wrenching loss to Oklahoma during his first time coaching in the Red River Shootout, Sarkisian wants his chance at redemption and a new accessory on the way to competing for hardware in Arlington.

“I’m tired of them putting on the freaking hat, man,” Sarkisian said about the Golden Hat, the trophy for the rivalry game. “I want to wear the hat!”

Despite the lack of SEC mention to the current team, Sarkisian is undoubtedly aware of the planned change in affiliation. If the SEC logo in the video above didn’t indicate that, the football program using the SEC logo in the facility while hosting recruits does.

Texas is selling the SEC on the recruiting trail. But is Texas recruiting in an effort to be competitive in the SEC? Maybe as a byproduct of its current pursuit, but that’s not the program’s stated goal.

Sarkisian reiterated his focus is on building the best team he possibly can to win as many games as he can this year. That’s through bringing in top 10 recruiting classes like the one he signed in 2022, as well as adding top transfer portal prospects like Quinn Ewers, Isaiah Neyor, Agiye Hall, and Ryan Watts, among others.

“I took the job and I think I owe it to the University of Texas, I think I owe it to the players on our team to make sure that I’m putting our players and our university in the best position to win,” Sarkisian said. “That’s on a week-to-week basis. That’s on a year-to-year basis. But also, having the foresight to build our program for longevity in anticipation of what’s to come.”

It stands to reason that Texas’ 2022 class, built upon the signatures of 15 offensive and defensive linemen, could be considered the first step in getting the program “SEC ready.” Pursuing high-level skill players like Ewers and elite high school prospects like Arch Manning, Rueben Owens, Cedric Baxter, and Zalance Heard would be a logical next step in that process.

“I thought we’ve done a good job of that in how we’ve managed the transfer portal, how we’ve managed the recruitment of linemen, which I think is critical to success of a program, and then ultimately how we’ve implemented those newer faces into our schemes as they’ve gotten opportunities to show what they can do,” Sarkisian said.

For Sarkisian, the process isn’t for winning in the SEC. It’s for winning at the highest level, with conference affiliation as an afterthought. Considering the 12-season drought without a conference title for the Longhorns, and with only two real cracks at a conference championship in that timespan, worrying about the future conference is a distraction from the actual priority for Texas of winning the Big 12 for the first time since 2009.

“We’ll worry about the SEC when that time comes, but for now this is our focus,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got a goal. We’ve got a mission. Now we’ve got to try to go out and achieve it.”