Steve Sarkisian: This is our last year in the Big 12, the goal is to win a conference championship

There are several similarities between the 1995 and 2023 football seasons. Like in ’95, the landscape of the sport is changing. Conference memberships are set to be shaken up, just replace the Southwest Conference with the Big 12 in the modern version of the events. Amidst all the change, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian wants a certain aspect of history to repeat itself.

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“Last time I checked, the year we left the Southwest Conference, we won a conference championship,” Sarkisian said Wednesday at a Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon. “This is our last year in the Big 12, the goal is to win a conference championship. I think we have the roster and the team in place to go and do that. It’s going to take our focus and we have to be intentional to do it.”

If Sarkisian believes his team can do it and continues to be this vocal about it, then it follows that Texas will receive its fair share of preseason hype. That hype will come from both human writers and computer analytics like ESPN’s FPI, which labeled the Horns a top-five team earlier this month.

The best teams know how to absorb that information from multiple sources but not let it alter how they go about their business. Texas has to do that if they want to contend for the Big 12 crown in their final season in the league.

“Managing/handling expectations and then ultimately managing/handling success is the next step in the formula we’ve been on here going into year three,” Sarkisian said. “It’s one thing for people outside the program to think you’re going to be pretty good. It’s another when you feel it internally.

“I think coaching staff-wise, player-wise, I think we feel very confident about the team that we have. I think we’ve put in a lot of work. I think we’ve built a roster. I think we’ve got staff continuity. I think we’ve got a lot of the things in place to go have a good season. Ultimately, now we have to go do it.”

Living up to those expectations and winning the Big 12 Conference crown would result in something Texas has only achieved three times since they left the SWC. It’s one that coaches and players alike have focused on.

“This is a pretty big task at hand for us to go accomplish something in our final year in the Big 12,” Sarkisian said. “I listened to Jordan Whittington talk to our team the other day about it. One of the reasons he came back for his senior year, when he could be getting ready for the draft, is he wanted to leave here with a Big 12 championship.”

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That may not be the kind of answer the Houston media contingent in the Bayou City was expecting, especially with the massive move to the SEC upcoming in 2024. Sarkisian was asked how often he hears about the conference switch from his team. His answer?

“I don’t hear anything about the SEC from our players,” he said.

When speaking to Longhorn fans, boosters, lettermen, and even Houston local celebrity Mattress Mack during the luncheon and outside of the media session, Sarkisian made the point clear.

“I love all the talk about the SEC, where we’re going, and what all that looks like,” Sarkisian said. “I think the reality of it is, and I think we all would agree, that nothing would be sweeter and nothing would be better than to be hoisting that trophy in Arlington in early December as the Big 12 champion.”

The last time Texas was a conference champion in football was 2009. Prior to that, it was 2005. Before 2005, it was 1996 in the Big 12 Conference’s first season.

Would Texas like to repeat history and win conference titles during its last season in its old league and first campaign in its new one? Of course.

But to do that, it has to navigate all the pressure, the hype, and anything else that may come its way and win the Big 12 title first.