Texas enjoyed its first 12-win season since 2009 under Steve Sarkisian last year. Capped with a run to the College Football Playoff semifinal, it’s clear that teams don’t get there by being ‘soft.’
That’s why Sarkisian has made it a point of emphasis for the Longhorns to be tougher than their opposition over the past couple of years. Now, it has started to pay off. According to the Texas coach, this was a mindset that was instilled in him across multiple stops throughout his coaching career.
“I think about who my mentors were in the sport growing up and having spent nearly eight years with Pete Carroll and having spent three years with Nick Saban,” Sarkisian told ESPN’s Greg McElroy. “They’re two defensive minded head coaches and [they have the] mentality that you have to have defensively to be really successful for a long period of time. So I think a lot of people see me and they assume I’m just a quarterback guy who wants to throw the ball all over the place. We believe in playing great defense and having a physical brand of football.
“I think the other thing that is maybe a little bit of a misnomer is that we believe in running the football and what we do offensively is predicated off of our run game. And the idea that I’ve never not had 1,000-yard rusher and we take pride in that.”
Sarkisian identified the offseason conditioning program as a contributing factor to this mentality. Director of Football Performance Torre Becton is in charge of setting up conditioning drills for the team during the summer — which includes a run at Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium twice a week at 4 a.m.
The Longhorns head coach said this aids his players in two aspects: mental and physical toughness.
“That’s a mentality and that our players kind of start to believe in,” Sarkisian continued. “The toughness that it takes to be a Texas Longhorn, and so it’s a process that we go through with our guys that the older players definitely take a lot of pride in. And now it’s getting the younger players acclimated to that, and what that means for us not just in the summer of getting through a summer run at four o’clock, but how that’s going to help us come the fall from a mentality standpoint.”
Texas will have this new mindset on full display when the Longhorns kick off their 2024 college football season on Aug. 31 against Colorado State.
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