From 5-7 to No. 1: How Texas transformed into college football’s top team in four years under Steve Sarkisian

When you’re the head coach at Texas, there are two modus operandi: Greatness or discomfort. There are no in-betweens at a program in which every resource is given, and the expectations are clear, if not historically over-optimistic: national championship contention. 

Sarkisian is familiar with the discomfort. He went 5-7 in his Texas debut, the worst debut record of any Longhorn head coach since World War II. The conversations about whether he could do the job were had by Thanksgiving as Texas lost five one-score games down the stretch of a weird season that saw it blow a huge lead to Oklahoma in 2021 — falling victim to Caleb Williams‘ off-the-bench national breakout — and lose to Kansas back when it was, well, Kansas. 

“I’ll tell you this much: 5-7 in Austin, Texas, sucks,” Sarkisian said in July. “That was hard. That was hard on me. That was hard on the players. That was hard on a lot of people.”

Sarkisian this summer could speak candidly about Texas’ challenges in Year 1 because, coming off a College Football Playoff appearance, they feel so long ago and safely in the past. The Longhorns went 8-5 in 2022, made the playoff in 2023 and now, just three weeks into the 2024 season, rank No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. It’s the first time the Longhorns have been No. 1 since 2008. 

Greatness is back in vogue at a school where, as famed Texas booster Red McCombs once put it, “All the money that is not up at the Vatican is at UT.”

How did Sarkisian turn things around so quickly? Money helps. But when you dive into the roster, the strides are obvious in almost every area. They’re obvious to the coaches who’ve played Texas, too.

UTSA faced Texas in 2022 and entered halftime of that game tied with the Longhorns before eventually losing 41-20. When the two schools matched up again Saturday, it turned into a 56-7 Longhorn onslaught.

“They have a chance to run the table,” said a UTSA coach that faced Texas both seasons. “If they do, I truly won’t be surprised.”

Here are five keys we’ve identified that best explain Texas’ climb out of college football purgatory. 

The best QB room in college football

It’d be foolish to pretend Sarkisian inherited a poor quarterback room from Tom Herman and his staff. The duo of Casey Thompson (a four-star QB in the 2018 class) and Hudson Card (the No. 70 overall player in the 2020 class) were more than respectable in 2021, combining for 2,703 yards, 29 touchdowns and a 62.7 completion percentage.

Card is still a starter on the Power Four level for Purdue. Thompson started 10 games at Nebraska after he left Texas.

But neither Card nor Thompson are first-round talents. Texas now claims two such players in Quinn Ewers (the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2021 class) and Arch Manning (No. 1 overall in the 2023 class). Given what Manning did Saturday against UTSA after Ewers exited with an injury — 9-for-12, 223 yards, 4 touchdowns and a 67-yard rushing touchdown — it’s fair to suggest he’s already one of the top 10 quarterbacks in college football.

Having two of those players on the same roster almost never happens in the transfer portal era of college football. One can imagine a world in which Ewers and Manning each go No. 1 in whichever years they decide to enter the NFL Draft. Do you know how insane that is? 

Ewers, who will retake his QB1 throne when he returns shortly from a strained abdomen, gives Texas an immense ceiling with the throws he can make in Sarkisian’s offense. He’s gotten better every year, too. Ewers completed 58.1% of his passes as a first-year starter in 2022. Last year that jumped to 69%. He sits at 73.4% through three games and was the Heisman frontrunner before he left the UTSA game with an injury. 

“Their QB is REAL,” said the UTSA coach.

Improved offensive line play (finally)

This is something we covered recently at College Football Overtime for 247Sports after Texas whipped Michigan along the lines of scrimmage. I’m not sure it’s getting enough play nationlly. 

Look at where Texas’ pass blocking ranks through three games, per PFF, compared to how did in 2021 across the entire season:

2021: 72nd overall while allowing 17 sacks and 113 pressures
2024: 5th overall while allowing 1 sack and 13 pressures

Texas is currently allowing .33 sacks and 4.3 pressures per game compared to 1.4 sacks and 9.4 pressures per contest in 2021.

That’s a massive difference!

The talent difference is obvious. The Longhorns start a sure-fire first-round pick at left tackle in Kelvin Banks. They haven’t produced a first-round pick along the offensive line since 2002. Sarkisian’s time at Texas has produced just a single draft pick along the o-line. That’s going to change soon. Several Texas starters — a group with more than 100 combined career starts — could hear their name called next April.

Stellar offensive line play makes everything easier. Ewers is more comfortable in the pocket and Texas, which features among the fastest group of receivers in the country, can dial up longer developing routes for those weapons.

It should be noted that Texas’ rushing production is down a bit compared to Sarkisian’s initial season. That Texas team averaged 5.23 yards per carry while the 2024 version sits at 4.81.

But that speaks more to the Longhorns’ running back room than anything else. The 2024 group, which has been devastated by injury, is one of the few questions marks on Texas’ roster. The Longhorns’ top running back trio in 2021 — Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and Jonathon Brooks — averaged four yards per carry after contact. The Longhorns’ top three backs this year are down to 2.72 yards after contact.

A WR corps with speed to burn

Texas’ standout receivers this year and how they ranked as recruits or transfer additions:

The Longhorns had two receivers drafted in the first 52 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft. Most teams would have a drop off in talent. Texas is ridiculously loaded and may be even scarier without the beloved trio of Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell and Jordan Whittington. 

It’s the speed that’s critical to note with that group. Let’s look at some track times for those five pass catchers from their junior seasons. 

Long speed isn’t everything in college football. But that’s FAST. There are no brakes with the Longhorns’ wide receivers. That type of speed, which Texas utilized so well with Worthy the last few seasons, gives Sarkisian a myriad of options as a play-caller. 

I’m not saying Bond will break Worthy’s 4.21 40-yard time at the NFL Combine, but his high school times are faster. I’m sure opponents are beyond frustrated that Sarkisian can outfit separate but similar weapons in his wideout rotation in consecutive seasons. 

The Longhorns never lacked quality wide receivers, even in the program’s worst periods the last decade. But you truly can’t over-emphasize how difficult Texas is to defend with that type of speed on the perimeter and a quarterback like Ewers (or Manning last week and this week) who can make any throw.  

A bigger, faster, stronger defense

Austin American-Statesman reporter Danny Davis did a nice job summarizing Texas’ defensive growth earlier this week by noting how many points the Longhorns have allowed in non-conference play over the last decade. But let’s focus in on Sarkisian’s four seasons with the program. 

Obviously, the quality of competition can determine a team’s defensive output in non-conference play. But it’s hard to argue Texas’ 2024 non-conference schedule is soft. Colorado State has a legit NFL wide receiver in Tory Horton and Michigan is the defending national champions. UTSA is in a down cycle this year but is a respected program in the state. We have enough to go on to suggest the Longhorns will be a different defensive animal in 2024. The eye test backs that up. too. 

In 2021, Texas’ defense ranked 102nd nationally in yards allowed per play. That group gave up 40 points to Arkansas, 55 points to Oklahoma and 57 to Kansas. The 2024 Longhorns rank No. 18. 

So, what’s allowed Texas to go from below average to elite on that side of the ball so quickly? Pete Kwiatkowski looked out of his depths to some in Year 1 but is an excellent defensive coordinator and just needed some time to install his system after inheriting a very different defensive prototype from the previous defensive staff. There are a few areas to point out that speak to the jump.

The secondary is much better. Texas ranked 80th nationally in opposing passer rating that season as Texas’ starting cornerbacks (D’Shawn Jamison, Anthony Cook) both allowed opposing passers to complete 69-plus percent of their passes against them. The safety play wasn’t much better.

Texas’ starting cornerbacks this season, Jahdae Barron and Malik Muhammad, are holding opposing passers to a 47.3% completion rate.

A big problem from that 2021 defense was the inability to generate pressure — so much so that a then-freshmn defensive tackle Alfred Collins led the Longhorns with 15 pressures that season. Pressure from the interior is welcome, but it’s a major issue when your top edge rusher (Ovie Oghoufo) manages just two sacks all season.

The Longhorns have aggressively attempted to upgrade that position. Not only have program veterans Barryn Sorrell and Ethan Burke emerged as steadying contributors as upperclassmen, but Texas was serious about adding pass rush talent heading into 2024. The Longhorns landed AAC Defensive Player of the Year Trey Moore (three pressures against Michigan) and five-star edge Colin Simmons, who’s already equaled Oghoufo’s 2021 sack total in just three games and looks like a terror. 

Linebacker play was a liability for Texas in 2021. Now it’s the strength of the team, headlined by sophomore Anthony Hill Jr., a five-star recruit in the 2023 class and one of the freakiest players in college football. He’s a sideline-to-sideline chess piece the Longhorns can employ as a pass rusher or in coverage with excellent success. Meanwhile, program veteran David Gbenda is a freakish tester himself (4.7 40 time, 32-inch vertical) who’s shown to be an excellent run stopper.

The Longhorns are better in every area of their defense compared to 2021. Like at wide receiver, they’re also, uh, fast. The Longhorns have recruited big, long and speedy defensive players who fly to the football. It makes running anything on the perimeter against Texas a chore.

Said the UTSA coach of these Longhorns: “Their defensive speed is what stands out.”

Texas is recruiting better than ever

Texas develops well under the current staff. The team’s 11 draft picks in 2024 were the most for the program in the seven-round era. But they’re recruiting at a different level than anything we’ve seen in Austin since Mack Brown‘s peak, and before you say “Texas always recruits well,” take a look at how Texas ranked in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite in 2021 compared to now and you’ll see what we’re talking about. 

2024: 4th

2021: 11th

That 2021 roster had five former 5-star players. The 2024 Longhorns have 11. The 2021 roster featured 33 three-star players. The 2024 Longhorns have only 19 such athletes (with all due respect to three-stars). 

Those are small but measurable jumps in top-end talent that separate the good from the elite. There’s a reason why Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia are competitive every single year: It’s harder for regression to occur when you have more talent than everyone else, and the margin of error is simply a bit bigger. 

And it’s no accident that the first time Texas hit No. 1 in the polls since 2008 corresponds with the program having a top-five most-talented roster since the metric debuted in 2015.

The advent of Name, image and likeness advent combined with modern transfer rules greatly benefit Texas. A lot of that money McCombs once bragged about is now funneled toward NIL, where Texas is one of the most aggressive and successful operations in the country. 

For two offseasons in a row, the Longhorns’ hallmark transfer adds were future pros from the prior SEC champions (Adonai Mitchell from Georgia, Bond from Alabama). And in the first full offseason under Sarkisian, his banner transfer add was Ewers, who the Longhorns secured after batting away a spirited monetary effort from a motivated Texas Tech. 

It would have been understandable if Texas took a step back this year after losing 11 starters to the draft from the program’s best team in more than a decade. Instead, the Longhorns supplemented their already talented roster with the nation’s No. 6 high school and No. 5 transfer class during the 2024 cycle.

That combination of elite recruiting with elite NIL backing means roster holes feel like a thing of the past for the Longhorns.