Texas Football: Sarkisian proves this program is heading into new era

Heading into this season, it was difficult to pinpoint what exactly realistic expectations could be for new Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian. In his first season at the helm as head coach, Sarkisian has done well thus far to keep Texas on a good path. That is especially true through the start of Big 12 play.

The start to the Big 12 slate this year doesn’t feel like a normal one for the Longhorns. That is largely due to the fact that the Longhorns just blew out head coach Matt Wells and the Texas Tech Red Raiders last weekend. And then, Texas hung in their to down the TCU Horned Frogs and stingy head coach Gary Patterson this weekend.

Texas beating TCU this weekend helped to snap a two-game losing skid to that team. And Texas had lost six of the last seven meetings to Patterson and the Horned Frogs.

It wasn’t necessarily the most impressive win ever for the Longhorns, but this team looked very good against their first two Big 12 opponents in the last two weekends. Texas beat TCU on the road in Fort Worth on Oct. 2 by the final score of 32-27. Sark and the Longhorns were able to stave off a late-game run from TCU to hold on with the one-possession win.

Texas football has a different feeling with Steve Sarkisian at the helm

What this really proves for Sark and the Longhorns through five games this season is how different this program could be under his direction. The start to this season feels much different than any we saw under former head coaches Tom Herman and Charlie Strong.

Texas isn’t playing up and down to the competition, no matter what, like this team did under Herman. And Texas isn’t really losing games in Big 12 play that they have no business faltering in like the program did under Strong.

It’s still very early on this fall, but a lot of the signs that Sark is showing with this program are positive moving forward. Hopefully, this will instill the necessary confidence for the Longhorns to hang in there and take care of business against head coach Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners in the annual Red River Rivalry game next weekend.

Passing the TCU test was huge for Sark, and he looked comfortable in the way he called this game from beginning-to-end. It wasn’t the smoothest performance ever by redshirt junior quarterback Casey Thompson. But Sark stuck to his guns and let a good second half performance from the defense, some timely turnovers, and the efforts of star sophomore running back Bijan Robinson lead the way to this five-point win.

Texas now carries a record of 4-1 (2-0 Big 12) following this big road win over the Horned Frogs on Oct. 2. Next up for Sark and the Longhorns is that big-time aforementioned Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma in Dallas on Oct. 9.