Texas Football: Pressure isn’t phasing Steve Sarkisian this fall

New Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian isn’t in a great spot at the moment. But the good news for him is that this looks to be fixable. Texas is currently riding a three-game losing streak following the loss last weekend on the road to the No. 16 ranked Baylor Bears by the final score of 31-24.

The goal for this week is simple for Sark and the Longhorns this week; break the losing streak and build up some momentum heading into the final stretch run of the regular season. Texas is rising a three-game losing streak that all started back during the Red River Rivalry game against the Oklahoma Sooners. That is where Texas experienced their first second-half collapse of the season.

The first second-half collapse for Sark and the Longhorns would be what defined the Big 12 slate, and largely the season as a whole. We don’t know what the complete narrative of this season will be when we look back at it. This is still an important November schedule ahead for the Longhorns.

Texas football and Steve Sarkisian need to right the ship in November

Texas entered the Red River Rivalry game as one of the top 25 teams in the country, still looking to make some noise in the Big 12 and work their way into the conference title game conversation. And out of the gates in Red River, it looked like Texas was well on their way to contending for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Instead, Texas would undergo one of the more devastating second-half collapses of the season to date. And that narrative repeated itself for the Longhorns in losses to the Baylor Bears and Oklahoma State Cowboys in the following weeks.

Now, the Longhorns are facing another very difficult test on Nov. 6. On the night of Nov. 6, Texas is set to take on the Iowa State Cyclones on the road in Ames. This might be the most difficult test remaining in the regular season for the Longhorns.

A win against Iowa State would at least put Texas in a position to make a decent run through the November slate. And this is something that could put a lot of pressure on the shoulders of Sark and redshirt junior quarterback Casey Thompson.

Sark and Thompson have the ability to help Texas start to right the ship this month after a treacherous month of October. It all starts with getting a win over Iowa State on Nov. 6. That would at least get Texas back in the conversation of a program that could be headed in the right direction.

In one of his weekly press conferences ahead of the Iowa State game in the last few days, Sark mentioned that he “knew what I signed up for” when he took the Texas job. That is a powerful statement if he’s actually able to right the ship in the coming weeks.

Texas is going to have to show some signs of life on the field in the near future if that is to translate to success on the recruiting trail. And that is now a responsibility that falls on Sark’s shoulders in the final month of the regular season.

There is still a lot of potential in terms of what Sark and the Longhorns can pull together on the recruiting trail in the next calendar year. But there is still a lot riding on how Thompson and the Longhorns can round out the 2021 season.