On a recent episode of the Crane & Cone show, Josh Pate and the crew discussed different head coaches and the amount of pressure on each of them heading into 2026. Obviously, the biggest thing that stood out in the conversation was about Texas HC Steve Sarkisian and his lack of success in the College Football Playoffs.
Pate's biggest argument was, “If we didn’t do it this year, are we just never going to do it under him?” in terms of his potential at the University of Texas. This argument is incredibly ridiculous, short-sighted, and flat-out wrong.
“If we didn’t do it this year, are we just never going to do it under him?”@JoshPateCFB has Texas’ Steve Sarkisian under a different kind of pressure ahead of an all-in season this fall for the Longhorns. pic.twitter.com/cas7Ml92Mg
— Crain & Cone (@crainandcone) April 7, 2026
First of all, the 2025 season was an unusual one for Texas, seeing as everything that could've gone wrong for the Longhorns did. Now, I'm not saying that it's not their own fault, because 90% of it was. It just doesn't make sense to bring Sarkisian's name up in a conversation like this when he's led the team to the playoffs multiple times in the past five seasons.
It was Arch Manning's first season as the starter in 2025, the team had an incredibly bad penalty problem, and something seemed off on the defensive side of the ball as well. It was a one-off type of year, and Pate should've acknowledged that at some point during the discussion rather than act like Sark's been on the hot seat for the past couple of seasons.
A lot of programs couldn't even dream about the things that Sark's done at Texas since becoming head coach, and it's about time the media started talking about the things that he's done in Austin instead of the things he hasn't.