On Wednesday, Sept. 16, Texas Longhorns co-defensive coordinator and linebacker coach Johnny Nensen was pulled over and charged with a misdemeanor DWI, head coach Steve Sarkisian shared the following morning.
"We are obviously disappointed, but that's all I have on that at the time," Sarkisian said on the incident.
#Texas LB coach Johnny Nansen was charged with a misdemeanor DWI says Steve Sarkisian.
— CJ Vogel (@CJVogel_OTF) September 17, 2026
"We are obviously disappointed, but that's all I have on that at the time."
Sarkisian did not specify if the incident took place in Austin, and when searching Travis County records, we were unable to find any further information on Nansen's arrest.
Nansen joined Sarkisian's staff in 2024 and remained the co-DC after Texas parted ways with former defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, then hiring Will Muschamp in his place.
Before joining the Longhorns more than two and a half years ago, Nansen spent two years as the Arizona Wildcats' defensive coordinator. He first worked with Sarkisian at USC, acting as the Trojans' assistant head coach and running backs coach in 2014 and 2015.
Longhorn fans unhappy with the current atmosphere on the 40 Acres
The past week hasn't been the best for Sarkisian and the Horns, with quarterback Arch Manning facing quite a bit of backlash over his comments on an AI-edited video of his head coach and ESPN reporter Holly Rowe.
When Sarkisian shared the news of Nansen's DWI charge, fans took to social media to share their displeasure and uncertainty around the current culture of the Texas football program.
"What kind of culture is Steve Sarkisian building in Austin?" one college football fan wrote on X.
"Texas might be looking for a new LB coach," a Texas fan wrote.
Simply put, even fresh off defeating the No. 1 team in the nation, the Longhorns were far from immune to scandal, and it seemed once one domino fell during Week 3, they all started to cascade.
After his brief statement on the Nansen matter, Sarkisian declined to comment any further, pivoting to the second matter he wanted to address: his own handling of the postgame interview with Rowe, which caused him to face backlash of his own.
"If hindsight's 20/20, if I could do it all over again, I would have exuded more patience in that moment and sat through and waited for the interview with Holly," Sarkisian said.
All of these out-of-game incidents were taking place between the Horns' Week 2 and Week 3 matchups, with the UTSA Roadrunners coming to Austin for Texas' third game of the season. So, while Sarkisian and his staff were working to prepare the team for their next game, the Longhorns were also having to put out small fires throughout the program.
In other words, this isn't the kind of news you want coming out of your program, whether you're undefeated or 0-2, whether you're the No. 1 team in the country or unranked. You want the focus to be football, and hopefully after today, that can be true for Texas.
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