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Texas Longhorns has moved on to college -football -final game in each of the last two seasons.
Longhorns is expected to run once again in this upcoming season’s playoffs, but head coach Steve Sarkisian is doing what he can to temper some of these high expectations. Sarkisian also threw cold water on the notion that no matter what the team is crowned as national masters, will end the season with a perfect 16-0 record.
“I don’t think we’ll see an undefeated champion,” during SEC spring meetings.
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Main coach Steve Sarkisian from Texas Longhorns speaks during Sec Football Media Days at Omni Dallas Hotel on July 17, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. (Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Sarkisian pointed to the difficulty of maintaining a fully healthy watch list through the extended college football season. “It’s so hard to stay healthy for so long. This idea that someone will go 16-0 in college football? If so, set up a statue.”
The 12-team playoff format debuted last season. After a team plays its full 12-match regular seasonal slate, they could qualify for their conference championship. Under last year’s format, conference masters from Power 4 earned a goodbye. The 13-0 team then had to win a quarterfinals, semi-final and championship games to finish at 16-0.
2025 CFP Championship Odds: OSU, Texas remains favored by format change
Sarkisian then remembered the huge differences in the present Sports Landscape and his time at southern California’s coaching staff in 2003.
“Then we grew out to a two-team playoffs and we grew out to a four-team playoffs, and now we have grown into the place where we are today,” he continued. “I think that at the end of the day we just want the best teams to have an opportunity to compete for a championship. The length of the season, last year, we played 16 games and it was just to get to the semi -finals. It would have been 17 to win a championship.”
Main coach Steve Sarkisian of Texas Longhorns responds during the second quarter to Georgia Bulldogs at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on October 19, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
Sarkisian also approached the raised expectations that Texas and Quarterback Arch Manning will meet in the 2025 season. Manning saw action at times last season, but Quinn Ewers’ jump to the NFL opened the door for him to become a full -time starter.
“Arch is an amazing player, but I hope everyone here that we will not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Sarkisian said. “Let’s let this guy play this year. Let’s let him have fun finally getting his opportunity as a start -quarterback for Texas Longhorns. It’s been a lifelong dream for this guy to do this.”
Longhorns suffered a 37-31 loss to Washington in the playoff semi-finals 2023–24. After defeating Clemson in the first round, Texas survived a double-over-over thriller against Arizona State in the quarterfinals. But Longhorns couldn’t get past any masters – Ohio State – in the semi -finals.
