AUSTIN, Texas – When Texas hosted a football recruiting weekend last summer, prospective players walked a burnt orange carpet flanked by nearly a dozen Lamborghinis with engines revving and growling and music blaring.
It was an homage to coach Steve Sarkisian's motto since he arrived four years ago — “All gas, no brakes” — and what the program hopes to be able to deliver in the new era of excess in college football: substance with style.
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Following a slow ramp-up that nearly ran off the road when Sarkisian started, Texas has hit full speed.
After winning last season's Big 12 title in the program's final season in that league and making the College Football Playoff for the first time, Texas entered this season ranked No. 3 in the AP Top 25. By Week 3, the Longhorns were No. 1 for the first time in 16 years. Their long-awaited Southeastern Conference debut was a smashing success, led by backup quarterback Arch Manning, the scion of one of America's most famous football families.
Texas, which returned to No. 1 on Sunday, is 5-0 and heading into its Oct. 12 rivalry game with Oklahoma in Dallas. And from the Lamborghinis in June to the “TexCalibur” turnover sword that debuted on the sideline this year, these Longhorns are fully enjoying the program's rejuvenation.
“I love that our personality is coming out of this team. I think we’ve got a pretty cool swagger about us right now,” Sarkisian said before Texas beat Mississippi State 35-13 to earn the program's first SEC victory. “But that swagger has been earned.”
Longhorns arrive
Texas roared into the SEC this year on the heels of winning 15 of the Big 12's regular-season or tournament championships across all sports in the Longhorns' final year in that league. The volleyball team is the two-time defending national champion. The rowing team has won three of the last four national titles.
Overall, Texas has won three of the last four Directors’ Cups, awarded to the nation’s most successful athletic department.
“A united Texas,” athletic director Chris Del Conte likes to say, “is a reckoning.”
“There’s a standard here that is very high, and there’s an expectation of performance, and it’s not just in football, it’s in every sport,” said Sarkisian, a previous head coach at both Washington and Southern California. “So the conference may have changed, but our standard and our expectations really haven’t ... The SEC slogan, ‘It just means more,’ matters. But I feel like at Texas, when you take this job, it just means more here, too.”
Texas has even poked at old rival Texas A&M a couple of times already. Shortly after Texas A&M lost in the College World Series, Del Conte swooped in and hired away Aggies head coach Jim Schlossnagle. Last week, a crowd of nearly 10,000 packed A&M's Reed Arena for Texas' SEC debut in volleyball, the largest in state history for a volleyball match, only to watch the Longhorns leave with a 3-1 victory.
But football is the Lamborghini of college sports, and after hitting some early speed bumps, Sarkisian has the program humming after more than a decade of not being in contention for national titles.
Texas went 5-7 in Sarkisian's first year, a season that included a six-game losing skid, the program's worst in 65 years. Texas rebounded to 8-5 a year later, then went 11-1 in the regular season in 2023, won the Big 12 crown and was one play away from the national championship game.
Cashing in
Texas gave Sarkisian a four-year contract extension to keep him through 2030 in a contract that pays him more than $10 million per year and makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the business.
Sarkisian has to keep winning and keep pulling in the recruits and transfers in the new era of athletes being able to cash in on the use of their name, image and likeness. Few programs, if any, are better positioned to do that.
Texas has been among the most aggressive in the country in the NIL era, from the initial launch of the Clark Field Collective (now known as Clark Field Creative) and the Pancake Factory, a nonprofit that pledged $50,000 annually to scholarship offensive linemen in late 2021, just before Sarkisian signed his first recruiting class.
Those entities, and NIL projects supporting baseball and golf, were all rolled under the umbrella of the Texas One Fund in late 2022. In August, Texas announced that donations to the Texas One Fund will be rewarded with “loyalty points” within the Longhorn Foundation, that can be used toward season tickets and other perks.
“Texas has one of the best NIL situations in college sports,” said sports law attorney Mit Winter, who tracks the evolving NIL marketplace and how schools are operating.
“Money isn’t an issue, and they have their donors and supporters all on the same page,” Winter said. “Talent wins in college sports and Texas and its collective are doing everything necessary to ensure Texas continues to have the best talent.”
The Texas brand itself helps Longhorns players cash in.
Starting quarterback quarterback Quinn Ewers' endorsements have included deals with video game, apparel and beverage companies. Another gives him use of a private jet. According to On3.com, Ewers ranks No. 6 overall and No. 5 among college football players with a valuation of $2.1 million.
Ranked just above him: backup quarterback Arch Manning at No. 4 and $3.1 million.
With his program humming and players cashing in, Sarkisian was on the road recruiting this weekend, with swagger to spare.
“It’s always a good thing when you get to go on the road undefeated and recruit,” he said. “It’s kind of like they roll out the red carpet for you.”
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