A closer look at how Steve Sarkisian reworked Texas Longhorns roster into a College Football Playoff contender

Steve Sarkisian arrived in Austin as head coach in January of 2021 and immediately went to work retooling the roster into an SEC image, and that meant large humans on the lines of scrimmage and speedy playmakers at the skill positions.

The proof is in the burnt orange pudding. Sark’s Longhorns won the Big 12 championship and enter the 2023 College Football Playoffs with the sixth most-talented roster in the nation, per 247Sports. The only team with a more talented roster in the CFP, at least on paper, is Alabama – a team Texas beat on the road in Week 2. Texas signed the fifth-best class in 2022, Sarkisian’s first full cycle, and the third-best class last cycle. The current class ranks fifth in the country. If the rankings hold, Texas is one of four teams to sign a top five class in each of the last three cycles alongside Alabama, Ohio State, and Georgia.