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This upcoming week is about a lot of things for most of Longhorn Nation. First up: locking in those Thanksgiving plans. It’s that annual moment when you remind yourself not to touch the dish brought by the relative who lets her cats roam the kitchen counters—unless you genuinely crave a “fancy feast” with questionable protein. Some of you will need to swear off political conversations at the table unless you want a repeat of that prison-yard meltdown that ended with Cousin Richard getting shanked during the Cowboys game. Others are scheming ways to pry your teenagers off their phones long enough to acknowledge the existence of relatives who are questioning them like detectives on The First 48. And for the traditionalists, the countdown is on to sharpen those elbows for Black Friday and channel your inner Colin Simmons, ready to bull-rush anyone who dares reach for the last discounted TV at Best Buy.
Once you survive Thursday and the chaos of early Friday morning, it’s time to dive back into a Longhorn season that has flown by faster than anyone could have imagined. It feels like yesterday when everyone was parsing every spring practice whisper, searching for clues about the depth chart and which newcomers might actually matter. I can still hear nearly every word from the day Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte held court and had reporters laughing like Chris Rock on stage (minus the surprise slap, of course). It doesn’t seem that long ago that the OB crew was roaming the halls in Atlanta at the SEC Spring Meetings. And for all of us, the season opener against Ohio State—loss and all—seems like it occurred last Saturday.
The regular-season finale is just five days away, and there are enough postseason scenarios floating around to make you perform mental gymnastics worthy of an Olympic qualifier. But none of those hypotheticals mean a thing if Texas doesn’t beat Texas A&M on Friday. How we judge this entire season will be shaped by what happens this week. A Texas win makes it a lot easier to digest all the highs and lows you’ve endured. A Texas loss sets the table for an offseason full of questions—and the preseason excitement that once surrounded this team will turn into a long stretch of 2026 skepticism.
There is only one goal that matters this week:
Beat Texas A&M.
“I think the key to the drill, and I’ll get asked all about it, is control what we can control,” Sarkisian said. “What we control is preparing really well for an undefeated top-five team in A&M coming in next Friday night. We need to prepare really well so we can play our best football, because our best football will be needed next Friday night.”
Sarkisian is correct.
If Texas defeats Texas A&M, the Longhorns will finish the regular season with a 9–3 record. At that point, Texas can put its résumé in front of the College Football Playoff Committee and challenge them to keep the Longhorns out of the playoffs. Texas would have victories against Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M—three top-10 teams at the time of each Longhorn victory, according to various polls.
And if the committee told Texas “thanks, but no thanks,” every member of Longhorn Nation will believe their program was “screwed,” and all anger about what occurred during the 2025 regular season will be pointed at the CFP Committee. Nobody will dwell on the losses against Florida and Georgia, and to some extent, Ohio State. Instead, Longhorn Nation will come together like a group of musicians committed to singing “We Are The World.”
However, a loss against Texas A&M will result in an 8–4 regular-season record, and Longhorn fans will find themselves in an angry mosh pit.
There’s no way to sugarcoat an 8–4 record. Going from back-to-back conference championship appearances (including that 2023 Big 12 title), two straight playoff trips, and a preseason No. 1 ranking in both the AP and Coaches Polls … only to end up back in the Texas Bowl would feel like moving from Westlake to a far less desirable part of town.
“I think we’re playing good football,” Sarkisian said. “And when you look at our schedule and how competitive it’s been, it’s been a tall task. But the best way we can impress anybody is to go win next Friday night. That’s what we can control, and that’s our focus.”
Sarkisian’s team deserves a lot of credit for its focus this past week.
This was a team that sustained a 25-point loss on the road against Georgia. There is no way to sugarcoat that embarrassment. Two days later, Desmond Howard decided to channel his inner Adam Schefter and record a video stating that Sarkisian would leave Texas after the season. Apparently, the trash can was symbolic of the accuracy of Howard’s report, because Sarkisian shot down those false allegations.
On Tuesday, Texas dropped to 17th in the CFP rankings. After those rankings were revealed, the majority of college football observers declared that Texas’ playoff hopes were over. The conclusion most people had was that the only thing Texas was playing for was pride and a meaningless bowl game.
With so many distractions, it would have been easy for Texas to lose against Arkansas. It almost seemed like the perfect setup for a setback. Instead, Texas rallied and pulled off a must-win game against the Razorbacks.
And before you point out Arkansas’ record, just remember we are talking about a Texas team that found itself in life-or-death games against Kentucky and Mississippi State. If we are going to criticize Texas for struggling against the lesser teams, we have to give the Longhorns credit for dropping 52 points against Arkansas.
“It’s funny you say that, because I brought this up downstairs,” Sarkisian said when I asked about his team’s resiliency. “I don’t know if we’re a perfect team. I don’t know if there is one. But what I do know is these guys have some really cool ingredients: resiliency, grit, toughness, togetherness, connectivity. As much stuff has surrounded this team from before the season to this week, and I’m sure there’ll be more going into next week, they do an incredible job of staying focused on the task at hand.
“I commend them for that. They come in every morning prepared. They go to practice every day. They work extremely hard. I see guys getting better and better. Some guys are starters. Some guys are redshirting. But everyone’s improving.
“With my own stuff, I didn’t want to be a distraction, but I felt like it was becoming one. So I addressed it, and I told the team before I addressed it with you all. They didn’t think anything of it. They just go about their business.
“It’s a credit to the guys who have grown up in our program and are now leaders. They understand there’s always going to be stuff swirling around this place. This brand is very polarizing. People love to talk about us, and that’s okay. We just have to keep our focus internal. And I commend our players for doing that. They responded again this week, and they’ll need to do it again quickly because we’re on a short week.”
There is only one goal that matters this week:
Beat Texas A&M.
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