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Twelve different coaches have led the Texas football program since the beginning of the weekly Associated Press poll in 1936. Of the 10 who lasted at least four seasons, nobody has more wins through their first four than Steve Sarkisian. With a 38-17 record, Sarkisian’s win total matches that of Mack Brown (1998-2001), who had a 38-13 mark heading into the 2002 season. Sarkisian is part of a group of Longhorn coaches in the AP Poll era — with Blair Cherry, Ed Price, Darrell Royal, Fred Akers, David McWilliams and John Mackovic — who won an outright conference championship within their first four seasons. Sarkisian and Cherry are the only coaches from that group to coach Texas to multiple AP top-five finishes by the end of their fourth season, with Sarkisian’s 2023 (No. 3) and 2024 (No. 4) final rankings counting toward the program’s 22 all-time top-five finishes. Although Sarkisian has accomplished a lot while improving the program’s win total from five (2021) to eight (2022) to 12 (2023) to 13 (2024), history suggests the best is yet to come. For the most accomplished coaches in school history (Royal, Akers and Brown), their fifth season is when business started to pick up. Brown achieved the first back-to-back 11-win seasons in school history, going 11-2 in 2002, a season the Longhorns punctuated by thumping LSU in the Cotton Bowl, 35-20 (the Tigers returned most of the 2002 roster for the 2003 season, which ended with Nick Saban’s club winning the BCS national championship). The program enjoyed nine consecutive seasons of 10 or wins under Brown, whose 2005 national championship-winning season came in his eighth as Texas coach; Brown coached Texas through a memorable six-season stretch (2004-09) in which it went 69-9 with two Big 12 titles, a Rose Bowl win over Michigan at the end of the 2004 season, a Fiesta Bowl victory over Ohio State to cap a 12-1 season in 2008 and a trip to the BCS title game during the 2009 season. A forgettable 42-11 loss to Arkansas, after vaulting No. 1 in the AP Poll, and a 14-14 tie against Houston kept Akers’ 1981 club from claiming a share of the national title, but a 14-12 win over Bear Bryant’s third-ranked Alabama squad in the Cotton Bowl lifted Texas to a No. 2 final ranking, which was the program’s best finish since splitting the 1970 national title with Nebraska (a Cotton Bowl loss to Notre Dame dropped the Longhorns to No. 3 in the final poll, although the UPI has already declared No. 1 at the end of a 10-0 regular season). Over his fifth, sixth and seventh seasons running the program (1981-83), Akers coached Texas to a 30-5-1 record and an outright Southwest Conference title in the 1983 season, which ended with a brutal 10-9 loss in the Cotton Bowl to Georgia. When it comes to near misses at a national championship, Sarkisian has a lot in common with Akers. Seven years apart, Akers led the Longhorns into a Cotton Bowl played on Jan. 2 with a national championship on the line, only for his team’s title hopes to be dashed, with titles Texas could’ve claimed going, instead, to Notre Dame (1977) and Miami (1983). Sarkisian has led the Longhorns to the brink of the College Football Playoff National Championship in each of the last two seasons, a pair of opportunities for naught, with Texas getting painfully close to college football’s top prize before succumbing to Washington and Ohio State, respectively. If the Longhorns went to battle with a healthy Jonathon Brooks two years ago, or if CJ Baxter’s knee injury didn't end his sophomore season before it started, Sarkisian might’ve already gotten Texas over the hump. The mission to win the school’s fifth national championship begins in 61 days, an appropriate number considering the link between Sarkisian, Royal and a running back injury muddying a title-winning picture. The 1961 season, Royal’s fifth at the helm, saw the Longhorns race out to an 8-0 start, climbing to No. 1 in the AP Poll for the first time since 1946. With Jimmy Saxton leading the offense, Texas won its first eight games by an average margin of 26.6 points per game; a 28-7 Red River rout of Oklahoma was the closest anybody came to nipping Royal’s bunch. Long before Marcell Dareus simultaneously launched Alabama’s dynasty under Saban and brought an abrupt end to a golden era of Texas football under Brown with an ill-timed blow to Colt McCoy’s right shoulder, Saxton was on the receiving end of arguably the most controversial hit in school history. Whether Bobby Plummer’s knee intentionally connected with Saxton’s head at the end of a 45-yard gain is irrelevant; the shot forced Saxton to miss enough of the game to render the offense helpless in a 6-0 loss to the Horned Frogs, a defeat Royal reportedly said was the toughest he endured during his coaching career. The first consensus All-American running back in school history, Saxton was the third-place finisher for the Heisman Trophy and held the school’s single-season record for yards per carry (7.9), which stood for 59 years until Bijan Robinson’s 8.2 yards per rushing attempt in 2020 established a new program standard. A 25-0 win over Texas A&M and a 12-7 victory over Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl helped the 10-1 Longhorns end the season with a No. 3 ranking from the AP, but Royal wouldn’t claim his first of three national championships until two years later. Texas was arguably the best team in college football for four seasons in the middle of Royal’s 20-season tenure (1961-64), compiling a 40-3-1 record with three SWC titles, a national championship and four consecutive finishes in the top five of the AP Poll. If not for Saxton's injury and a one-point loss to Arkansas in 1964, Royal might've ended the 1960s with four outright national titles to his name. Until the Wishbone revived Royal’s career and led the Longhorns to 30 consecutive victories, the program’s run of success beginning with Royal’s fifth season could count as arguably the most prosperous Austin has ever experienced. Texas is 61 days from kicking off Sarkisian’s fifth season, which has a chance to be another campaign in what’s shaping up to be the next historic run of Longhorn football.

These almost like a fantasy football auction at this point. It is really borderline ridiculous. You exert were you need too.

I’d swap Brown for Henderson to keep that edge room disgustingly good or James Johnson who will be somewhat cheaper and allow allocation to fill the misses with the portal later.

Look not upset, I know texas will be fine. Just seems weird that these other schools recruiting classes are in 10 of millions for a recruit, which is ridiculous. If others play that game, we should too. But there needs to be salary cap and buyouts.

I know not cheap look at USC and Georgia 25 plus commitments. They didn't get anybody cheap. I think the whole NLI is a joke, difference name likeness to be being straight up to play football. Is the NLI at texas shared amongst the other sports.

You should email Sark and ask him. He obviously doesn't know what he is doing.

Unless it was free, it still cost money. And the discount for a 5-star OOS edge rusher probably is full price for a lot of other prospects.

Richard Wesley took a discount.

Do you think the 3 out of state DT's we currently have were cheap? Or Richard Wesley? Or our 5-star QB? Or Jermaine Bishop? Or any of the remaining 5-star OL targets we have on the board? I'm not saying we are broke but I also don't understand the logic that we have all this money burning a hole in our pocket.

Where is all our NLI money going to. Texas is very being conservative for a reason. Wish we know what the issues, are. So we are being outbid by everybody. Now, we should go all in for Atkinson, "Make a offer he can't refuse." So, weird how it seems other programs are just getting their guys. We are stuck in the mud, we'll at least it will be good chemistry.

With LSU upping the ante for Trenton Henderson, Florida has moved that money to Guervil

Hope not. Guervil was one of Bobby and Gerry’s “warning sign” recruits to keep an eye on this week.

It happens, they’re gonna lose out on Henderson and they’re in a much worse position as it pertains to DL recruiting and actual current roster outlook compared to us. We can get the best of the best, Guervil is very good but they’re still gonna follow a certain formula going forward. He’s not one you play tit for tat vs another program willing to drop a lot because their desperate. As dumb as this may sound I’d much rather lose out right now versus losing out on him in December right before signing day. Recruiting in the south east is hard, especially for those DL prospects, they’ll stay on him and others throughout the season and we will be fine with or without him.

Texas needs to retain the NIL guy Bobby had on and start finding work arounds under the House Settlement

How many bye byes are out there?

Texas needs to go all in on Brown, Cooper, Ojo, Turntine, Atkinson, Matthews

We’re trying to get more intel. Nothing would surprise me if Florida or whoever upped the ante. Not the first time it has happened with a DT in this cycle.

If that happens, Lamar Brown come on down!

Yeah he gone for now we will swing back on him in November like other's we have lost. Or will lose , just our playbook and has worked pretty well. We will see.

Crystal balls are mad of glass.

oh the pain.

I came up with at least 3 more > DJ but want to give others a chance to guess.

For Guervil to Florida. Chad Simmons and 2 of the ON3 guys at the Florida site. They are claiming to have multiple sources saying Guervil to Florida is done...

I don't know the answer, but thought this would be an interesting topic to bounce around. So far, Derrick Johnson is the leader in the clubhouse, with around $52 million. Justin Tucker is a close second. I'm sure ChatGPT can spit out an answer right away but I'm trying not to cheat that way.