This was supposed to be the year Texas finally got over the hump. Dissatisfied with the way their program had plateaued in recent years under Steve Sarkisian — and yes, I do realize the extent to which complaining about two College Football Playoff berths qualifies as first-world problems — the Horns made a choice: Rather than spend through the nose on a new head coach, they'd spend through the nose to put a roster around their current one.
And so the portal spree began. Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown replaced Tre Wisner in the backfield. Cam Coleman was brought in to finally give Arch Manning the true No. 1 he'd long lacked. Even the defense got marquee additions like Rasheem Biles and Justin Cryer. Combine that with all the talent the Horns had returning for 2026, and the message was plain: This time, we'll make sure Steve Sarkisian has no excuses.
Which is what makes Texas' 27-24 loss to Florida on Saturday afternoon feel like the final nail in Sark's coffin. According to reporting from The Athletic last month, Texas had assembled what was thought to be among the two or three most expensive rosters in the country, somewhere around $50 million in all. If Sark really is the guy the school thought he was, getting to shop in the luxury aisle would finally produce a title-worthy team. Instead, this program is right back where they started: stuck below the top of the SEC, wondering what it will take to smash that glass ceiling.
Massive NIL effort still not enough to get Texas where it wants to go
There's simply no way to explain this loss away. Sure, Florida was bound to come out like a house afire after consecutive ugly losses. But the Gators were on their backup quarterback and had a defense that had been torched all year by power-conference offenses. And besides, Texas was coming off a disastrous loss of its own, somehow snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Red River. If Manning and Co. were ever going to start looking like a national title contender, it was going to be here.
What Horns fans got was just more of the same. They still struggled to run the ball on early downs, despite that star-studded backfield and a suspect Florida front. Manning still seemed uncomfortable seeing the field without bolting and trying to use his legs. And most damningly, Sarkisian's play-calling still seemed uninspired at best and moribund at worst, a far cry from the motions-and-screens wizard who first captured Texas hearts. Will Muschamp's defense had a hard time getting off the field on third and fourth downs, but they allowed fewer than four yards per play on the day; it's clear where the blame here lies, and it's on Sark's side of the ball.
Which begs the question: If not now, when? If this is what his handpicked roster and five-star, veteran quarterback produce, what reason should Texas have to trust that Sarkisian is the man to finally get them where they want to go? Sark is on the portal carousel now, and once it starts it's hard to get off; it'll be hard to free up tens of millions of extra dollars next offseason when Horns boosters can rightly say they already had this product at home. And at that point, there's only one decision left to be made.
What is Steve Sarkisian's buyout at Texas?
It's going to cost Texas a whole lot to move on. Sarkisian's current deal takes him through the 2031 season, and stipulates that the Horns will need to pay him 85 percent of the remaining money in order to buy him out. If they choose to let him go before the end of this season, that comes to $50.9 million.
Which is an eye-popping number, especially when you add to it the salary of whoever replaces him and NIL money to build next year's roster — a roster that might have to replace key figures like Manning and Coleman. Then again, if any school can rustle up that kind of money, it's this one. And after the all-in push crashed and burned by mid-October, it's hard to imagine any other course of action.
Add us as a preferred source on Google