For an athlete or coach, there’s nothing better than winning on the road. Sure, home games are great, too. But when you make a long road trip and silence the home team, it’s special.
That’s exactly what the third-ranked Texas Longhorns (2-0) did on Saturday by traveling all the way to Ann Arbor, Mich., and knocking off the 10th-ranked Michigan Wolverines (1-1).
With a 31-12 victory, Texas sent a dominating message it was ready to win the SEC and possibly the national title here in Sarkisian’s fourth year.
Related: Texas football fans should have national title dreams after dominating Michigan at home
But now, the jets will cool and the fandom will throttle back in the weeks to come. Texas will be heavy favorites heading into a three-game home stand against UTSA (Sept. 14), Louisiana-Monroe (Sept. 21) and then the SEC opener against Mississippi State (Sept. 28).
Texas fans will still flock to Royal-Memorial Stadium in the coming weeks; all home games for the entire season are sold out. But the Longhorns are human, too. Can they keep this momentum going through weeks when the opponent isn’t as glamorous as the Wolverines?
“The sign of a great team is we come back and do it again, and that starts in our preparation and in our practice,” Sarkisian said. “And that's the challenge I just posed to the team.
“We’re just getting started, and we got plenty of work to go do. But as I said earlier in the week, this game would serve as a barometer for us of where we’re at. I think we’ve recognized we got a pretty good football team, but we need to continue to improve.”
Related: Texas HC Steve Sarkisian couldn’t believe how the Longhorns started but showed no panic vs. Michigan
Last season when Texas went to Alabama and won by 10 in Tuscaloosa, Sarkisian said the same thing. One early September win — even one against No. 3 Alabama — shouldn’t make or break the entire Texas season. All it did was heighten expectations.
Texas went on to win the Big 12 and played in the College Football Playoff semifinals and lost on the last play of the game against Washington.
This season, the CFP shifts to a 12-team format. Only the four highest rated conference champions get to skip the first round. So those teams ranked fifth through 12th must play an extra game with the higher seeded team as the host.
Sarkisian will refuse to let this be the high-water mark of the 2024 season. It can’t be, not if Texas wants to compete for everything.
“And so, we’re going to enjoy this one here on this flight home and then we'll get back to it tomorrow,” Sarkisian said.
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