Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian said he loves everything about the start of college football season.

Sarkisian loves hitting the grass in football pads for the first time during training camp, and he loves the excitement in the air during the first week of school. He even loves hearing the band practice from his office in the North End Zone at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium while rummaging through game film.

But mostly, Sarkisian loves the excitement that radiates from within the locker room. He said college football is special because it is finite; a team only has 12 chances in the regular season to compete in the limelight, prompting an innate desire to make the most of it.

“All of these things start (and) you can kind of smell football,” Sarkisian said Monday. “In coach-speak, you’d like to say every day is the same, but the reality of it is the players know it, the coaches know it (and) you can feel it.”

This season is especially exciting for Sarkisian; in his second season coaching for the Longhorns, Texas Athletics have sold more season tickets than ever before, with more than 63,000 purchased.

The arrival of heralded redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers could play into the added excitement evidenced by the record ticket sales. With AP Preseason All-American weapons on offense like junior running back Bijan Robinson and sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy available to Ewers for everything from deep balls to checkdowns, a revamped Texas offense is set to hit the field this Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe.

“(Ewers has) some really good players around him that have been through some fires, and (he) trusts those guys that they’re going to do their job,” Sarkisian said. “I’ll say to Quinn, ‘just allow us to coach you and trust the fact that we’re putting you in a really good position.’”

While Texas’ offensive expectations have made headlines with the likes of Ewers, Robinson, Worthy and highly recruited freshman offensive linemen Kelvin Banks and Cole Hutson, Sarkisian is also excited for a newly-restructured defense to take Campbell-Williams field against the Warhawks.

Some adjustments made to the defense in the offseason include redshirt senior Anthony Cook’s move from the hybrid linebacker/defensive back position to safety and a focus on keeping defensive backs tighter to the line of scrimmage to help the defensive line pursue a heftier pass rush.

Despite these changes, Sarkisian said he can feel that the defense has a strong cohesion due to increased communication from team leaders and that his players can see the big picture.

“We’re not playing as 11 individuals but actually playing as one thing,” Sarkisian said. “I think that the front guys kind of started that … but it’s kind of matriculated its way into the back end.”

Coming off veteran head coach Terry Bowden’s lackluster 4-8 first season in Monroe, the Warhawks are making a push to win six games this season and reach their first bowl game since 2012 under sophomore quarterback Chandler Rogers’ leadership. Louisiana-Monroe was predicted to finish last in the west division of the Sun Belt preseason poll released in July, and the Longhorns are currently a 37.5-point favorite to win on Saturday.

After Texas endured some position competition of its own during training camp — most notably between Ewers and sophomore Hudson Card — Sarkisian said he thinks his team is ready to play as a unit.

“I think our guys are excited to play a game,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t think they’re worried about what’s down the road. I honestly think our team is just excited to play football against another team and see how far we’ve come as a team.”