The unranked Longhorns will take on No. 1 Alabama on Saturday, but Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is no stranger to overcoming seemingly impossible odds.

When Washington finished 0–12 in 2008, Sarkisian was hired to coach the Huskies in 2009 after coordinating Pete Carroll’s USC offense to two-straight Rose Bowl wins.

Sarkisian then had to face his former boss and No. 3 USC in the Huskies’ first week of conference play that year. Washington had just snapped a 15-game losing streak with a win against Idaho the week prior, and Sarkisian knew Carroll’s squad inside and out. 

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In a shocking upset, the Huskies defeated the Trojans 16-13 thanks to a three-minute, ten-play drive capped off with a game-winning field goal. As time expired, many of the 62,000 fans packed into Husky Stadium rushed the field in celebration. 

The similarities between that Washington-USC game and the upcoming Texas-Alabama game are uncanny. The Crimson Tide are early frontrunners for the national title as the No. 1 team in the nation, and Sarkisian was Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator the year before he was hired by Texas. Saturday’s game will also be played on Sarkisian’s home field and will likely be a testament to how Texas’ locker room has developed under the guidance of a new coaching staff.

“Culture, a lot of times, can have the opportunity to beat talent when the culture is really strong (and) when the chemistry is really strong,” Sarkisian said Monday. “We’ve got to make sure our chemistry is right Saturday as well, (and) that we’re playing as a team and not just (as) talented individuals.”

There is no doubt that Alabama is a juggernaut. The Crimson Tide have been ranked the AP No. 1 team in the nation at least once each season since 2008, and Saban has led Alabama to six national championships in his current 16-year tenure.

Texas also has bad blood with Alabama, with the Crimson Tide defeating the Longhorns in the 2010 BCS National Championship game – the last time the two teams have met on the gridiron. On the first drive, the Longhorns’ two-time Heisman finalist quarterback Colt McCoy pinched a nerve in his throwing shoulder, taking him out of the game. 

With true freshman backup Garrett Gilbert leading Texas’ offense, the Longhorns turned the ball over five times, including four interceptions, hammering the nail in the coffin for a Texas comeback and its hopes for a fifth national championship. 

Alabama’s 37-21 win kindled the start of Saban’s dynasty in Tuscaloosa, and Texas seemingly hasn’t been the same since then. Texas has a 84–67 record since that night and has not won a conference title. In contrast, Alabama has gone 151–17.

However, Sarkisian doesn’t even remember if he watched when McCoy went down with the shoulder injury — he was probably in Seattle, sketching up game plans for his next season with the Huskies. 

Sarkisian said that Texas players and fans shouldn’t make Saturday’s matchup a bigger deal than it actually is. Because of the non-conference matchup, the result holds no weight on Sarkisian’s pursuit of a Big 12 Title, and should not be considered a season-defining game in his view. There’s also the fact that Texas is a 20-point underdog at home.

“My goal is to be in Dallas (on) December 3, and this game has no impact on that,” Sarkisian said. “I want to make sure that our guys play our style of football, our brand of football, and do it the way that I know we’re capable of doing it.”

Sarkisian also acknowledged that his team needs to block out the noise surrounding the game to compete at a high level. Both Fox and ESPN will have their flagship Saturday morning college football pregame shows broadcasting live from campus, the first time both have ever been on Texas’ campus for the same game.

“You get caught up in all this stuff that really is irrelevant to our ability to play good football,” Sarkisian said. “We need to be enamored with us (and) focused on us, making sure that we’re doing the things necessary to us to do our job really well.”