Hitting the road for the fourth time this season, Texas football hasn’t lost an away game since October of 2022, and the Arkansas Razorbacks will be all too eager to end that streak on Saturday in Fayetteville.
Walking into a stadium as the perceived villain is a feeling known all too well by Texas, but one thing that has shielded the Longhorns from folding under the pressure is their team spirit.
“When we go on the road, it’s a smaller group. On the road, there’s less fans, obviously, and we need each other. We have to lean into each other. We have to pour into one another,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian told the press on Monday. “To do that, you can’t just turn it on the week of the game, and I think that it speaks volumes to the connectivity that these guys have in that locker room.”
Culture has always been a prominent component of the program since Sarkisian arrived in 2021. Now more than ever, it’s been especially evident that after nearly four years, the environment he’s created has promoted a genuine bond among all of his players.
After the Longhorns’ 49–17 blowout win over Florida this past weekend, Sarkisian said that the guys celebrated each other’s individual wins during practice the following day. He said the way his players already care about one another makes his job of keeping spirits high easier.
“This morning, when I’m doing good, bad and ugly, the amount of cheers Ty’Anthony Smith got when I was talking about his interception, the love they have for a true freshman that’s just trying to find his way. Or when I talk about the special teams player of the week being Ryan Niblett and the whole place started cheering for him,” Sarkisian said. “They’re all in it, they’re all engaged. When we’re engaged like that, that’s how momentum can build.”
Even junior wide receiver Matthew Golden, who transferred into the program this spring, said that the genuine connection he feels within the team has naturally motivated him to play his best, something that he didn’t necessarily notice when he played for Houston.
“It’s a real brotherhood, and I mean that,” Golden said. “I feel like we all got each other’s back. Just knowing that you got guys like that, it makes you want to go out there and compete at a high level.”
For fifth-year senior Jake Majors, that relationship developed within the locker room directly influences the product that is presented on the field. Sarkisian adopted a new mantra of “11 is one,” referring to how the 11 players on the field at a time must work as one collaborative unit in order to see an SEC Championship and College Football Playoff appearance at the end of the season.
“I think everybody’s just more dialed into the details of what every play looks like, whether that’s special teams with (Kelvin) Banks or defense with PK or offense with Sark,” Majors said. “When we see guys make plays, or we see someone come up big on a huge job of theirs, we celebrate that, because we know that as long as you lean on each other, this team can go a long way.”
