Steve Sarkisian: 'I don't know if we'll ever see an undefeated champion again'
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian wonders if the undefeated national champion is heading for extinction.
Three of the last five national champions have gone undefeated, but Ohio State won the title in January with a 14-2 record. The Buckeyes were the first team to win the 12-team College Football Playoff and also became the first team to play 16 games on the way to a national title.
The Buckeyes would have played in 17 games had they made the Big Ten title game. But OSU's loss to Michigan in the final game of the regular season denied it a chance at the conference title.
The increasing number of games on the way to a national title, Sarkisian said, is a big reason why he thinks it'll be harder for teams to go undefeated.
'Now more than ever, the length of the season — last year we played 16 games and that was just to get to the semifinals,' Sarkisian said Tuesday. 'We would have been 17 to win a championship. And so the idea we've all got to wrap our brain around — I don't know if we'll ever see an undefeated champion again. If we do, that's a really good team. Because it's just so difficult.
'It's difficult, yes, because of the quality of opponents you play, but it's so difficult to stay healthy that long. You're going to have teams and years like we had last year where you lose your starting quarterback. And how do you respond to your quarterback being down? You lose both your left tackles — that happened to us last year. Or your left tackle and then your right tackle. And do you have the depth to endure?'
Texas lost three games in 2024. The Longhorns dropped two games to Georgia before losing to Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. While Quinn Ewers missed time during the early part of the season with an oblique injury, the Longhorns also dealt with myriad injuries at running back before the season.
Arch Manning started in Ewers' absence in 2024 and is set to be the Longhorns' starter in 2025. Manning has been one of the most recognizable players in college football as a backup QB over the past two seasons and is now a Heisman favorite this summer despite having such limited playing experience over his first two seasons.
'But at the end of the day for a guy like Arch in this instance, I want to make sure he enjoys his experience too, right?' Sarkisian said when asked about managing the publicity that Manning will assuredly generate in 2025. 'Lifelong dream of being the starting quarterback at the University of Texas, now it's his opportunity. I want to make sure that he has a great experience.
'Part of that is the exposure, part of that is protecting him and putting some guardrails up on that so that he can enjoy the experience.'
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