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Oct 10, 2026; Dallas, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian during the game against the Oklahoma Sooners at the Cotton Bowl.
The Texas Longhorns picked up one of their most important wins of the season on Saturday, going to Columbia and beating the Missouri Tigers, 34-20, to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Afterwards, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian made a ridiculous claim about his Longhorns, who were 2.5-point underdogs at most sportsbooks.
However, that’s not how Sarkisian saw it. Instead, he believes that everyone had counted his team out.
Steve Sarkisian Tried To Play The Underdog Card After Texas Win Over Missouri
“Our guys, they’re not naive to noise,” Sarkisian said after the game. “For as much as I would love to say they tune it all out, and we try our best to do that, I could hear the talk getting on the plane yesterday. I could hear the talk when we got here. Nobody believed we’d win the game. Nobody thought we were going to come here and win the game; nobody thought we were tough enough at the line of scrimmage. Everybody thought we’d get pushed around.
“The DNA of this organization is mental and physical toughness. I think that poured out of our pores today in this ballgame.”
I’m not sure who exactly Sarkisian is referring to. But plenty of people believed his team could and would win on Saturday. The Longhorns have more resources at their disposal than just about every program in the country. So the underdog card doesn’t exactly work very well.
“A tough win on the road against another top 20 opponent,” Sarkisian continued. “I think that’s six straight top 25 wins for us, I think the next closest team in the country has two. And our second top 25 win on the road. Like we say all the time, we’re big game hunters. And we showed up again today.”
I get that Sarkisian has to start making his case for the College Football Playoff. And Texas did pick up a good, impressive win against the Tigers. But the idea that everybody was counting the Longhorns out is ridiculous.