Prior to every college football season there are talks of which coach is coaching for his job.
The last two Texas coaches that were supposed to rebuild the program were constantly in what is known as the hot seat discussion, and obviously since Steve Sarkisian is the coach now it didn’t bode well for them. Every program has different standards and also has different time frames as to how quickly they are expected to produce results.
However, for the coaches at Texas’ two biggest rivals Oklahoma and Texas A&M, their time may be running out already. Both Brent Venables who is going into his second year at Oklahoma, and Jimbo Fisher who is heading into year six with Texas A&M were featured by the USA TODAY’s Scooby Axson as coaches on the hot seat.
Sarkisian on the other hand coaches his way off of the hot seat list as he was featured after what was a historically bad season in his first year in Austin. He was just one of three coaches from 2022’s hot seat list that weren’t fired or left their job joining Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Dino Babers of Syracuse.
Of the entire list which also includes Mel Tucker, Eli Drinkwitz, Dino Babers again, and Neal Brown among others, Venables appears to have the coolest seat. However, if the Sooners get blown out by Sarkisian and Texas again and finish below .500 he may only get two seasons. For Fisher, the only thing working in his favor is the fact that his buyout is so large that it may force Texas A&M to stick with him longer.
For Sarkisian to end up back on the hot seat list, this season would have to be a complete disaster. The Longhorns are the favorite to win the Big 12, and are favored by ESPN’s FPI in all but one of their games. If Sarkisian is on the hot seat again it likely means there were issues at the quarterback position, and they were on the wrong side of one-score games like they have been throughout his tenure.