Texas HC Steve Sarkisian made it clear what the Longhorns focus is this week heading into Oklahoma game

Steve Sarkisian is convinced his staff has prepared this Texas team for this exact situation.

"I think this is where you find out about the culture that you have," Sarkisian said. "We've gotta get tighter than we've ever been and we're gonna have to quiet the noise."

Clear the mechanise, block out the outside noise, we are all we need, and keep the main thing the main thing are all brilliant motivating phrases. But this Longhorns team has shown zero signs of actually being able to do it. The season-opening loss was deflating but there were a few signs of good things to come.

Since then, the Texas offense has been downright awful outside of a blowout against cellar-dweller Sam Houston. And up until Saturday, the defense was lights out. But against a middling SEC team, it looked confused and gassed. Is it a one-off or is it a sign of things to come?

There's still plenty of time to right the ship.

There's no room for error moving forward with two losses. And the SEC is as volatile as ever so it's not out of the realm of possibility others aren't going to lose. This coming up weekend is a big one for the conference.

No. 10 Alabama travels to No. 19 Missouri. Arkansas heads to No. 15 Tennessee. Florida will be at No. 6 Texas A&M. No. 12 Georgia will play Auburn on The Plains. And South Carolina will be in Death Valley against No. 13 LSU.

Upsets are going to happen. Texas found this out on Saturday. Others are going to fall. It's looking less and less likely someone runs the table in 2025. The transfer portal and NIL has leveled the playing field and some rosters just aren't at full capacity yet. Injuries happen. Road environments are loud. Good players have bad games. This is something Texas will need to navigate and figure out, though. And quick.

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