Texas Longhorns' Steve Sarkisian Named to Dodd Trophy Preseason Watch List

As the Texas Longhorns are a month out from the start of fall camp, the hype continues to build for the 2025 season. While the official preseason AP poll has yet to be released, many others have already unveiled the Longhorns as their No. 1 team entering the season. With that has also come Texas being named the betting favorite to win the national championship.

With that in mind, it is a no-brainer that Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has been named to the 2025 Dodd Trophy preseason watch list. The award, named after legendary former Georgia Tech head coach Bobby Dodd, is given to a coach who not only enjoys on-field success but also embodies the three pillars of scholarship, leadership, and integrity.

Dodd Trophy Watch List

Sarkisian joins 25 other current head coaches on the preseason watch list. He is one of seven SEC head coaches to be named. The others include Alabama's Kalen Deboer, Missouri's Eliah Drinkwitz, Texas A&M's Mike Elko, Tennessee's Josh Heupel, LSU's Brian Kelly, Georgia's Kirby Smart, and Oklahoma's Brent Venables.

Also included are last season's winner, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, and 2011 winner Clemson's Dabo Swinney, among others.

The winner of the award won't be announced until December. However, while the coaches will have to wait to see who will be named a finalist and eventually win it, the Dodd Trophy names a coach of the week.

After taking over a Texas program that hadn't made the College Football Playoff, Sarkisian now has the Longhorns as the only team to have made it in each of the past two years. Both times, Texas would make it to the College Football Semifinal and seemingly came within a few plays of advancing to the national championship game.

This past season, the first with the 12-team playoff, Texas beat Clemson and Arizona State on their way to the Cotton Bowl matchup with Ohio State.

Despite never holding a lead over the Buckeyes, Texas proved to be arguably Ohio State's toughest test of the postseason. Texas would stay within a touchdown of Ohio State up until the sack fumble by Jack Sawyer on Quinn Ewers was returned for a game-sealing touchdown in the final two minutes of regulation.

Ohio State would go on to beat Notre Dame in the national championship game, while Texas began the offseason where they started the process of preparing for their season-opening rematch with the Buckeyes.

After having defeated Alabama and Michigan in marquee non-conference games over the last two years, Sarkisian will look to add Ohio State to that list.