Sarkisian knows there is an elephant in the room

This game against TCU is the first 'must win' game for Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns, plus it will likely put Texas back in the Top 25 ranking, if they win with poise and disciplined football.

This is the 92nd time Texas plays TCU and history tells us that Texas should beat TCU in Fort Worth. Texas is 63-27-1 against the Horned Frogs all-time, however Sarkisian is the first one to say Texas will be seeing a different TCU team than the one who lost to SMU last week 34-42.

Sarkisian commented at Monday Press Conference, "We are not naïve to the elephant in the room that we're two and seven against TCU the last nine years and we're also not going to buy the lie that we're going to play the same TCU team that just played SMU Saturday."

How is Texas preparing to TCU? Sarkisian said,

“(TCU) Coach (Gary) Patterson is a great defensive coach – his team always plays hard, very well-coached, and I think they do a heck of a job of getting themselves in the right call. They challenge you off the edges with the corner blitz or the nickel blitz from the field, they're disruptive up front, and they generally have really good EDGE rushers, just like they do this year with applying pressure on the quarterback, and then matching their routes in the back end. We have to be detailed in our preparation, it is going to be a physical game and we need to continue down this road of our brand of football that we pride ourselves on. Ultimately, we got to execute.”

A few interesting nuggets of Texas knowledge on the games. A Texas wins will be:

• the 927th all-time victory and will keep UT as the fourth-winningest football program in college football history
• Steve Sarkisian's 50th win as a head coach, fourth at UT
• Sarkisian will be the first head coach to win four of his first five games since 1977 when Fred Akers started 5-0

Texas does have a few items stacked against them. There will be no Texas Longhorns Marching Band at the game, it is an away game so no home field advantage, it may rain, and it may be TCU's last change to beat Texas. Every Texas school wants to beat the Longhorns even more than usual since they are now going to the SEC.

The game is televised on ABC for a 11 A.M. CT kickoff, also on the Longhorn Radio Network.