Steve Sarkisian Says Class of 2023 Longhorns Have Winning 'In Their DNA'

Spring football is officially over for the Texas Longhorns, and now head coach Steve Sarkisian can look ahead to a productive summer before a challenging 2025 season.

The Longhorns will boast a refreshed roster, as the departure of 12 players to the 2025 NFL Draft and five more signed has left plenty of room for key returners to prove themselves as the next in line.

Sarkisian addressed the media on Monday at the Touchdown Club of Houston and revealed one of his biggest takeaways from spring practice.

Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka makes a catch against Texas Longhorns DB Jaylon Guilbeau and linebacker Anthony Hill | Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"If you remember that class three years ago, the Anthony Hill, the Derek Williams, Manny Muhammad, the Arch [Manning], we talked about the championship pedigree of that class. A lot of those guys had either won state championships or competed in state championships. Now that they're juniors in our program, you can feel this sense of these guys [that] winning is the most important thing in their DNA," Sarkisian said.

Hill, Williams, Muhammad, and Manning all headline the class of 2023, ranked as the No. 3 overall draft class in the nation by On3 and Rivals. Their prior experience as being part of a state championship high school team and now a national championship contender at Texas has fueled a winning mindset that Sarkisian said he notices every day.

"Michael Taaffe obviously has that as part of his DNA, Tre Wisner [and] his time at DeSoto, Liona Lefau at Kahuku. It's in their DNA, and you can feel it on our practice field, you feel it in the way these guys talk to one another," Sarkisian said. "They understand the process that they're in right now to try and go achieve what they want to achieve. That is probably the biggest shift that this team has provided us."

Sarkisian mentioned that the previous recruiting classes played a massive part in building the program's foundation ever since his arrival in 2021. But now that the standard has been established, the younger generations can focus on crafting a legacy.

"The last couple teams, they were growing through a coaching change, 5-7, 8-5, it was like, let's get there," Sarkisian said. "These guys are thinking beyond 'let's get there,' it's like 'let's go win' because this is what we're used to doing. And that's really exciting to me that we have a hungry team that has a little bit different mentality about them."

The class of 2023 was lucky enough to spend its first season with the Longhorns going 12-2, becoming Big 12 Champions, and making a College Football Playoff Semifinals appearance. After another 12-2, conference championship and College Football Playoff Semifinals run, it seems that this season's rising juniors will have the pressure to keep the momentum going as they chase a national title for the third consecutive year.

Texas kicks off its 2025 schedule on August 31 in Columbus, Ohio to face off against reigning national champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes.