Taking the No. 1 spot after beating Ohio State feels great on paper, but for Steve Sarkisian, it is mostly a giant target on his back. Sitting at the top in September sounds nice until you look down the road and realize what is coming next. Texas is stepping straight into a trap, where one bad weekend can ruin their entire playoff dreams.

“Seven of Texas’ final nine opponents are ranked,” Tyler Horka reported on X. “No. 14 Tennessee. No. 21 Florida. No. 4 Ole Miss. No. 24 Mississippi State. No. 10 LSU. No. 19 Missouri. No. 23 Texas A&M. Oklahoma and Arkansas are the only unranked teams on the Longhorns’ remaining schedule. A real SEC gauntlet.”

Many of these teams weren’t even on the board a few weeks ago. Florida entered the rankings for the first time this season, while Mississippi State hadn’t been ranked since 2022 before this week. Ole Miss climbed to No. 4 after beating LSU, and the Tigers sit comfortably at No. 10 despite the loss.

These teams did not just drift into the rankings by luck, as recent high-stakes wins forced the pollsters’ hands. Ole Miss surged into the top four after taking down a top-10 LSU squad, while Tennessee and Florida racked up big early victories, highlighted by the Gators’ intense conference road win over Auburn, to prove their rosters are loaded.

This shows that this SEC stretch is not hype built on past names, but a real wall of 7 ranked teams hitting peak form right when Texas has to play them.

The schedule doesn’t look tough just because Texas beat Ohio State, as the other programs are good on their own. With the SEC packed with strong teams this season, winning the conference through a tough group of opponents will put Texas to the test every week.

Tennessee comes first next week, followed by Florida, then Ole Miss, LSU, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Mississippi State down the schedule, with the matchups against Oklahoma and Arkansas being the only breather for the team. The Longhorns are 3-0, having won over Texas State in Week 1, and taking down No. 1 Ohio State in Week 2, as they finally cleaned up a sloppy win over UTSA in Week 3.

Texas fans know this story all too well. Last season started with high hopes before early losses pulled them out of playoff contention. Starting 3-0 feels like a fresh page, but everyone inside the program knows how fast momentum can vanish once SEC play kicks off.

“We compete for national championships every year,” Sarkisian said during the SEC media days, according to Blake Holland of KRQE Sports on July 23. “It doesn’t matter what conference we’re in. Whether it was the Big 12, the SEC, our goals don’t change. We’re competing for an SEC championship this year, and we’re competing for a national championship.”

Sarkisian’s confidence in Texas’ national championship hopes will be tested as the Longhorns enter a tough stretch, starting with a Week 4 game against Tennessee. However, Texas still has mistakes to clean up from its first three games, with turnovers and third-down defense being issues that cannot be ignored before the gauntlet begins.

Steve Sarkisian’s Texas faces tough test after early-season mistakes

Ball security is something that Sarkisian has emphasized the team needs to work on since the Week 1 games. Sarkisian openly called his team’s grip on football “awful”, as turnovers piled up against Ohio State. Texas head coach has also pointed out third-down defense as an issue, with the offense looking disjointed at times as quarterback Arch Manning depended more on his legs.

“We need to play with more consistency; we need to be more efficient,” Sarkisian said during the press conference, according to Sam Fariss of Hook’em Headlines. “It’s about everybody doing their job every play and executing one play at a time. That’s when you’re an efficient offense. We had been really good in the penalty world. Eight [penalties] for 88 [yards] is not good enough; penalties are what cause you to go backwards. I gotta look at why that was occurring on that front.”

Sarkisian still doesn’t consider Texas a “finished product,” but he knows the Longhorns can clean things up quickly. With Tennessee and a tough SEC stretch ahead, Texas will need to fix those early issues before they start costing the team.