Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has attributed his team's College Football Playoff semi-final defeat to Ohio State on being "tired," a comment that has drawn criticism given the scale of expectations surrounding the programme. With quarterback Arch Manning entering his second season as starter, a highly rated recruiting class and a defence widely tipped among the sport's best, Texas face an unusually demanding 2026 schedule including Ohio State, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, LSU and Texas A&M, making Sarkisian's explanation for the playoff loss a notable point of concern heading into the campaign.

Speaking on a recent podcast, Sarkisian said the Longhorns were not just physically drained but "mentally fatigued" by the end of a long 2024-2025 season that included numerous high-stakes games, adding that managing players' energy levels would be as important this time as managing their physical conditioning. Critics have noted that Ohio State faced an arguably tougher run-in to the same game, including matches against Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee and Oregon, while Texas's late-season fixtures were closer to home and included a narrow win over Arizona State in the Peach Bowl.