The bye week is a chance for Texas football coaches to fan out and see high school recruits in their environment by playing on Friday night.

“It’s always a good thing when you get to go on the road undefeated and recruit,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It’s kind of like they roll out the red carpet for you”

But what exactly is Sarkisian looking for? The second-ranked Longhorns (5-0, 1-0 SEC) have built an athletic team with selfless individuals. There’s little room for recruits looking to upset the team chemistry.

If there’s one thing coaches are looking for, it’s an intangible — a desire to truly be great. Can you take hard coaching?

Put another way, are you willing to listen to the message and not the delivery method? Are you able to hear the message without passing judgment on the messenger. Those who can will advance in college athletics, regardless if they play at Texas or not.

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Texas' current 2025 recruiting class ranks sixth nationally, according to On3's composite industry rankings. But can Sarkisian and his assistants truly know who they can yell at or who needs a softer approach? The truth is they don't know yet. 

Quarterback Arch Manning makes a strong case study in hard coaching. The redshirt freshman had a strong performance against Mississippi State. He arguably was the reason why the Horns won 35-13. But with about four minutes left, TV cameras caught Sarkisian chewing on Manning, and afterward, the coach joked that he was “ripping his ass.”

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So how is Sarkisian supposed to figure out who can be coached hard and who can’t? Truth be told, it’s incredibly difficult in recruiting.

“I think that’s why in recruiting, we try to make it a science. But it’s not,” Sarkisian said. “It’s like the NFL Draft. Everybody tries to hit those, you picks, spot on. But why are there first-round pick busts at quarterback? Why is the first pick of a draft a bust? How does that happen?

“So we try to do our best to ask the right questions, get to know them, listen for responses, listen for the real answer, not listen for what you want to hear. And I think that's human nature.”

Speaking about Manning specifically, Sarkisian said his coaching style was exactly why the quarterback and his family chose the Longhorns. Manning wants to be coached hard.

“They did their due diligence that you’re going to get coached hard, but the results will be the results, and we'll have a great experience doing it, but I'm always going to push these guys to be better than they were yesterday,” Sarkisian said. “And he's no different.”

It’s the same for all the Texas quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Trey Owens, the coach added.

“Quinn’s no different. Trey Owens is no different,” Sarkisian said. “That as a coach, that’s the satisfaction that you get when you when you see a player develop and grow and get better consistently.”