Any Texas fan too young to know about Vince Young or Colt McCoy should take heart. They’re living in a new golden age of Longhorns football.

With a 13-3 overall record, Texas finished the 2024 season ranked No. 4 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. It’s the first time the Horns have finished in the top five in back-to-back years since the Young and McCoy eras in the 2000s.

That’s why those who have been around the school for any length of time have been quick to reward coach Steve Sarkisian. They know how special this moment in time truly is.

Administrators gave Sarkisian a new contract with a huge raise after going 12-2 in 2023, winning the Big 12 and reaching the College Football Playoffs semifinals. They rewarded him again on Saturday with another guaranteed year tacked back onto his seven-year contract and probably another million for the 2025 season.

The final details of Sarkisian’s new contract will likely be unveiled at the UT System’s regular board meeting in February.

WATCH AND SUBSCRIBE: Follow A to Z Sports’ Texas Longhorns channel on YouTube.

Click here to accept Marketing cookies and load this content

UT System chairman of the Board of Regents Kevin Eltife and athletic director Chris Del Conte know that when football is winning, it lifts the entire athletic department and university. They want to keep it that way.

This is exactly how it felt when Young guided the Horns to back-to-back Rose Bowl appearances at the end of the 2004 and 2005 seasons. The latter was a victory in the national championship game. Texas went 11-1 in 2004 and 13-0 in 2005 under coach Mack Brown.

Super Bowl LIX will have burnt orange flair as Longhorns are guaranteed to make the big game

Moro Ojomo, Sam Cosmi, Xavier Worthy and Charles Omenihu are all candidates to get Super Bowl ring

Young jumped into the NFL Draft after the 2005 season and turned things over to McCoy, who was a redshirt freshman. The Horns kept having double-digit winning seasons and got to the cusp of winning it all in 2008. Don’t ask about what happened on a chilly night in Lubbock.

The next year, Texas put it all together and got back to the national championship game. Don’t ask about what happened to McCoy’s shoulder on the fifth play against Alabama, either. Still too soon.

Brown’s clubs went 12-1 in 2008 and 13-1 in 2009. It was a decade of success unlike any other in school history.

Those who lived through that time know how fragile victory can be. McCoy left school after the 2009 season, and it all fell apart. The Horns went 5-7 in a rebuilding year in 2010 and were never the same.

Texas wouldn’t win 10 games again until the 2018 season when it capped a good year with a win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. The Horns were back, right? Nope. It proved to be a flash in the pan as coach Tom Herman was fired after the 2020 season.

Sarkisian appears to have rebuilt the program for long-term success. With quarterback Quinn Ewers, Sarkisian and the Horns found championship glory again and reached the College Football Playoffs twice.

Now, Ewers is gone, leaving school early for the NFL Draft. There is real hope that Ewers’ backup Arch Manning can keep the string going. Sarkisian is set to sign the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class in February, too.

Before the Young and McCoy runs, the Horns hadn’t finish in the top five in back-to-back years since the 1968, ’69 and ’70 seasons when the program finished No. 3, No. 1 and No. 3. The 1980s and 1990s were yo-yo times.

Texas football history is littered with long stretches of above-average but not championship-caliber play with dashes of brilliance mixed in along the way.

Right now, the Horns are brilliant. Fans should enjoy the ride. For as history shows, you never know when it’ll end.