"If they don't hate you, you're irrelevant": Josh Pate opens up about Texas hate heading into 2025 season
Texas football is a big brand. Hate and criticism often come around, something that has been prominent with the program for years. In 2024, the Longhorns joined the Southeastern Conference in the aftermath of recurrent conference realignment moves.
Even after joining a new league, Steve Sarkisian and Co. caught the ire of football fans. College football insider Josh Pate recently opened up about his thoughts on the most hated college football programs, and as expected, Texas was at the top of his rankings.
Josh Pate speaks about people's hate against Texas
On Saturday, Pate shared his analysis of top programs that often found themselves in hot water. Mounting expectations and underwhelming performance often turned out to be the reasons behind criticisms. According to Pate, Texas' fanbase is passionate and other teams despise Steve Sarkisian and his team's exponential rise.
The program was phenomenal during its time in the Big 12 and carried the momentum to the SEC last season, where it managed to reach the College Football Playoff semifinal. With huge success comes heavy criticism and things were not different for Sarkisian and the Longhorns.
“I'm not speaking about myself, but I talked to the other fan bases out there," Pate said on Sunday, via 'Josh Pate's College Football Show.'"OK, I talked to a gentleman on the street corner in Kyle, Texas. I made several stops in the state of Texas this past week, and so I got a good, healthy sense of the flavor of disdain towards Texas and Texas fans out there.
“It's not always them hating you because they can't be you. Sometimes it's just that they hate you, and that is very, very evident to me across the country. No one's indifferent in Texas, and that's before they've won a national championship. If they don't hate you, you're irrelevant. So it's a compliment to Sark and company, that they're hated. Texas has always carried itself a certain way. Societally, they've always been prone to look down on you. This is just accurate.”
Texas had a strong 2024 season as Sarkisian guided the Longhorns past all other teams in the SEC. Next up, they will look to punch a national championship ticket under the leadership of new starting QB Arch Manning.
Sarkisian has also been overseeing a major revamp in the program with his latest recruitment and transfer portal moves. Longhorns fans could be expecting nothing less than a perfect record for their team in 2025.