While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:

More than titles are at stake for Steve Sarkisian

1. Big bucks: Chris Del Conte isn’t saying whether he’s going to give Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian a raise or if he’s going to tack on a few years to his contract, which has three years left after this season. I’d suggest adding a year to give him a four-year deal and bumping his salary another $2 million. When I asked the Texas athletic director on Tuesday if he was planning to beef up his contract, Del Conte told me, “We’re not talking about that until after the season. We have a lot of football left.” As it is, Sarkisian is making “only” $5.6 million, which incredibly ranks a lowly 30th among the 133 FBS head coaches. Texas, as we all know, doesn’t do top 30. I’m not proposing a fully guaranteed, give-him-Jimbo kind of money. Sarkisian has had one great year and now has a 24-13 record and a spot in the Big 12 championship for only the school’s second time since 2009. He’s done a spectacular job and should receive consideration for national coach of the year, which if he wins earns him $100,000. Big 12 coach of the year brings him $50,000. He made a $100,000 bonus for reaching the Big 12 title game and gets a similar reward if he wins it. He’s almost certainly going to receive $50,000 for making a New Year’s Six bowl (another $50,000 if he wins it) and could make an additional $225,000 if Texas appears and wins a CFP semifinal and $250,000 if he wins it all. All totaled, he could command $6.42 million. He ranks fourth among Big 12 head coaches behind Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy ($7.6 million), Oklahoma’s Brent Venables ($7.1) and Kansas’ Lance Leipold ($5.75). To get Sarkisian into the top 10 echelon, Del Conte would have to give him a $3.5 million raise. … Was shocked Texas spoofed Brett Yormark with the Lubbock video on the Jumbotron. Texas doesn’t do that. But the electric crowd loved it. So did the players. The Big 12 commissioner wasn’t around to see it because he left around halftime, which is very telling.

The Aggies score a B with their hire

2. Safe choice: The Aggies got their man, and he’s one of the two coaches we’d figure would get it. Texas A&M hired Duke’s Mike Elko, the former Aggies defensive coordinator and an Ivy League grad from New Jersey, of all places, after not surprisingly interviewing UTSA’s Jeff Traylor and all but wrapping up a deal with Kentucky’s Mark Stoops. Elko, 46, is a sound choice and a good one. I’d give A&M a B grade. They’d better hope he’s another R.C. Slocum, who was heavily involved in the search. Elko’s sharp and he knows the Aggie ways, but he’s only been a head coach for two years. That’s a very small sample size for such a high-profile job. I would have hired a Chris Klieman or a Lance Leipold if they could have landed either because they’re more proven or Arizona’s Jedd Fisch. Elko’s only 16-6 in his head coaching career, having coached in the watered-down ACC, and no one’s sure what his offense will look like. A&M flirted heavily with Stoops, but he didn’t move the needle and wouldn’t have been a popular choice among Aggies. So the Aggies backtracked and went with the safer, younger coach. Stoops has gone 14-11 the last two seasons and has just two winning SEC records in his 11 years at Kentucky. Can’t wait for the next A&M-Kentucky game. At least, this time around, the A&M chancellor didn’t hand Elko a plaque with fill-in-the-blank dates for future national championships as John Sharp did with Jimbo Fisher. I wonder where the plaque resides. Sharp did tell me Tuesday that “Elko’s a good man (with) strong ethics and strong discipline.” … So Evan Stewart, the great Aggies receiver, is in the transfer portal. Would he consider Texas? With Texas’ bank of quarterbacks and running backs and offensive linemen returning, why wouldn’t he? … ESPN reported Texas and A&M rightfully will play in College Station on Nov. 30Sh in next year’s SEC schedule while the Longhorns will host Georgia on Oct. 19 and travel to Arkansas on Nov. 17. Longhorns-Aggies belongs on Thanksgiving weekend. Well done, SEC. Del Conte couldn’t confirm that as official and said of the Texas-OU game, “My hope is always to play that game on the traditional (October) date.”

More: Golden: If Sarkisian doesn't fight for a Texas CFP berth, who will?

Should they stay or should they go?

3. Pro or no go?: Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers told me Friday he’s “not real sure” whether he will return for his third season with the Longhorns. He reiterated that Monday. Tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders said he’s not sure either. And we don’t know if junior wide receivers Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell will come back for their senior seasons either. The best guess is both will go pro and be drafted in the first two rounds next April. So what would their legacy be? I would call them the best receiving tandem in school history, and I’d put Worthy as third best individually behind Jordan Shipley and Roy Williams. But also remember Williams (36 touchdowns) and Shipley (33) played four seasons while Worthy (25) has played three, including a chunk of last year with a broken hand. … We do know senior T’Vondre Sweat will be in the league next year. He was announced Tuesday as one of three finalists for the Outland Trophy, an award won by three other Longhorns, Scott Appleton, Tommy Nobis and Brad Shearer. He’s one of the best defensive tackles I’ve ever seen. “It would be amazing to win it,” Sweat said. “It’d be the best feeling.” The other finalists are Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt and Kansas State guard Cooper Beebe. The winner will be announced Dec. 8.

Another week, another top running back

4. Ollie Watch: Once again, that vaunted Texas defense faces another challenge with Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II, the nation’s leading rusher with 132 yards a game who has 20 touchdowns, eight in the last two games. “He’s a big, powerful running back,” Texas nickel back Jahdae Barron said. “A big shoutout to him. (Texas Tech’s) Tahj Brooks is a bit more patient, but this guy is a one-cut and go.” … The Longhorns still are No. 5 in the nation against the run. The four best running backs they’ve seen? Brooks, Alabama’s Jase McClellan, Kansas’s Devin Neal and TCU’s Emani Bailey — three are ranked among the top 19 rushers in the nation — averaged 71 yards a game against Texas, and none of them scored a touchdown. All but McClellan are averaging more than 100 yards a game. … On the surface, Texas might would rather be playing a new opponent in Oklahoma State than a potent Oklahoma team that already beat it or a dangerous Kansas State team that won last year’s Big 12 title and is as tough as they come. … Oklahoma State quarterback Alan Bowman, the transfer from Texas Tech, can be very hit and miss. He ranks 40th in the nation with 234 passing yards a game but has thrown for just 10 touchdowns with 11 interceptions and only a 59.5% accuracy rate.

More: Bohls: Texas, up one spot on my AP ballot, has a lot to overcome in its chase for the CFP

Should Jonathon Brooks return? You betcha

5. Comeback trail: Fozzy Whittaker, for one, thinks we could see redshirt sophomore tailback Jonathon Brooks back in a Longhorns uniform sooner than most. The stud running back/kick returner should know. He tore his ACL at Texas, too, but thinks Brooks didn’t do extensive damage to his knee. “He was playing at such an elite level,” Whittaker said in our "On Second Thought" podcast. “We saw the same situation with Blake Corum, the Michigan back. He got hurt late last season. Even though he didn’t do much the first two games, he’s played well. … I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jonathon do the same thing. Jonathon may come back ready to rock and roll.” Some had assumed he’ll miss next season, given the fact his knee injury came so late in this season. Texas’ Roosevelt Leaks, who was expected to be a serious Heisman candidate in 1974, once suffered the same injury in the spring before his senior season when a defender’s helmet crashed into his knee. He returned to the field just five months later and although he wasn’t himself, he performed well enough to run for 409 yards after averaging 1,257 yards the previous two seasons and launch an NFL career that lasted nine years with the Colts and Bills. He may be the most underrated Longhorn ever and was largely responsible for inspiring Earl Campbell to become a Longhorn.

Texas won't see Texas Tech for awhile

6. Goodbye, Tech: Texas’ total domination of Texas Tech on Friday represented a huge hurdle cleared by Sarkisian. But it also likely signaled the end of the Longhorns-Red Raiders rivalry. Del Conte said, “It’s too early to tell. It’s a long ways away. There’s always going to be an appetite to play other Texas schools, but we need to know formats in the SEC first across all sports.” With Texas’ move to the SEC, the Longhorns may not play any Big 12 team in the future aside from potential bowl games or NCAA basketball tournaments. And may not play at Tech, either. That’s due in large part to the unseemly welcome home for former Tech basketball coach Chris Beard when angry Tech students gathered in front of the Longhorns’ team bus. You cannot begin to understand the harsh reaction that drew from the Texas administration, which was furious over the lack of security and potential for even worse craziness. Storming the field in Lubbock after last year’s overtime win over Texas also stirred the emotional pot. I wish the rivalry would continue, at least in the non-football sports, but one Texas school official told me, “It will be a long while before Texas sends its teams to Lubbock.” The waters have been poisoned, and it will take a long healing period before these two sides will meet athletically again.

More: Just what did Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers learn from last year's stumble in Stillwater?

Texcetera: this and that

7. This ’n’ that: Alabama deserves credit for holding off Auburn, but any other team that beat a very bad Tigers team would be roasted. I wonder if Nick Saban ever goes to Vegas. The Tide needed a miracle play to beat 6-6 Auburn, so don’t throw up Texas’ close wins as info. Plus Texas smoked a Tech team that almost upset Oregon. … Mack Brown hasn’t made the most out of NFL-bound quarterbacks Sam Howell and Drake Maye and has lost three straight to North Carolina State. … Chip Kelly has done even worse, going 34-34 at UCLA but is returning. What happened to him? … I think it would have been way cool if the suspended Jim Harbaugh had watched the Ohio State game from his neighborhood bar. … Why is it a two-minute warning? Sounds so harsh. Wouldn’t a two-minute reminder be just as good and sufficient?

A Rose by any other name

8. Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former Longhorns placekicker Nick Rose, who kicked three field goals, including a 51-yarder to help beat Oklahoma State in 2014 and bequeathed his wild hair to Bert Auburn.

Meanwhile, from the greatest seat in the whole world ...

9. On the couch: “Fall of the House of Usher,” a semi-scary Netflix series about an entitled family, courtesy of Edgar Allan Poe, is more creepy and suspenseful than horror-ific. But it’s dark enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. Think “Succession” meets “Get Out.” Gave it seven ducks.

More: Texas Longhorns ready to face Texas A&M, start NCAA volleyball tournament

Texas will make the CFP: book it

Crazy prediction: Texas will make the CFP with a win over Oklahoma State and a Florida State loss and join Georgia, Michigan and Oregon.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: If Texas football reaches CFP, Steve Sarkisian will land a big payday