Steve Sarkisian doesn’t pass up a chance to profess his love for college football and with that love comes the obvious attention to detail.

The Texas football coach is into the pageantry, pomp and circumstance that encompasses a typical fall Saturday in America, but as the head coach of the No. 3 team in the country, Sarkisian has his antennae up when it comes to the triumphs and failures of teams in Texas’ sphere.

He was like many of us who gasped when the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish had lost 16-14 to unheralded Northern Illinois at home. Upsets happen all the time in the college game, but this one was especially frightening. The Irish had just taken out Texas A&M in College Station and appeared to be off to a solid start in their quest to return to the College Football Playoff for the first time since a 2021 semifinal loss to eventual national champion Alabama.

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It turns out the Huskies left South Bend with a $1.4 million appearance check. And the Irish fan base is in tatters after becoming the first top-10 team to lose to NIU, who has been playing football since 1899.

Sarkisian took note and decided to send a not-so-subtle message to his team entering Saturday’s home game against UTSA.

On Monday, he put together some video from the game and showed the NIU players storming the sacred turf at historic Notre Dame Stadium while the remaining fans stood in their seats in death-faced silence. Nothing can derail a blue blood’s title hopes like a senseless gaffe to a non-Power Four school with nothing to lose.

Sarkisian’s message to his players was clear: "Don’t let that be us."

After Saturday’s 31-12 pasting of the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines confirmed what many already believed — the Longhorns have the look of a legitimate national title contender — Sarkisian kept his cards close to his vest after the on-field celebrations were over and the team boarded the jet back to the 512.

By Monday, he wore the look of a head coach who had turned the page to the next opponent. Better yet, he smartly used the Notre Dame debacle as a teaching tool for his 2-0 club.

"We're capable of anything," Sarkisian said. "We've got a really good team. But we're entitled to nothing. We're going to earn everything and we're going to have to earn the victory here Saturday night."

Victory is given to no one, and Notre Dame learned one hard lesson in front of over 77,000.

The Irish were the only team in the Top 25 bitten by the upset bug, and No. 6 Oregon would have joined them if not for a couple of second-half special-teams touchdowns and a walk-off field goal that delivered a 37-34 win over Boise State.

The Sarkisian we’re seeing today knows what it feels like to be a heavy favorite and lose at home. He isn’t interested in going back to that dark time in the not-so-distant past.

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UTSA Roadrunners are talented but wounded

The Roadrunners will walk into Royal-Memorial Stadium the same way NIU took the field in South Bend: with absolutely nothing to lose. This isn’t the same team from two years ago that scored to take a 17-7 second-quarter lead over the Longhorns at DKR and recovered an onside kick called by riverboat gambler/head coach Jeff Traylor, a former Texas assistant.

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The Horns eventually found their equilibrium and won 41-20 but knew they had been in a battle.

In the two years since, UTSA star quarterback Frank Harris has finally exhausted his football eligibility, taking away one of the best weapons in the country. The Roadrunners are still a talented crew, but last week’s 49-10 beatdown at the hands of I-35 rival Texas State was an eye opener, given the Roadrunners’ reputation as a fast-paced, high-octane offensive attack.

With that said, UTSA will come in swinging for the football fences. Unlike the Colorado State Rams, who didn’t air it out with their Air Raid offense in the 52-0 no-show in Austin, expect Traylor’s dirty birds to do their damnedest to pull off the unthinkable. But the personalities have changed since the last meeting, especially at quarterback where starter Owen McCown — son of former NFL quarterback Josh McCown — was pulled in favor of Eddie Lee Marburger at the half. Traylor said McCown will start against Texas.

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“The biggest difference (between now and 2021) is we were a veteran team back then and they were kind of in transition a little bit,” Traylor said during his Monday media availability. “Now they’re very veteran and we’re kind of in transition right now.”

Traylor added that most teams have at three to six great players on their two-deep, but he believes the Horns are well past that.

“These guys have backups who are really great,” he said. “The whole sheet is marked with great players.”

It sounds like David sizing up Goliath, huh?

As for the Horns, they’re grown up now. Some of their veteran players were youngsters on the 2021 team that struggled through a 5-7 nightmare in Sarkisian’s debut season and the embarrassing 57-56 overtime loss to a Kansas team that was the Big 12 doormat at the time.

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The Horns got caught slipping that day. While history can repeat itself, I wouldn’t bet on it Saturday because the Horns are well aware of what can happen.

Sarkisian and Co. learned from that experience and if they’re as smart as I believe them to be, they won’t be peeking ahead to ULM and Mississippi State and that sexy Oklahoma-Georgia double dip next month.

It’s the embattled Roadrunners, first and foremost.

“The toughest opponents to play are the ones that are wounded, that are backed into a corner,” Sarkisian said. “And UTSA has got a very talented team. Coach Traylor has done a nice job there, and they're a little wounded coming out of last week. So, we know we're going to get their best shot. We're going to get their best version.”

In case you’re wondering, the Irish were a 29½-point favorite over the Huskies before Touchdown Jesus suffered the unthinkable.

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Texas is a 33½-point favorite.

“Regardless of what they had going on before, we're going to have to bring our A-game,” said linebacker David Gbenda. “We're going to have to prepare like this is any other game regardless of who they are and what they've been doing. They're a great offense and they're a great team. So, we're not going to look too far ahead.”

David will show up with nothing to lose but the slingshot won’t be enough this time.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football using Notre Dame upset as teaching moment