To begin its 2024 season, Texas football recorded a 52-0 win over Colorado State before beating Michigan by 19 points on the road.

That's been enough to impress the 54 voters in the US LBM Coaches Poll; Texas is still ranked third. That effort has also been enough to impress the 63 voters who moved Texas into the No. 2 slot in the Associated Press poll on Sunday. Texas even received first-place votes from one coach and four media members.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has also been impressed. To start his weekly media availability Monday, he listed some of the things he likes about his team. The Longhorns have scored touchdowns on 10 of their 11 red zone trips, and Bert Auburn hit a 26-yard field goal on that 11th possession. Texas has forced five turnovers and committed just one. The third-down numbers are good on both offense and defense.

But ...

"We are not a finished product by any means," Sarkisian stated.

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So what doesn't Sarkisian like about these Longhorns? Texas only has one sack, so those numbers must improve. There have been a few kickoffs that he hasn't been pleased with. Texas would like the newcomers in the receiving corps to block better on the perimeter.

Sarkisian also stressed that Texas must develop a killer instinct. Texas played its starters in the fourth quarter against Michigan, but the Longhorns were outgained by a 132-16 margin over the final 15 minutes. Texas earned just one first down and didn't score in the fourth quarter while Michigan tallied its lone touchdown on a 31-yard pass with less than two minutes left.

"I want to play 60 minutes. I want to make it 60 minutes of hell for our opponents, and we have a roster that can do that," Sarkisian said. "That's also a mentality that we're striving for, that we're working towards and I think that we can get better at. That's definitely a point of emphasis of ours as well."

Rocky fourth quarter at Big House not good enough

Texas players were asked about developing a killer instinct. Defensive tackle Alfred Collins said that was instilled throughout the offseason, and left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. felt that refining that mentality would happen in "practice, practice, practice, practice." Quarterback Quinn Ewers, who was named the SEC's offensive player of the week on Monday, said it came down to the team's culture.

"When you talk about imposing your will, I think you've got to take the breath out of another opponent," safety Michael Taaffe said. "That starts from leadership from the coaches down to the leaders on the team down to players doing their job. You have to impose your will on a team to where they don't think that they have life anymore. That's something that we preach all the time.

"Too many times in the past, the last four years that I've been here, have we let teams crawl back in in the second half? There's got to be a point where you've got to be mature enough to know that you're up by 30 and it would take a lot of good plays for them to come back. It's just a matter of pride that you've got to have in yourself to where you want to take that opponent's soul. You want them to really understand that when they go to bed at night, they remember Texas Longhorn defense, they remember how we came to play."

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As a follow-up question, Taaffe was asked if the Wolverines had their souls taken in Saturday's 31-12 game. "No, they scored in the fourth quarter," he replied.

"We preach winning the fourth quarter, and we didn't win the fourth quarter," Taaffe added. "I tell my guys all the time, my teammates and the other guys that I follow too, is we're not a finished product. Our best ball is yet to come. We have so much more work to do."

Steve Sarkisian: Texas is 'entitled to nothing'

Texas will get back to work this week as it prepares to play UTSA, which lost by 39 points to rival Texas State last weekend. Sarkisian, though, warned against paying too much attention to that score. "The toughest opponents to play are the ones that are wounded, that are backed into a corner," the coach preached.

Texas will be heavy favorites, but so was Notre Dame against Northern Illinois. Sarkisian said he's shown the Longhorns a clip of NIU kicking a 35-yard field goal to beat the Fighting Irish and another clip of the Huskies celebrating their 16-14 victory. Notre Dame was No. 7 in the US LBM Coaches poll last week and was favored by 28 points.

His message to the team Monday was that "we are entitled to nothing. We're capable of anything. We've got a really good team, but we're entitled to nothing." That message was seemingly received.

"We're enamored with us, we know what we've got to do," Collins later said. "Coach Sark has the winning formula, and we're just going to keep following him."

This will be the second-ever meeting between Texas and UTSA. Two years ago, Texas recorded a 41-20 win over the Roadrunners in Austin. Although UT won by a comfortable margin, the Roadrunners did hold a 10-point lead in the second quarter of that game.

"Obviously it was a fight (last year), but every game has its own life and every year is a different year," Texas edge rusher Barryn Sorrell said. "So we're here to play on Saturday."

Saturday's game

UTSA (1-1) at No. 3 Texas (2-0), 6 p.m., ESPN, 1300, 98.1, 105.3 (Spanish)

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football 2-0 but searching for '60 minutes of hell'