College football has had a great season so far at the halfway point this fall. Steve Sarkisian agrees and is one of the best head coaches in the sport right now.

Sarkisian spoke about the current state of college football on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday. He believes the game’s recognition has reached a new high this year, particularly with the expansion of the College Football Playoff.

“First of all, I want to say this about college football. I think popularity-wise we’re at an all-time high, man – all-time high, baby,” Sarkisian said. “It’s amazing, man. It’s great. I think this new college football playoff is going to be incredible.”

Texas has enjoyed the year as much as any team up to this point in 2024. The Longhorns are 6-0 with one win Michigan along with their latest victory over Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry. That includes a 2-0 start to conference play as part of their debut season in the SEC.

Still, Texas, like all other programs, must continue to adapt to anything new in its game. Each aspect is a lot, but all of them combined make college football, let alone athletics as a whole at this level, much different than what it was.

With that in mind, Sarkisian knows how he needs to approach this new era if he wants to succeed on The 40 Acres.

“I also think that as programs we have to continually adapt, right? Times are changing, right,” Sarkisian said. “You know, NIL has changed. You know, revenue sharing is coming, what that’s going to look like. Like a realignment of the conference.

“That’s what we’ve been preaching all along. That was something I learned from Coach Saban – adapt or die,” Sarkisian added. “There is a reason there are no more dinosaurs on Earth. They haven’t adapted.”

Some brands, coaches and rosters will be better equipped to handle everything that comes with college football these days. Texas is also one of them with its perspective on what they were and can be.

“We’ve tried to adapt to the times and use some of the new things to our advantage, but still not lose sight of who we are and what we stand for,” Sarkisian said.