Steve Sarkisian finished up his season after leading the Longhorns to the semifinals last year. Now, the off-season has rolled with spring practices, recruiting movement, and transfers stacked on the cards. Truly, even in the off-season, coaches would be extremely busy despite the opposite ideas of the word ‘off-season’. Steve Sarkisian, however, has found himself busier than ever now, with personal duties appearing recently.

The Longhorns’ head coach and his wife, Loreal Sarkisian, have recently announced the birth of their son. A development that not even the keenest of the Longhorns’ followers would have expected. This is because, Loreal, while attending most of the Longhorns’ games, hid her baby bump quite expertly with her complex and stylish dresses. She didn’t even announce it on social media until after the couple’s son was born.

However, on Wednesday, 9th April, Loreal posted a photo on her Instagram story of her baby bump in a beautiful black dress. She captioned it, “Hump Day!…missing mine already“. The message was short and brief and naturally was interpreted by viewers in quite varied ways. Still, many had speculated after seeing the picture that little Sarkisian still hasn’t been born and the photo is just the ‘official’ announcement of the pregnancy. However, that wasn’t the case.

Loreal later posted another story clarifying the speculation around the ‘baby bump’ photo and giving the Longhorns an announcement of the arrival of their prince. Loreal wrote in her story, “Ok soo, some of you may have misunderstood our son has been born already. I repeat, he has arrived !!” Surely, the arrival of little Sarkisian is joyous news for the Sarkisian and Loreal. But, most of all, the baby is also good news for the couple who had some tumultuous times earlier in their relationship.

The 51-year-old head coach and the 39-year-old stylist suffered a phase where they even explored ‘divorce’ as revealed by Loreal. The couple then eventually patched things up and started a “new chapter” in their life. Now, with the arrival of their baby, the bond between the husband and wife will undoubtedly grow. The couple hasn’t shared the pictures of the baby till now on their IG, but surely we all can’t wait to meet the little Sarkisian, who no doubt will also have the charisma of Steve Sarkisian in his blood.

What’s next for the Longhorns and Steve Sarkisian?

The Longhorns had an incredible season last year, where they were only edged by Ohio State and Georgia. Still, they made it deep into the semifinal, defeating teams like Clemson and the unexpected arrival of ASU. However, next season can be a bit tricky for Steve Sarkisian since he won’t have Quinn Ewers now to be his QB1. Instead, the job will be taken up by the young prodigy Arch Manning. But can Arch Manning step up successfully?

Well, Manning did step up last season as a starter in two games after Quinn Ewers’ injury earlier in the season. The young QB led the Longhorns to wins in both games (ULM and Mississippi State) as he notched up 481 passing yards in those two games. Manning finished his last season with 939 passing yards and 108 rushing yards in the limited appearances he saw and had an 87.5 QB rating by ESPN. This is quite impressive for the player, who will look to provide Heisman-level performance in the 2025 season.

The Longhorns have a tough start to their season as they will face Ohio State on the road in their first game. The next games could be pretty easy as they will move on to face San Jose State, UTEP Miners, and Sam Houston Bearcats. The next test would be stern as they would go face Florida on the road and then host Oklahoma. The other tough games would be against Georgia on the road and the Aggies, who also could give trouble later in the season. All in all, the Longhorns have a fairly tough schedule to wade in the upcoming season.