Sark wants to know who the source was for the Athletic story.
All’s well that ends well, but it had to be a rough Saturday for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian. First, he woke up to a story by The Athletic’s Dianna Russini stating Sark has put out feelers for an NFL head coaching job. Then he watched his team struggle for three quarters in Starkville.
The game turned out OK with a 17-point fourth quarter comeback en route to a 45-38 win in overtime. But Sark was still angry about the report from Dianna Russini after the game.
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that representatives for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian have made it known to NFL decision-makers that the coach would be open to potential head coaching openings, including the Tennessee Titans.
“I’m told that representatives for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian have let NFL decision makers know that he would be interested in potential head coaching openings, including the Titans,” Dianna Russini reported on X.
The move created an unusual reaction from Sark’s agency. Sarkisian has the biggest agents in college coaching Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz. Both work for Creative Artists Agency, one of the largest agencies in the world of entertainment and sports. CAA put out a statement strongly refuting the report from the Athletic. Again, this is a very rare move for an agent to make.
After the game, a visibly upset Sarkisian addressed Russini’s report.
“It really pisses me off that one person can make a report that in turn, the entire media, sports world runs with as factual. To the point of my agency and my agents have to put a statement out that they have never have done. Historically, CAA, Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz have never done that. But I had to do that to protect my locker room and my team. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.” – Texas coach Steve Sarkisian
Sarkisian signed an extension with Texas in January that has him signed through 2031.
“I thought it was completely unprofessional of that person to put that report out, and the fact that everybody ran with it is borderline embarrassing for the media. I respect what you guys do, I really do, and everybody else, but the fact that everybody ran that as truth is really embarrassing. I’ve got a small circle when I make decisions on what I do and what I don’t do, and nobody would speak on my behalf without me knowing. And so where that report came from, I’d love to talk to that person.” – Texas coach Steve Sarkisian
Former ESPN anchor Trey Wingo made one of the best points about the original story. Wingo points out the blurb about Sark is a very small part of the actual story, but is the lead in the social media promotion. In fact, if you read the article, the line on the social post is the only line about Sark and it is buried at the very end as one of several “Final Thoughts.”
This is really a fascinating look as to how the media gets your attention. The information below about Sark is literally the last thing in a long well informed article about a lot it topics. But everything about Sark is exactly in this tweet… nothing more. They chose to promote… https://t.co/OBJmI0sexx
— trey wingo (@wingoz) October 25, 2025
For now, this is probably just a one day story. But Texas fans should get used to this kind of thing. There will be a lot of NFL openings at the end of the season.
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