{"id":265535,"date":"2025-08-06T05:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/265535\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T05:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:12:10","slug":"who-is-steve-sarkisian-10-things-to-know-about-the-texas-longhorns-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/265535\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Steve Sarkisian? 10 things to know about the Texas Longhorns\u2019 head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Longhorns<\/a> are hoping to finally make it over the hump and bring home the program\u2019s first national title back to Austin since 2005. They\u2019ll embark on their second season in the SEC with Steve Sarkisian at the helm.<\/p>\n

Here are 10 things to know about Texas\u2019 head football coach:<\/p>\n

1. The basics<\/p>\n

Age: 51<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

Hometown: Torrance, Calif.<\/p>\n

Playing career: In two seasons as a quarterback at BYU (1995-96), threw for 7,464 yards and 53 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Head coaching career: Compiled a 34-29 record in five seasons at Washington (2009-13) and was 12-6 in a season and a half at USC (2014-15). Owns a 38-17 record at Texas with two College Football Playoff appearances.<\/p>\n

Last job: Alabama offensive coordinator, where he won the Broyles Award as the nation\u2019s top assistant.<\/p>\n

2. Sarkisian was a prolific QB at BYU.<\/p>\n

After transferring to BYU as a junior, Sarkisian once set an NCAA record for completion percentage in a game when he went 31-of-34 against Fresno State in 1995. In 1996, he led the Cougars to a 14-1 record, which also included a victory over Texas A&M. The team ended the year as the No. 5 team in the country and defeated Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl.<\/p>\n

3. He was a pretty bad QB for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian played in the Canadian Football League for three seasons from 1997-99. He threw for 21 interceptions and 16 touchdowns during a 3-15 season in 1999. He retired as a player and became the quarterbacks coach at El Camino in 2000.<\/p>\n

4. He coached at Washington and USC.<\/p>\n

After holding a variety of assistant coaching jobs at USC, including offensive coordinator, the Huskies hired Sarkisian as head coach in 2009 after finishing an 0-12 season. He immediately improved the program, taking the team to 5-7. That included a win over the school he just left \u2014 USC, ranked No. 3 at the time.<\/p>\n

He rebuilt the Washington program, going 34-29 with the Huskies.<\/p>\n

5. His last head coaching job ended because of issues with alcoholism.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian returned to USC as its head coach in 2013, but he was fired in October 2015 after reportedly showing up to a meeting intoxicated. He had already been notified of a zero-tolerance policy from the school regarding his alcohol use, per ESPN<\/a>. After being forced to take a leave of absence, he was fired and entered into alcoholism rehabilitation. He later filed, and lost, a wrongful termination lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s battled a lot on and off the field and I know for a fact has worked tirelessly to become not only a better coach but just a better person. Fight On brother!\u201d former USC Heisman winner Matt Leinart tweeted after reports about Texas hiring Sarkisian.<\/p>\n

6. Nick Saban helped Sarkisian get his second chance.<\/p>\n

Eleven months after his firing at USC, Alabama head coach Nick Saban brought on Sarkisian as an offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide. It was only a few months before he was back coaching, though. He took over as offensive coordinator on an interim basis after Lane Kiffin left for a job at Florida Atlantic.<\/p>\n

A month after that, Sarkisian became the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons, but he was fired after the 2018 season. He returned as Alabama\u2019s offensive coordinator in 2019.<\/p>\n

With his hiring at Texas, Sarkisian became the 34th Saban assistant to get a head coaching job at either the college or NFL level.<\/p>\n

7. He filled in for Saban as head coach.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian returned to the head coaching ranks briefly in the Iron Bowl against Auburn in 2020, when Saban came down with COVID-19. The Crimson Tide destroyed its rivals 42-13 at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cSark did a nice job of managing things,\u201d Saban said, per Sports Illustrated. \u201cI sat here and felt a little helpless, but I could see things and yell at things.\u201d<\/p>\n

8. Wasn\u2019t interested in taking over the Alabama job.<\/p>\n

After Saban retired in January,<\/a> Sarkisian took a brief moment to consider the opening at Alabama. It didn\u2019t take long to decide where his coaching career would continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaturally, I\u2019d be lying if I said I didn\u2019t think about it,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cBut it took me all of about 60 seconds to say, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m not doing that.\u2019 I had an awesome two years at Alabama and loved my time under Coach Saban, but ultimately you want to reap what you sow.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. Red River record<\/p>\n

Sarkisian\u2019s had a very hit-and-miss run through his first four games in the historic Texas-Oklahoma rivalry. Two blowouts and two heartbreakers.<\/p>\n

In 2021 he saw his Longhorns jump out to a 28-7 lead in his first spin through the Cotton Bowl. But Caleb Williams and the Sooners stormed back, scoring a touchdown with three seconds left to win.<\/p>\n

The next season was a no-doubter. Sarkisian\u2019s Horns dominated from the jump with a 49-0 blowout, the largest margin of victory in the rivalry\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The Red River momentum wouldn\u2019t last, though. In 2023 the Horns lost another heartbreaker at the Cotton Bowl, Dillon Gabriel finding Nic Anderson with 14 seconds left for the game-winning touchdown.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Texas went down 3-0 in the first quarter, but that would prove to be Oklahoma\u2019s final and only points on the day. The Longhorns then erupted for 21 unanswered points in the second quarter en route to a 34-3 win.<\/p>\n

That sets Sarkisian\u2019s Red River record at 2-2 heading into the 2025 matchup. <\/p>\n

10. In Austin for the long run.<\/p>\n

In February of 2024, the University of Texas<\/a> System Board of Regents approved a raise and contract extension<\/a> for the Longhorns coach that boosts his guaranteed salary to $10.3 million this year and signs him through 2030.<\/p>\n

The four-year extension makes Sarkisian one of the highest-paid coaches in the country after Texas won the Big 12 in 2023 and finished their first season in the SEC atop the standings. The Longhorns have also appeared in back-to-back College Football Playoffs.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas stories from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Longhorns are hoping to finally make it over the hump and bring home the program\u2019s first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1554,7,49,48,9,1078],"class_list":{"0":"post-265535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-colleges","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-texas-longhorns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114980110056149348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}