Texas HC Steve Sarkisian gives bold claim on job rumors

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has been a popular name in both the NFL and college football coaching cycles.

It makes sense, too. He’s brought Texas back to being competitive and in the championship hunt, but he also has a wealth of great experience as an assistant in both college and the NFL.

He’s about as well-rounded a candidate as you’ll find, so of course, programs like the Florida Gators, LSU Tigers or even the New York Giants may be interested to see if he’s interested.

The thing is, though, he’s not. Or, at the very least, that’s what he’s telling the media. He’s all-in with the Longhorns, according to comments he made on a recent SEC teleconference call.

“I’d like to comment something before I get into our team that has been bothering me now over the past few weeks. That is people reporting that are insinuating that there’s a possibility I could leave the University of Texas, and that is absolutely false and untrue,” Sarkisian said (h/t On3). “I’m not going anywhere. Never do I do this because I never want to be a distraction, so I never address these things. At this point, I feel like this is important that I do this because it’s important for our team. It’s important for our university.”

Steve Sarkisian has deep roots in Austin and is all-in with Texas

As if that weren’t clear enough, Sarkisian said that he has not had any discussions with anybody about coaching elsewhere. He even went as far as to say that even his agent hasn’t spoken to anyone.

Sometimes coaches can say publicly that they aren’t talking about any opportunities while, in the meantime, their agents are working backchannels and putting something together. He could be lying, of course, because college football history is full of head coaches saying one thing and doing another.

A full-throated statement like this seems to be a pretty clear indication that Sarkisian is serious about what he’s saying, though. 

Heck, he went as far as calling Austin home, which is a pretty big deal for a coach to say. Those guys aren’t used to staying in one place for too long. With that said, Sarkisian does have two kids actually enrolled at Texas, one on the football team. He has a third kid he wants to go to Texas in the near future. He also just had a baby.

Sarkisian has roots in Austin. He also has high aspirations for the Longhorns.

“We came here to win championships,” he said. “We’ve built a damn good football program over the five years that we’ve been here. We’ve been to two College Football Playoffs. We won a Big 12 Championship. We went to the SEC Championship game in Year 1. We’ve had 23 players drafted the last two years, which is more than any other school in the country and our team GPA is at an all-time high.

“Can we please stop putting things out there that you have absolutely zero evidence on? Can we please stop retweeting and putting it back out there as if it’s true? As if it’s the gospel? It is not true.”