Perhaps the hardest part of being a college football coach is watching what you slip to the media.
Okay – obviously I’m kidding, but someone might want to stick Steve Sarkisian in a PR training course or something of that nature following an absurd comment that the head football coach of the Texas Longhorns made on Thursday.
Anwar Richardson, who reports on the Longhorns for Orange Bloods, shared comments made by Sarkisian during a conversation with a fan over whether the College Football Playoff will factor strength-of-schedule into its committee’s decision-making.
It doesn’t take a scientist to know Sarkisian’s referring to his, well, friends in Lubbock.
The full comment, as reported nationally by Brett McMurphy and On3, is as follows:
“There’s a team in our state that plays in another conference that has a schedule that I would argue if I played with our twos and our threes, we could go undefeated, and they’ll probably make the CFP this year.”
McMurphy included an additional excerpt from Sarkisian about preferring a four-team playoff as opposed to the proposed 24-team model that could arrive as early as 2027.
“I’ve gone on record saying I’d rather go back to four. Here’s my issue: I understand why people want to go to 24, but we are now in a world where fanbases are living under this umbrella of playoff-or-bust,” he said. “I don’t agree with that, that’s not true. You had the opportunity to compete for a national championship during those 12 regular-season games, and I felt like when we were at four teams, those four teams were held in very high regard, and you earned your opportunity to be one of those four teams.”
Sarikisian and the Longhorns are 26-3 in his first two seasons in the SEC, and, since departing the Big 12, Sarikisan is tied with Joey McGuire in CFP appearances during the 12-team era. Texas lost to No. 3 Ohio State, unranked Florida and No. 5 Georgia to miss last year’s playoff, and instead meet scandal-rocked Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.
Texas Tech, by contrast, defeated a top-15 BYU team twice, and recorded only one Big 12 loss at Arizona State following a 10-play, 70-yard scoring drive orchestrated by Sam Leavitt for a 26-22 upset in Tempe, Arizona. Yes, the Red Raiders, the No. 4 seed in the CFP playoff, laid an egg in its quarterfinal game with Oregon, the No. 5 seed, in less-than-admirable fashion.
The difference, though, is getting to the playoff, and Tech, too, earned a rightful first-round bye. As for Sark, he likely watched the game from home, or perhaps the golf course?
