Steve Sarkisian: I chose Texas because of the challenge

Steve Sarkisian chose Texas for a reason when he became a college head coach again. He wanted the challenge.

Throughout trials and tribulations in his own career, Sarkisian may have the ability to push all of the right buttons with the Longhorns. Over the course of his first two seasons, he and his team certainly showed flashes.

But now they could put it all together in 2023.

“I’ve never not loved the great challenge,” Sarkisian said on The Pivot Podcast. “I’ve always wanted something, I wanted to do it the biggest, the best, better than anyone’s ever done it before. So that’s why you take an 0-12 Washington job. That’s why you go to USC when they’re on probation, and they only got 50 kids on scholarship. That’s why you go to Atlanta after they just have the catastrophic loss in the Super Bowl. See if you can take them back.

“And then that’s why you come to Texas after a decade of down years and would they ever get back? Can you recreate it amid turmoil and different things going on? And it’s like, yeah, this is what I’m supposed to go do.”

Sarkisian was the offensive coordinator at Alabama and practically resurrected his career in college football. His success there led Sarkisian to Texas.

“I’m built for this,” Sarkisian said. “You watch the transformation. In my past, I didn’t appreciate the transformation because I was always worried about what was down the road. Today, now I go through it, I see it, I watch our team. I was just telling my brother in law the other day, I said this looks like my team. This is year three, I said it feels and looks like my team, the way the players talk, the way they act, what they look like the way they move the way they run, how we practice the speed, the tempo, all those things. 

“Man like, Okay, now we’re about ready to go. This is what it’s supposed to look like. And we need to because we’re going to the (SEC).”

Sarkisian was also asked how he exactly Texas back to elite heights.

“We play (Alabama) on September 9, and everybody knows it,” Sarkisian said. “You know, we’re going to Tuscaloosa this time around and I think the experience on our team matters this year. At the end of the day we need to beat the Alabama’s, the Georgia’s of the world. You got to be good up front … You got to have playmakers on the perimeter, which I believe we have. And you got to have a quarterback, you know it’s the most important position in sports for a reason. 

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“And we’re fortunate to have more than one and I think that that’s what it takes. We learned that in that game last year because you never know when that guy could get injured and who was going to come in next. And that lends itself to recruiting. We’re starting to stack recruiting classes on top of one another, like you’re supposed to do to build that talent. But in the end, I think it’s going to be our composure and our experience late and games to go finish those tight ball games that we learned kind of how to do last year. Now we really got to take that next step this year.”