Steve Sarkisian details how his NFL background helps him in modern era of college football

As college football changes, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has something that many college coaches don’t and could help him moving forward thanks to his NFL background.

In particular, that NFL experience seems like it could help him as modern college football changes. That includes the House settlement, which is going to lead to revenue sharing and the combination of NIL and the Transfer Portal that has created a system that in some ways mimics free agency.

“I think it’s been helpful,” Steve Sarkisian said. “For us and the Transfer Portal, we do view that as a kind of free agency for us, and where we have gaps or holes in our roster where we can fill those things in. I do think understanding the temperature in your locker room and who’s making what and keeping that culture the right way.”

Steve Sarkisian has spent the majority of his career coaching in college. However, he did spend two seasons after he was the head coach at USC and before he joined Alabama as the offensive coordinator where he was the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons.

For his part, Steve Sarkisian sees more changes coming to college football that mimic the NFL than just how rosters are constructed and the fact that there is some compensation. There’s also coach-to-player helmet communications and possibly injury reports coming in the future.

“Now we’re going to coach-to-player communication, which is very similar to how it was in the NFL as well. Now, there’s talk of reporting player injuries and things for the week. So, there’s definitely a shift, which I don’t think is a bad thing,” Sarkisian said.

“The NFL has done extensive homework and research on a lot of these things. So, if that’s the direction we go in, we try to fall back on some of our experiences to try to do the best that we can.”

Steve Sarkisian on how to combat gaming the system with availability reports

Injury availability reports are still being considered for college football. However, Steve Sarkisian already has a simple solution for how to keep coaches from gaming the system and lying on those reports. Just fine the coaches.

“Fine us. That’s what they do in the NFL,” Sarkisian said.

“I’m a big believer in this, the NFL has figured a lot of this stuff out already. They’ve already had to live through all of these things that have occurred. So we don’t have to try to recreate the wheel so much right? If I try to game they system and I don’t report a guy or and so on and so forth, fine us. We all like the money that we make, and so that’s a really simple way to get us to adhere to the rules.”