Steve Sarkisian on his career at Texas: 'My goal is to retire here'

Texas‘ success under Steve Sarkisian has been well-documented over the past two seasons. Leading the Longhorns to consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff, including a national semifinal appearance in 2024.

With no signs of slowing down, Sarkisian is heading into his fifth season leading the Texas program in 2025. If he has it his way, he’ll be the Longhorns head coach for years to come.

“My goal is to retire here and I’m 51 today, and I hope I can coach a long, long time,” Sarkisian said, via ESPN. “But the only way to do that is to have continued success because here the standard is a standard. You either compete and win championships or you don’t. There’s not a lot of gray area. And so to do that, you got to have the right amount of energy, you got to have the right people around you and allow them to do their jobs.

“You got to recruit the right people so that you don’t take those massive drops. You might have a blip on the radar, but yet we sustain it in a way that we’re proud of. And I think we’re doing that. But like I said, there’s always more work to do.”

Sarkisian admitted that he had not been perfect during his time on the Forty Acres. During his first season, the Longhorns won five games and didn’t qualify for a bowl. Being strategic in the transfer portal, yet keeping the focus on high school recruiting has seen his program steadily improve each season he’s been at Texas.

“When I got here, I didn’t want to be a one-hit wonder,” Sarkisian said. “I didn’t want to live in the portal — one year we’re good and the next year we’re not. We wanted to build something that could sustain and that, in my opinion, is high school recruiting. We surely have tapped into the free agent market through the transfer portal to fill needs. And I think we’ve had a really good balance there.”

Ultimately, Sarkisian’s goal is to bring a national championship back to Texas. In two seasons, he was able to turn the Longhorns into a five-win team, to playing in the CFP. One year later, they were arguably a turnover away from possibly playing in a national title game.

Looking ahead, Sarkisian is confident that he’s built a program that’s going to be sustainable in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics. Perhaps, they’ll win a national championship or two along the way.