Steve Sarkisian opens up on how Nick Saban, Alabama changed his life

On Saturday night, Steve Sarkisian led Texas into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama. In doing so, he beat his former team, as well as a mentor of his, Nick Saban.

After the game, Sarkisian spoke about how important Saban and Alabama are to him, explaining that they changed his life.

“University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban changed my life,” Steve Sarkisian said. “At a moment of my life when things were not going great, and he extended me an olive branch, and everybody here was so supportive of me coming here and then bringing me back a second time. To then having to have open heart surgery while I was here.”

Steve Sarkisian first got to Alabama in 2016 as an analyst. This was shortly after he was fired by USC. There, he had to take a leave of absence amid several alcohol-related issues that dated back to his time at Washington. He has since battled to become sober.

After that, he became the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator before returning to Alabama to become the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator before he landed the Texas job.

“So, these people here mean a lot to me, and I’m very grateful for everybody at Alabama and in Tuscaloosa for what they showed myself, my family, my wife. So, to come here and to play them, and to play the way that we played, it’s humbling. You know, because life kind of goes full circle on that kind of stuff,” Sarkisian said.

“So, not to get overly emotional about it, but it means a lot.”

Paul Finebaum says Texas is back

Following Texas’ win over Alabama, Paul Finebaum went on SportsCenter where he declared Texas to be back.

“I think we can all collectively say Texas is back and they’re in the top four. There’s no getting around that. When you go into Bryant-Denny Stadium and do what just a handful of teams in the Saban era have done, you deserve considerable kudos. They not only won the game by double digits, they dominated the game. This game really should have been a much bigger beatdown but if you look at the top four right now, clearly Georgia is there, Michigan. But Texas and Florida State have snuck in. I know a lot of people are asking about Ohio State and Southern Cal. They’re right outside of that,” Finebaum said.

“But what Texas did to Alabama on plays like this is simply unbelievable. I was talking to Nick Saban yesterday morning in Tuscaloosa and he was very nervous and very agitated about the depth and the injuries in the secondary and that was prescient as that’s where the game was destroyed last night of course other than the line of scrimmage and other than the lack of discipline again by Alabama.”