Steve Sarkisian reflects on his first game as starting QB, reveals lessons for Quinn Ewers

In 1995, Steve Sarkisian transferred to BYU after trying college baseball at USC and enrolling at El Camino College. He switched from baseball to football at El Camino, and that led him to Provo as a quarterback.

He remembers his first start vividly, too.

“It was an early kickoff at Air Force,” Sarkisian said. “They were sacking me a lot. I remember that.”

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Now, Sarkisian is getting ready to coach Quinn Ewers in his first collegiate start when Texas takes on Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 3. Ewers won the starting job over incumbent Hudson Card, and Sarkisian said he’s going to draw from his former coaches to put his QB1 in the best position possible.

“I was fortunate,” Sarkisian said. “I was coached by some great coaches. … Those guys had a really good plan that made me feel comfortable. What I did was trust those guys. They had done it for a long time. Whether it was Ty Dettmer, Steve Young, Jim McMahon, a lot of great guys had played for those guys previously. I just kind of instilled my trust in them that they were going to do everything for me in my best interest to play well.

“And that’s the same thing I’ll say to Quinn. Allow us to coach you and trust the fact that we’re putting you in a really good position … and then trust the people around him. He’s got a veteran group of guys, whether it’s Bijan [Robinson], Roschon [Johnson], Keilan [Robinson], Xavier Worthy, Jordan Whittington, he’s got some really good players around him that have been through some fires and trust those guys that they’re going to do their job and focus on your job and trust the people that are kind of connected to you on that night.”

The Ewers era gets underway Saturday night when Texas and Louisiana-Monroe kick off from Austin at 8 p.m. ET.