Steve Sarkisian reflects on his coaching journey, hopes his path can be motivation for others

Steve Sarkisian has come a long way over his time as a coach this century, especially in the last decade and a half as a coordinator and, mostly, a head coach. Now, on the eve of his team’s first appearance in the College Football Playoff, he can’t help but look back in the rearview to see how far he has made it.

Sarkisian answered a question about any doubts that he’d ever reach this point during the final pre-Sugar Bowl press conference on Sunday. He admitted that he absolutely doubted it at some points of his career. He especially did when it became difficult for him to just get back in the coaching ranks at all.

“Yeah, hell yeah. I did – geez,” said Sarkisian. “I was out of work, couldn’t get an interview. Never mind a job, never mind thinking about the College Football Playoff. So, sure, it did.”

However, after stops in Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Tuscaloosa over the past 15 years, Austin has provided him his golden opportunity. With his present circumstances now being what they are, Sarkisian desires that other coaches will see that as inspiration that they too could take their programs to the highest heights one day down the line.

“It’s fascinating to think of the journey, me personally, that I’ve been on to get to this point,” said Sarkisian. “I’m hopeful that my story can serve as some sort of motivation to others. We don’t have to stay where we are in life.”

“If we have our goals set on something and we live a life of doing things the right way? Do the next right thing, treat people well? Work hard, be disciplined, be focused, hold yourself accountable? Be committed to something, have some mental toughness to overcome adversity that we have? We can change, life can change,” Sarkisian said. “Life can change for the better and that’s no different for our players either. Hopefully I can serve a little bit of a model to that. We can change the narrative for ourselves and we can build towards something even greater than we have right now.”

Texas has taken step after step to be in the position they’ll be in tomorrow night in New Orleans. In Sarkisian’s first season, they finished at 5-7. Then, in year two, they took a three-win leap at 8-5. With a 14th game in front of them on Monday, they sit at 12-1 as winners of the Big 12 and the No. 3 team in the nation.

It has taken plenty of development for Sarkisian to build himself and his program up to this moment. With them on the doorstep now, all he can do is review all that went into them reaching this potential pinnacle in the playoff.

“I think that’s what makes part of this journey with this team this year, probably, so gratifying,” said Sarkisian. “When you take a moment to reflect, like I’m doing right now? You think back to that moment where you don’t have a job, can’t get an interview, and you’re just trying to get back into the profession – never mind thinking about being here with an opportunity to go play for a national championship. So I think part of that puts things into perspective.”

“Sometimes you get results like this. You get on teams like this and you get to be part of special seasons like this,” Sarkisian said. “Very grateful and thankful for the opportunity here – from the University of Texas but, also, for the opportunity and appreciation for these players, the staff, and the work that they’ve done to get us to this point.”