Steve Sarkisian explains the critical role his wife has played in comeback, believing in himself

Steve Sarkisian is about to enter his third season at the helm as the head football coach for the Texas Longhorns, but his journey to where he is now was not always easy. Sarkisian was fired from his second head coaching job at USC in the middle of his second season following several alcohol related incidents. He’s since climbed his way back to the top of the coaching ranks, which he partially attributed to the support of his wife Loreal on ‘The Pivot Podcast’.

“I think a couple things, she is that person because the reality of it is there were things in my life that shoot I had to get reconnected to the Lord you know, and she helped me do that. I had to find my own self confidence again,” Sarkisian said. “Anytime you get fired, I don’t care what industry you’re in, you lose some of that confidence. It’s like how do you find it again, how do you recreate it again, and she was the one that kept reminding me.”

Following his leave of absence and termination from USC, Sarkisian took assistant coaching jobs twice at Alabama and once with the Atlanta Falcons over a five year period before becoming the 31st head football coach at Texas in 2021. Displaying a level of patience that he also gave credit to his wife for.

“She was the one when jobs would come up she said, ‘I don’t think that’s the one, I think you’re better than that’. And I was like wow, okay, I needed some of that to build my own self-confidence. And then even going through some of our times, because the idea to think that hey, I did that in 2015 and then life’s been great and perfect since then. Nah. We still have struggles, we still go through things, it’s a daily process for all of us,” Sarkisian explained.

Loreal Sarkisian hasn’t only helped Steve in his personal life, but with her attire as well. The former track star also has a styling business, and anytime you see Coach Sarkisian on game day, you’re seeing an outfit likely curated by her.

“She’s been there every step of the way; the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever it’s looked like and she’s right there every single time,” Sarkisian said. “Even on game day, she dresses me on game day I’ll give her that. Not everybody loves what I wear but I like it, she likes it, so we’re good with it.”