Bussin' With The Boys - Texas Head Coach Steve Sarkisian Explains His Journey To Head Coach, Philosophy On Coaching QBs + His Opinion On The Best CFB Rivalry

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

Recorded: March 22nd 2023 | Our Spring Tour stop takes us to Austin, Texas where we visit the University of Texas and sit down with Head Coach Steve Sarkisian. Coach tells his journey how his playing days to then becoming a coach. We then dive into his coaching philosophy when it comes to having such a talented Quarterback room and the difficulties there are to keeping guys from transferring. Finally, Sark talks about how he ended up at Texas and what he thinks the greatest rivalry in college football is. Big hugs, tiny kisses. 0:00 Intro 0:43 2009 Big 12 Championship 2:12 Coach Sarkisian's playing days 4:07 Where he would be if he wasn't coaching 5:00 How his playing days translates to coaching talented quarterbacks 8:04 How do you keep a talented QB room together 9:27 Recruiting Arch Manning 11:10 Unique recruiting story 13:02 How Sark ended up at Texas 15:35 Greatest rivalry in CFB ---- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS CHEVY - EVs for everyone, everywhereFor more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Yeah. Let's start off and really figure out where this interview is going to go right off the bat. Where do you stand on the 2009 Big 12 championship when Texas sold it from Nebraska with one second left? Okay, so, you know, throughout history and throughout time, there's always been, you know, controversial plays, players getting injured, whatnot. But it's the football gods, man. Things happen the way they're supposed to happen, right?

So Texas won. When you're at the University of Texas, the gods are kind of in your guys' favor. I'd like to think so. You weren't at Texas at the time, though. So when you're watching it, when you're at the TV. I was watching the game live. And you see us celebrate games over. Colt, if Sue wasn't that fast, bro, Cole was not.

He does an interview. I busts his balls about it all the time. Where he's like, oh, there was an alarm clock that went off in my head. I threw it out. There was one second left. I'm like, bro, if she wasn't that fast, you're not getting rid of the ball. But they add the second back on, kick a field goal to win the game. But it was the most, we celebrated.

And you, as a coach watching, what are you thinking? There's one more second. I'll be honest with you that. I thought there was one more second. Now, mind you, Kay, we're going to jump around here. I was at USC for the Bush Push against Notre Dame. in 05, and they stormed the field, and they had to get them off the field. Then there was the Bush push to win the game.

So I've been part of those games, too. Like, this is, you know, I hate to tell you that, like, this is the only time it's ever happened. It happens. I got to get out of my bubble, pan. You're going to be all right. I know, I know. When you were, so you're in high school, you received no offers. It's not a shot.

Just read your Wikipedia. You walk on a USC to play baseball. End up transferring to El Camino, I believe it was. That's right. where did you find like regain your love for football to eventually turn you into a headball coach? Good question. So I went back to El Camino and John Featherstone was the head coach at that time at El Camino. Kind of a legendary junior college coach. And I was playing baseball, but I was in health class with Coach Featherstone. And he just kind of kept prodding me to come back out, come back out, play football.

And legendary junior college program, I had no business. in my mind thinking I was going to go out there and play with these guys. But I went out when baseball season was done and just kind of started working my way up the depth chart. And next thing you know, here comes the season open. I was a starting quarterback at El Camino. And we had the worst team in El Camino history. Two and eight, my freshman year. Like, never happened at El Camino.

And I was like, I must not be very good, right? How did you play individually? I played okay. I played pretty good. Actually, I had a couple offers to leave that. year and I just thought, man, if I could stick around and do it again. And then the next year, we went out and had a really good year and got a lot more opportunities and ultimately went on to BYU. Yeah. Those first couple offers you got, what we're talking like D1AA? No, they were

actually pretty good. I mean, they were, yeah. The weird thing about junior college, I played it and I coached it. Everybody's got a need. And at that time, there was no transfer portal like we're dealing with now. It was like, you better go to the JC rank. and get a guy that can leave right now. And I could, having been a 4-2-4 transfer, I was already academically eligible, so I could have left after that first year, but ultimately stuck around and played the second year.

If it wasn't for that coach and that health class, where do you think you would be now? I'd probably be a high school teacher and a high school coach. I really would. Coach and football or baseball? Probably both. I mean, you know, when you're a high school coach and teacher, I mean, in California especially, man, you got to do it all.

You got, you got gym class. You're probably coaching football. You're probably coaching baseball. And you might be coaching freshman basketball, too. I mean, you got to do it all. But that's what I was doing in the offseason when I was playing in the CFL. I was a substitute teacher and I helped out. And that's kind of, I was always, this has always made sense to me.

So when you transfer from El Camino and you go to BYU when you get that scholarship, because you were slinging the rock around your sophomore year at El Camino. you get a scholarship to go to BYU. In 96, you win the Sammy Ball War, the top passer in the country. Then you play three years in the Canadian League. You play professional ball. Talk to people about how that translates

for you being here now, managing a quarterback room with nothing but talent with Quinn Ewers, Archmanning comes to mind, and I know there are more guys even in that room. But talk about how you keep that healthy competition going while also teaching and developing these guys, because you know, especially in this day and age, like guys want to come they want to play right now and you've been at spots like bam and

USC where you've had talent all around these rooms talk about how your experience there being in every seat has helped you become the teacher they're today i think it's a valid point in question i'm not i was never the most physically gifted player right i didn't have the biggest arm i'm not the tallest guy i wasn't the fastest guy so i had to play the game up here you know i had to know our offense so well. I had to know defenses so well and how plays were going to work predicated off the defenses we were going to get. That's how I played the game. And so that's how we teach the game. We try to teach the game beyond just knowing how to run our plays, but how do they fit with the defense we're going to get? What's the front? What's the coverage? You know, where's the weakness in the defense and

where's the whole predicated on the play? We're going to run. So that's how we teach it. And we've been teaching it that way for, geez, almost 25 years now, going back to, when I was back at junior college to coaching Carson Palmer at USC. But at the end of the day, we try to get these guys to understand that, like, your journey is your journey. Focus on what you need to do and not get so caught up in what the guy next to you is doing or what he's working on because everybody's at a different stage. Those early years at USC, I had Carson Palmer, Matt Castle, and Matt Liner all in the same quarterback

room. All three of those guys went on to have careers in the NFL and make a bunch of money and their great guys. That lent itself to shoot when we were at Alabama. You're in the same room with Jalen Hertz, Tuatanga Viloa, and Mack Jones. Everybody was at a different stage. Everybody was working on their craft.

Now all three of them are starting in the NFL and doing their thing. So you can recruit that room and you can get guys to understand. It's not about just getting on the field and playing. It's when you get your opportunity to play great. Mark Sanchez was a one-year starter for us at USC. was the fifth pick of the draft.

Mack Jones was a one-year starter for us at Alabama, was a first-round pick for New England. And both guys were first-year starters in the NFL. We felt like we prepared them to play in the NFL, and they only needed one year to go do it. And both those guys were championship quarterbacks in college. So that's kind of what we preach here. You know, we've got a great room.

You know, it's a talented room with Quinn, with Arch, with Malik Murphy. All those guys are going to have aspirations of playing in the NFL. our job is to have them have a great experience while they're here, be part of championship teams, and then put them in position to fulfill their dreams of playing in the NFL. With the new landscape of college football and the way the NIL deals are going and the transfer portals essentially turning into free agency, those huge rooms, and like you're talking about USC and Alabama,

like how do you keep a talented quarterback room together and getting guys to believe, hey, all it takes is one year, when guys can just go off and go wherever they want to be starters right away. Yeah, with lots of things. I think that's always the challenge, right? At the end of the day, NIL deals are great. They are, and I think it's good for our sport. I really do.

I mean, guys are working their tails off and trying to, if they can use their name image and likeness to take advantage of who they are and get paid to do so, unbelievable. But the reality of it is, that money, compared to the money that's really going on in the NFL, and especially now more than ever, of where the money's going in the NFL with the game, guaranteed money and the free agency.

That's the real money. That's the real money to try to go attain and achieve. That's life-changing money that you have opportunities to go get. So do we try to create opportunities for our guys here from an NIL perspective? And is that part of the motivation to keep them? I hope not. I hope they want to be here because they want to be great. And they want to have a 10, 12-year career in the NFL and get three contracts.

And, you know, their kids never have to work again. Their kids never have to work again. Exactly. But if we're short-sided, and if the individual or the family short-sided on that, this probably is in the place for him anyway, quite frankly. When you deal with families from a recruiting standpoint, we all watched Archmanning. And I'm sure you get the question all the time. We all watch the entire family.

Yeah, the entire family. And he's not doing media. He took a very unique approach to his high school football and how he went about his business. Like, what was your process like recruiting him? Was it the whole family? because nowadays, like with NIL and all that, and you have to recruit an entire family, not just the player. You know, I couldn't, I tell his mom and dad all the time,

they did an unbelievable job raising him and in the process. I never, I never talked to Peyton. I never talked to Eli. I talked to Cupp. I talked to Ellen. I talked to Arch. I talked to Hyde. I talked to sister.

Like, it was about the family, truly the family. It wasn't about the Manning, brand. It was about archmanning and is this the best fit for him to go to school? Football-wise, academically, socially, the city of Austin. And I think that's why they got to a spot to where they could make a really kind of just clear-minded decision of what was best for him. And it wasn't this enormous media circus. I mean, they kept that thing pretty tight, but they went about it in a really positive way. They took unofficial visits. They took official visits. They created relationships with the coaches at the varying schools, and they're all great schools. Ultimately,

they felt like this was the best place for him. And I think it came down to what he wanted, and then the family supported them. That's awesome. I mean, it makes you feel like, like if you just had one year of eligibility to play quarterback, like this could be a guy. You see why guys gravitate towards wanting to play. Absolutely. Speaking of recruiting, you've been, you've mentioned the talent rooms at USC, Alabama, here now. What's a, what's a unique recruiting story that you have back in the day to where guys had an incredible career that you look back on and they might have had the most interesting recruiting story from your time on the road. This is always the toughest one, man.

I always remember one story. We were in Gatson City, Alabama, and I was an assistant coach at USC. And we were recruiting, man, I want to say it might have been Drake or Patrick. or I can't remember there was there's some kids there and there's a lot of, a lot of coaches there. And I were meeting this young coach and he was talking really fast and I'm trying to figure out like, what is this guy's name, you know? And then Coach Carroll met him. And I circle back and I said, hey, can I get your card?

Because I wanted to know his name. Come to find out, it was Davos Sweeney. And he was a young coach. He was a young coach at Clemson like almost 20 years ago now. And we were all there, you know, recruiting the same. same guys at Alabama, but man, he was a fast talker. And Davvo and I have a great relationship now. But that one was funny to me to think like everybody's on this journey and this path. And we all started somewhere, right? And we were both young coaches, assistant coaches,

just trying to go recruit good players for our head coach and our programs. And I remember talking, man, this dude, dabble honey? And I was like, what? This guy just tell me his name was. You know, can I get your card? You know, and I joke with them about it now. Like, hey, oh, okay, Davos Sweeney. Like, remember that time back in Alabama? It's had a pretty good career so far now. You guys won a couple national. How painful is that, JP? JP, he's a South Carolina game cock. Oh, man.

Talk highly of him. Hey, he's doing a good job, man. That's good. That's doing a great job right there. When you were in Alabama before you were here, correct? Yes, sir. So when you are obviously having the talent you are, the type of coach that you've become, you obviously had a lot of offers out there to go to different universities.

What about Texas was such a selling point for you? Yeah, I mean, I think it got to a point at the end of my first. first year at Alabama, I had gotten a couple job offers. And at that point, it was, okay, I'm going to be a head coach again. Let's make sure it's right. Because I don't know if I'm going to get another opportunity after that one. So we got to make sure this is the right one. And coached another year at Alabama when Texas ultimately called, and you think about as a kid when I was growing up, right? First of all, the uniforms. Like the helmets, like to me, those were iconic helmets. and uniforms. And I had a, when I was a kid, I had a, remember the Sports Illustrated posters?

So did a edition? Yeah. Oh, not those ones. Okay. So, my bad. The posters, but yeah. I had, I had the poster of Earl Campbell above my bed playing for the Houston Oilers. Like, it was Earl Campbell, okay?

So then you fast forward, Ricky Williams. I'm like, he was a California kid coming to Texas. I was like, wow, you know, they never come to California, you know? and there's Ricky goes and wins the Heisman trophy. And then all of a sudden, I'm on the other sideline when Vince Young beats USC. I'm calling plays for USC in that game. And I'm watching what I thought was Superman and the confetti come down. So I've always held Texas football in very high regard.

And then you start doing the research. You start looking at the value of the education. You start looking at what's happening in the city of Austin. You start looking at recruitability and the recruiting base. in the state of Texas, and then the national brand, the ability to go national and to do that. And then having known Chris Del Coney, the athletic director, and then getting to meet President Hartzell, it just felt right. And then the last piece to the puzzle that I always hold on to, it's like it's a lot easier to win championships when they've won them before. And this place

has won them before. And naturally, hey, there was a decade there where it wasn't Texas like what everybody thought it was. Shoot, but when Pete Carroll got hired by USC, there was about a decade of mediocrity before they went on that run. Before Nick Saban went to Alabama, there was about a decade of mediocrity. So all the blue-blooded programs at times can fall on some hard times, but they're a lot easier and a lot quicker to get back on track because of the history and tradition. You hear that Nebraska fans before Matt Ruh was brought to Nebraska, a decade of losing. The good times are coming. We have one last question. I see. I see we have one last question.

It's called fact or fiction. That's a segment. Taylor, get it out. Get it out. We're going to show you a photo and you're basically going to express your opinion if it's fact or fiction. Taylor, show the camera the photo and then show him the photo. I can't see it. Fact.

You have over here. Fact. It says the greatest rivalry in college football. Fact. 96,000 fans. There is a game played in the third week of November. I think it's called the game. It's called the game.

Yeah. Between Ohio State and Michigan, widely known as the greatest rivalry in sports. So how is what I just said fact, yet that is fact. But, you know, honestly, I was, before you said that, I was like, man, the Iron Bowl,

that was a pretty good rivalry. Yeah, I would probably be second. I think they're top five. And then you guys, like Nebraska, Iowa, I think's up there. So that's number two. Are you serious? Yeah.

Right, right behind. Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa. And then probably, You're right, the Iron Bowl. I was going to give you guys top three, but you kind of just talked yourself out of that. No. I think he's saying his list is red of a rivalry, iron ball.

Yeah, clearly, one. I think that's what he's saying. You're saying, the game is three? Which game? The game. Oh. He's got us playing his game now. He goes which game.

He knew the game. He's got us in a blender for us. He's got us in a blender right now. Would you put USC, UCLA over Ohio State Michigan? Say yes. Probably because of proximity, you know, the mileage, proximity. how tight how close the schools are you think about how many people you have to pass to get from one place to the other though it's probably way more people so technically it seems farther away

and LA traffic it's a hell of a deal yeah so I feel like I feel like there's a I feel like he's he's really flipped the script well great game though I watch it when I can listen if it was if it was two years ago I'd have probably given you it but Michigan we've won two in a row so they're both yeah phenomenal and I will say this that's what makes rivalries great right Yeah. The great thing about yours, too, is it's early in the year. I feel like there's like a, you know when that week's on, right? The sunshine. The setting is amazing, right? You mean, you go, you go to Dallas. You're at the state fair. The stadium is split 50-50 right down the middle. The locker rooms, when you come out, you're about 10 yards apart. Both teams are right there. It's at the old Cotton Bowl. You know, we're not in Jerry's world yet. You know, you're on the grass. Like in, it's a really cool setting, man. It's something that I have never experienced. in a game like that where the fans are split 50-50. And they're not split. They're split at the 50-yard line.

So in one end of the field, it's a home game. You get to the other end of the field, it's a road game. And I mean that. I had to learn that the first year. I mean, we were false starting. I'm like, what is going on? Yeah. We were stuck in their end of the field.

And that ultimately kind of spun the game there in the fourth quarter. And you said it, you said it quickly, but for everybody watching, the Texas State Fair is taking very serious in the state of Texas. Yes, it is. Very serious, but, dude, we thank you for your time. This was awesome. Appreciate you guys, man. I hope you had as much fun as we did. No, it was a blast.

Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Subscribe. Texas fans. Subscribe to the boys. Please God. We need this.

Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an Acapella band with their between songs. banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for

banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.