Steve Sarkisian Downplays Significance of Texas-Alabama Matchup

Texas’s meeting against No. 1 Alabama on Saturday is the marquee matchup of the weekend, and a big opportunity for Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian to earn a huge statement victory and square off against his former boss. But as game week preparations get underway, Sarkisian was quick to minimize those story lines despite the clear intrigue from outside the program.

“It’s one game, you know?” Sarkisian said on Monday, per ESPN’s Dave Wilson. “It’s a chance for us to do what we love to do. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is [thinking] this is going to be the game that’s going to define our program. It might, it might not. I’m not that concerned about it.”

Sarkisian went 5–7 last year in his first season in Austin, though the Longhorns scored a 52–10 victory over UL Monroe in Week 1. As the hype for Saturday’s game continues to ramp up, though, Sarkisian stressed focusing on bigger-picture goals for the season.

“All along, my goal is to be in Dallas on Dec. 3,” Sarkisian said in reference to the Big 12 title game.. “This game has no impact on that. … I want to play really well. I want to make sure that our guys play our style of football, our brand of football and do it the way I know we’re capable of doing it.”

After being fired midseason by USC in 2015, Sarkisian joined Nick Saban’s Alabama staff as an offensive analyst before becoming the offensive coordinator for the Falcons. He returned to the Crimson Tide in 2019 as the OC, helping lead the program to the national title in ’20 before taking the Texas job.

Sarkisian was asked about facing off against his former boss, who has a long history of success against former assistants. Sarkisian went through something similar when he was the head coach at Washington facing off against his old mentor, Pete Carroll, at USC.

“Very similar scenario,” Sarkisian said. “I worked for Pete Carroll for seven years and had a great respect for what he did and what we were able to do in our time there. I think it was buying into the idea of what the game plan was, and where we needed to be from a psyche standpoint.”

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