"Every day that dude challenged me": Bijan Robinson reveals Steve Sarkisian's sheer commitment towards Texas Longhorns program

Steve Sarkisian has been the face of the Texas Longhorns ever since he joined the program as head coach in 2021. The team made the playoffs multiple times and got itself close to winning a national championship ticket.

Sarkisian's intensive training schemes and ability to put the right players in the right places make him an exception. Former Texas RB and current Atlanta Falcons RB Bijan Robinson has been quite vocal about his former coach during an exclusive interview for College Colors Day.

Robinson mentioned that Sarkisian was quite hard on him during his third year at the university. Since Robinson was the senior member in the offensive scheme, other players listened to him and followed his trail; this made him a primary target for Sarkisian in 2022.

“Just understanding everything, understanding the whole offense, what everybody's doing on the field," Robinson said about Sarkisian’s analyzing ability (per inkl). "Seeing it at every single level—first, second, third level of defenses. He's such an offensive mind, but for his players, he wants to us to overachieve, because that's the goal he's set.”

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Robinson’s commitment reaped him great success as he won the Doak Walker award in the final year and finished eighth in that season’s Heisman class voting. Moreover, he also became a unanimous All-American and got drafted with the No. 8 pick in the 2023 NFL draft.

“Every day that dude challenged me. It would be some practices where if I just learned (something) and got it wrong, he would get on me, because he knew the expectation, and he knew (that I was) the leader of that team, and with everybody following my lead and seeing how I handle things,” Robinson added.

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Steve Sarkisian had a gloomy start to the 2025 season

The Texas Longhorns entered 2025 in hopes of setting a perfect record, especially with Arch Manning at the helm. Apparently, that didn't go as expected.

During the first matchup against Ryan Day's Ohio State at Horseshoe, Sarkisian and Co. stumbled big time with a 14-7 loss. They could never assert pressure on Ohio State throughout the game.

Even though it appears to be a low-scoring matchup, it was a lopsided game. Ohio State's defense under Matt Patricia crushed Arch Manning's offensive run. Texas struggled to make plays and finally crumbled with just one touchdown in the fourth quarter. They will next play SJSU on September 6 at home.