Steve Sarkisian reveals how he almost never took Texas job over one peculiar reason

Steve Sarkisian will be entering his fifth year as the Texas Longhorns' coach in the 2025 season. He has a 38-17 record in four years and led the team to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season. While there is an expectation for the Longhorns to win the national championship next year, Sarkisian recently revealed that he might have never taken up the Texas job for a bizarre reason.

Sarkisian appeared on the "3rd & Longhorn" podcast on Tuesday and recalled how he almost skipped the Texas job.

"I get offered the (Texas) job," Sarkisian said (3:29). "I said, 'I'll call you back, I'll let you know.' And like, I'm about an hour in, I haven't called back yet, you know? And we all know CDC (Texas AD Chris Del Conte), I'm getting text messages. He's calling, 'Are you getting cold feet? What the hell is going on?'

"And my wife (Loreal Smith) is like, 'what'?' kinda like, 'hang up?' And I'm just trying to wrap my brain around, mind you, I'm living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I'm trying to wrap my brain around another small college town. And in my mind, I have this vision of brown and tumbleweeds. Mind you, I've never been to Austin, Texas, a day in my life. The whole interview process was done over Zoom.

"So I'm thinking I'm going to Lubbock. She (Smith) Googles it. We're looking at it and I'm like, 'oh, hell.' I call CDC, I'm seeing, like, cars and traffic. I thought it was horse and buggy, so, boom, that was it. And so I take the job 10 days later, because I had to coach that game. Then we play for the national title. 10 days later, we win the national championship in Miami."

Steve Sarkisian was working as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama when he was offered the Texas coaching job. He was part of the Tide's coaching team when they won the national title in 2021.

Texas hired Sarkisian on Jan. 2, 2021. He was given a reported six-year, $34.2 million contract.

Steve Sarkisian signed a contract extension with Texas this offseason

Texas Longhorns HC Steve Sarkisian - Source: Imagn

Since Steve Sarkisian is doing a fine job at Texas, the program offered him a contract extension this offseason. The coach had initially signed a four-year extension in February 2024 and signed another one-year extension this offseason.

As things stand, Sarkisian is tied down to Texas through the 2031 season. The extension will also raise his salary from $10.4 million to $10.8 million this year.

Sarkisian is reportedly set to earn $12.3 million in 2031. However, the Longhorns have kept him at the helm in pursuit of a national title.

Sarkisian's Texas will open the 2025 season with a trip to face defending national champion Ohio State on Aug. 30.