"That was one mistake in my career" - When Texas HC Steve Sarkisian admitted his regret at leaving Washington

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is one of the most highly regarded coaches in college football, having led the Longhorns to the college football playoffs semifinals two seasons in a row. That said, Sarkisian's coaching career has been anything but straightforward; there have been several ups and downs.

During a 2024 interview on the "Pivot" podcast, the Texas coach revealed that he got into coaching after being a graduate assistant under Pete Carroll at USC, which gave him a pathway into college football. He also talked about the biggest mistake that he made during that journey - returning from Washington to Southern California.

"First of all, I've been lucky," Steve Sarkisian said. "Early in my career, I was coaching at junior college and Pete Carroll offers me to be a graduate assistant at USC when he just got the job and Pete really became my mentor. I worked for him for seven years. Shot, at 34 I was the coach at the University of Washington but I took that job when they were 0-12 the year before and I was like, 'I'm gonna try and build this place." [8:00]

"I always wanted to go to U-W when I was coming out of high school but they didn't offer me. We did it for five years. USC called and I went back and probably that was the one mistake in my career because I didn't realize what I was building. I didn't recognize it. My eyes were too far down the road rather than being where my feet were and in the end, coach Peterson comes in and two years later they are in the college football playoffs with a lot of those kids that we had recruited."

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Steve Sarkisian's long-winding USC career

Steve Sarkisian was hired as a graduate assistant to coach Pete Carroll's USC Trojans staff in 2003. He was promoted to quarterback's coach (2002-2003) before taking the Oakland Raiders job in the same capacity.

He returned to USC in 2005 as an assistant coach, and was promoted to the offensive coordinator's position in 2007 when Lane Kiffin took the Raiders' head coaching job. In 2008, Sarkisian took the Washington Huskies head coaching job.

He stayed at the job for five years before returning to Southern California in 2013 as the head coach. Sarkisian lasted until 2015 when he was fired for attending training while intoxicated, and for being drunk during a game against the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Steve Sarkisian began his long journey back to becoming a head coach when he was hired to be an analyst for the Alabama Crimson Tide and later offensive coordinator by Nick Saban in 2016.