Steve Sarkisian goes from BYU quarterback to Texas head coach to Shrine Bowl Hall of Famer
FRISCO — By any sort of measurement favored by NFL personnel, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian didn’t come out of BYU as a pro prospect at quarterback. Never mind his prolific two-year career with the Cougars; the 6-foot Sarkisian was too short, too slow and too lacking in arm strength to get drafted.
That description came from Sarkisian himself during his induction into the East-West Shrine Bowl Hall of Fame on Wednesday at the Star, where he joined former NFL All-Pro receiver Steve Smith as the two inductees for the class of 2024.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Sarkisian said. “Steve and I were talking earlier. We’re a couple of junior college kids from Los Angeles. Our path wasn’t the easiest. When you find your way on the journey of life, you find some success and then you find some adversity, but you keep persevering. And you find your way through to some of the accomplishments. When you have one like this, it takes you back a little bit and reminds you of what you went through to get to where we are today. It’s definitely pretty special.”
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Steve Sarkisian: From pick six to running a program
His participation in the 1997 East-West Shrine Bowl proved particularly special for Sarkisian, although it had nothing to do with his play on the field. In fact, his most memorable moment of the game helped earn most valuable player honors for Ohio State defensive lineman Matt Finkes.
“I throw a pick six to a defensive lineman in an all-star game,” Sarkisian said with a rueful grin and a shake of his head. “We call a screen and this guy (Finkes) jumps up and picks it and runs it for a touchdown. That was my highlight of the night, so clearly you can get admitted into the Hall of Fame for some other things than just how you played actually in that game.”
But the handful of snaps that Sarkisian shared with future NFL quarterbacks Pat Barnes and Jake Plummer that night didn’t matter nearly as much as the practices, meetings and interviews with the NFL personnel, Sarkisian said. Those coaches included Pete Carroll, the recently retired Seattle Seahawks coach who has long mentored Sarkisian.
After not getting drafted, Sarkisian spent three seasons in the Canadian Football League before beginning a two-decade coaching career that has had stops in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders and Atlanta Falcons as well as collegiate head coaching jobs at Washington, USC and Texas. That journey received a jolt in 2001 when Sarkisian left his first coaching job as the quarterbacks coach at El Camino College near his hometown of Torrance, Calif., to apply as a graduate assistant at USC.
Carroll, then the Trojans' head coach, recalled Sarkisian as an inquisitive quarterback during the Shrine Bowl practices and the 1997 NFL combine and hired him to join a fledgling college football dynasty.
“I walked into a man's office at USC to try to become a graduate assistant,” Sarkisian said. “His name was Pete Carroll, and he remembered me from the Shrine game. I got my foot in the door, and I got an opportunity to work with him for seven years. He's still a great mentor of mine, so you never know the people you meet along your journey and the impact that they can have on the rest of your life.”
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Building relationships as important as practice reps
That’s a message Sarkisian hopes all of his former players participating in this week’s East-West Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl in Alabama will receive. Texas cornerback Ryan Watts, defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat and offensive tackle Christian Jones will play in one of those two games this week, but relationships built during the week can mean as much to those players as any practice rep, Sarkisian said.
“You don't know what door can be opened by the way you treat somebody or by the effort you put forth in everything that you do,” he said. “Somebody is always watching, and that might have an impact on their opinion of you or maybe an opportunity that they can provide you down the road.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian enters Shrine Bowl Hall of Fame
