Texas never worried about Steve Sarkisian and Alabama, says Longhorns AD Chris Del Conte
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said Saturday that the administration chose to extend head football coach Steve Sarkisian’s contract four more years to ensure continuity and added he was “never worried” Sarkisian might leave for Alabama.
“I felt at the end of the day, we wanted to make sure we have continuity with our staff,” Del Conte told the American-Statesman. “That’s the most important thing. That’s what we’ve been working on for the last week.”
Del Conte said he began negotiations with Sarkisian even before Texas played Washington in the Sugar Bowl in the Longhorns’ first College Football Playoff appearance ever, a 37-31 loss on Jan. 1.
The extension assures Sarkisian is under contract through the 2030 season. Del Conte declined to release the salary raise until the Board of Regents approves it at its next meeting Feb. 21-22 unless a special meeting is called. Sarkisian currently makes $5.6 million a year, which ranks 30th among all FBS coaches, but is expected to get a huge bump.
Sarkisian has a 25-14 record in his first three seasons at Texas and finished this past season as the No. 3 team in the country in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Longhorns’ highest final ranking since 2009.
“The length of the contract allows him and our staff and shows that we’re committed to each other,” Del Conte said. “That was a big part of the equation.”
While there was much speculation about Sarkisian as a potential candidate to replace Nick Saban at Alabama after the seven-time national championship-winning coach retired on Wednesday, Del Conte discounted the talk. He and Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne are close friends and spoke during the week about the Crimson Tide’s search for a successor. Alabama hired Washington’s Kalen DeBoer on Friday.
“I was never worried,” Del Conte said. “That was never a worry to me at all because Steve is committed to the University of Texas. We knew that going in. That was just noise. We knew he was our guy, and that was never really a topic of discussion. I was in the catbird seat, smiling.”
Del Conte added that Sarkisian hasn’t told him any specific names that he's considering to replace defensive line coach Bo Davis, who resigned this week to take a similar job at LSU.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football was 'never worried' about Alabama pursuing Sarkisian
