Texas HC Steve Sarkisian admits he’s fascinated by North Carolina hiring longtime NFL coach Bill Belichick
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian admitted earlier this year that he went around talking to various NFL personnel asking for input. How do you manage a longer season? How do you handle bye weeks? How do you prepare for the playoffs? One of those NFL people Sarkisian visited with was Bill Belichick. “I actually had a […]
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian admitted earlier this year that he went around talking to various NFL personnel asking for input. How do you manage a longer season? How do you handle bye weeks? How do you prepare for the playoffs?
One of those NFL people Sarkisian visited with was Bill Belichick.
“I actually had a couple conversations with him this offseason about our schedule,” Sarkisian said on the Rich Eisen Show on Thursday. “I was trying to pick his brain on that. I had no idea that he’d be coming our way into the college game.”
Sarkisian said everyone in the Texas football building believes the idea of the NFL’s greatest coach working in college is “fascinating.” Belichick was introduced as North Carolina’s new coach during a press conference Thursday in Chapel Hill. Safe to say the football world was riveted.
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How will Belichick coach 18- to 22-year-olds? How will he handle recruiting? How will he handle Mom and Dad? What about the transfer portal? It is fascinating, for sure.
It’s certainly a two-way street with Sarkisian and the NFL. First, he was the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator for two years before going to Alabama. And at Texas, he designed a play that featured a double fake motion before an end-around to Isaiah Bond against Florida. That play got so much attention, the Kansas City Chiefs copied it during a Sunday night game.
NFL coaches clearly watch the Longhorns, a longtime blue-blood program that produces NFL talent. And Sarkisian is quizzing them for information that’ll help his program, too.
“Here's a guy that year after year after year had these long stretches of the season. The preseason, the regular season and year in and year out, they’re in the Super Bowl, the championship game and how he managed his team,” Sarkisian said of his talks with Belichick.
“You talk to a Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, guys now that have year in and year out been in those positions of how they manage the workloads of their roster and their team and how they practiced and got them ready to play. So that was the stuff I was trying to dig into to make sure that we were really in a good frame of mind physically, mentally, emotionally in December and I think it’s paid off for us.
Would Sarkisian have any advice for the Hoodie?
“Hire good recruiters,” Sarkisian said with a grin. “It’s not a draft, that’s for sure.”
