Steve Sarkisian makes emphatic statement on his future with the Texas Longhorns program as rumors continue to circulate

Steve Sarkisian shuts down rumors of a move to the NFL for him and doubles down on his commitment to the Texas Longhorns

Travis May — College Football Managing Editor
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Steve Sarkisian is absolutely done with all of the nonsense. He made that much very clear when meeting with SEC media on Wednesday. He wasn’t referring to the on-field results for his Texas Longhorns – although it was disappointing to lose to Georgia last weekend. He was once again addressing the ridiculous rumors that continue to circulate about him possibly leaving the Texas Longhorns program.

Steve Sarkisian shuts down rumors of him leaving Texas with emphatic statement to SEC media

For those unfamiliar, Dianna Russini initially reported that Steve Sarkisian was in the mix for potential NFL head coaching openings. Not only that, but there were multiple reports that Sarkisian himself, or at least some form of his representation, had reached out specifically to NFL decision-makers to let them know he would be interested.

Sarkisian shut that down from day one, immediately following the initial reports. However, that hasn’t stopped various members of the press from repeating and running with this alleged interest when it comes to Sarkisian and his future with the Texas program (even up through this week, following the Texas loss to Georgia). Sarkisian had clearly seen enough of that, so before questions even began, before he even addressed his Texas team with SEC media Wednesday, he once again shut those rumors down:

“I’d like to comment on something before I get into our team, something that is has been bothering me now over the past few weeks, and that is people reporting that or insinuating that there’s a possibility I could lead the University of Texas, and that is absolutely false and untrue. I’m not going anywhere. Never do I do this because I never want to be a distraction, so I never address these things. But at this point now I feel like that is important that I do do this, because it’s important for our team. It’s important for our university. I’ve had no discussions, not with my agent, not with the university, not with any other school, not with any NFL team, about ever going anywhere else.”

Those who continue to report and allege that Steve Sarkisian could still have NFL interest don’t seem to have the Texas Longhorns’ best interests at heart. Steve Sarkisian essentially said as much after he hammered home why he came to Texas, and why he’s certainly not planning on going anywhere. He even hilariously gave instructions to anyone who might still have questions on this:

“I came here to win championships. I’ve got two kids enrolled at the University of Texas, one in-law on our team. I’ve got a third that hopefully decides to enroll at the University of Texas next fall. And my wife and I just had our son here in Austin. This is our home. We came here to win championships. We’ve built a damn good football program…We’ve been to two college football playoffs. We won a Big 12 championship. We went to the SEC Championship game in year one. We’ve had 23 players drafted the last two years, which is more than any other school in the country. And our team GPA is at an all time high. So can we please stop putting things out there that you have absolutely zero evidence on? And then can we please stop retweeting, putting it back out there as if it’s true, as if it’s the gospel. It is not true.”

“If you have a question about my future, call me or call Chris Del Conte, our athletic director, and we can set the record straight for you. So everybody understands, moving forward, when some “Joe Blow” decides to put something on social media out there, we all don’t run with it like it’s the gospel. Can we all agree on that on this call? And if you have a question about my future with the University of Texas, ask me on one of these calls, ask Chris Del Conte. He’ll be more than happy to take your call so that we can set the record straight, so we can focus on our football team, which is really what we should be doing. Everybody good with that?”

It was quite the hilarious and emphatic statement overall from Sarkisian, who is simply focused on getting the most out of his Texas Longhorns team right now. And to answer your question there at the end Mr. Sarkisian, “Yes, we can stop talking about you leaving Texas for the NFL – something you apparently we were not ever interested in, or took any action towards.”

There, now that much has been said, one more thing must be addressed. Sarkisian went on to mention this as a possible source of the problem, but teams plant this kind of false information all the time in an effort to hurt recruiting and the standing of opposing head coaches. It seems that may have been the case here too.

Dianna Russini was not the only reporter who was told about Steve Sarkisian’s alleged interest in the NFL. In fact, sources told A to Z Sports beat writers about the alleged (now proven false) interest way back in September, a full month before the initial public reporting was done on this. Why was it not reported earlier (and by us) then? Simply put, our staff, like many others privy to these rumors before they surfaced widely, were a bit skeptical to the validity of the reports. On top of that, when good journalists get information from notably reliable sources (which was the case here), they still weigh the benefits of even running with that information.

All Steve Sarkisian is doing here is simply asking journalists to not run with something as fact when they can’t independently verify it for themselves. That’s exactly what A to Z Sports and many other media entities did with this in the first place. That’s what more journalists should do in every case moving forward.

Regardless, it seems this chapter of rumors and speculation surrounding Steve Sarkisian’s immediate future can most certainly be put to rest. He is staying with the Texas Longhorns and is completely committed to winning national championships right where he is. It doesn’t seem that’s going to be a possibility this season, but Texas fans can rest easy knowing they still have their guy.

We’ll be back with more Texas Longhorns coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

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