Steve Sarkisian opens up on emotions of coaching against alma mater BYU
Saturday will represent an important game to Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian as his team will face off against his alma mater BYU. He said during his press conference Thursday there is a little extra to the game.
“Naturally in a week like this, you reminisce now and again,” Sarkisian said. “I get some of the bad videos sent to me of myself as a player. I jokingly said I would never have recruited myself after watching the way I play, but some great memories. I will say that.”
Sarkisian spent two years at BYU after transferring in from El Camino College in Torrence, Calif. He was the starting quarterback for both of those seasons.
In Sarkisian’s first year as the team’s starting quarterback, the Cougars went 7-4 on the campaign and finished with a share of the WAC conference title.
As a senior, Sarkisian won the WAC Offensive Player of the Year award and was named to the All-WAC first team as BYU had one of its best seasons under legendary head coach LaVell Edwards. The Cougars went 14-1 on the season — the first modern team to play 15 games — and won their final 12 games of the season as they finished as one of the top teams in the country. Sarkisian also won the Sammy Baugh Award.
Over his two years with BYU, Sarkisian threw for 7,464 yards with 53 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
After his time with the Cougars was up, Sarkisian played with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.
“We had a heck of a team my senior year, I had some awesome, awesome teammates and I had some great coaches,” Sarkisian said. “Coach Edwards was a tremendous mentor of mine and instilled a lot of the things we do now in me as a head coach with the players that we have on our team. I think to some of the great wins we had when I was there, but also think back to the relationships.”
This will be only the sixth all-time meeting between the Longhorns and the Cougars with BYU having won four of the previous five. The lone win for Texas came in a 17-16 nailbitter back in September 2011. The Cougars won the matchups in 1987, 1988, 2013 and 2014.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake and Sarkisian never overlapped with the Cougars. Sitake was his two-year mission during Sarkisian’s two seasons on campus. But the two do have a great relationship.
“My relationship with Kalani is one that I cherish. We definitely talk and share ideas and thoughts and different things. This isn’t just since my time here. This has been going on here for the last couple of decades,” Sarkisian said. “But I want to beat ’em and I’m sure they want to beat me too. That’s the way it goes.”