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Steve Sarkisian ready to coach against his alma mater, BYU, for just the second time

Steve Habelby: Steve Habel10/27/23stevehabel
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Steve Sarkisian (Mark A. Philbrick/BYU)

You don’t have to look hard on YouTube to find highlights of Steve Sarkisian working his magic as quarterback for BYU in 1995 and ’96. It’s a subject that’s come up often this week as Sarkisian prepares No. 7 Texas for its highly anticipated battle with the Cougars on Saturday at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

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It’s just the second time a team coached by Sarkisian will face his alma mater; the first was a season-opening setback to the Cougars in 2010 when he was the head man at Washington.

Sarkisian was asked this week if the game against BYU means a little more to him because he will be coaching against some of his former teammates and versus his former program.

“In the end, sure – but I want to beat them, too and I’m sure they want to beat me,” Sarkisian said. “So that’s the way it goes.”

Sarkisian was an All-American and a Sammy Baugh Trophy winner as the nation’s best quarterback in his two seasons in Provo. After spending his first two collegiate years at El Camino College in California, Sarkisian joined BYU and set a program passing record for completion percentage while throwing for 7,464 yards, 53 touchdowns and 26 interceptions in his two years with the Cougars.

The Cougars went 7-4 and earned a share of the WAC championship in 1995 when Sarkisian was a junior and but missed out on a bowl game invite for the first time in nearly 20 years.

BYU and Sarkisian were the toast of college football in 1996, going 13-1 in the regular season, good enough to earn a No. 5 ranking in the Associated Press poll and a berth opposite 14th-ranked Kansas State in the Cotton Bowl. Sarkisian even appeared on the cover of TV Guide’s Dec. 28, 1996 issue to promote the Cougars’ appearance in the prestigious bowl game.

“You know, (those are) some great memories,” Sarkisian said. “I will say that we had a heck of a team my senior year, and I had some awesome, awesome teammates and some great coaches.”

Sarkisian threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to help the Cougars grind out a 19-15 victory, allowing BYU to be the first NCAA Division IA team to win 14 games in a season.

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“Coach (LaVell) Edwards was a tremendous mentor of mine and instilled a lot of the things we do now,” Sarkisian added. “And to 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 at BYU, but also think back to those relationships.”

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