Just as the Texas Longhorns were preparing to play the Mississippi State Bulldogs last week, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that reps for head coach Steve Sarkisian were putting out feelers to NFL teams about his potential interest.
After Texas won the game in overtime, Sarkisian strongly denied the report, saying it “really pisses me off” and that there’s no one from his camp making those claims.
Sarkisian’s agents, Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz of CAA, also released a statement in response to Russini’s report: “Any reports regarding communications on coaching opportunities with NFL teams are patently false and wildly inaccurate. Sark is solely focused on coaching the University of Texas football team.”
On Friday, Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte addressed the situation from his perspective.
“For me, I was just frustrated because we were walking on the field before Mississippi State with our entire team when that story broke and you’re trying to play a game that evening, and a story that had no merit,” Del Conte said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “Then, when it’s ‘retracted’ by saying, ‘I didn’t hear it from his agent’ or ‘I didn’t hear it from Steve, but I heard it from somebody,’ that’s just the world we live in today.
“If you have a great relationship with your coach, you have a great relationship with your student-athletes, and you start to have these discussions, it is fine. But today, the noise becomes amplified because it’s played out on social media and every outlet.”
For her part, Russini has not retracted her reporting, though she did confirm that her sources were not Sark’s agents. She also said she understood why everyone involved was upset.
“They have every right to be mad,” Russini said on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “Unfortunately, they never added that Steve Sarkisian wants to stay at Texas, right? They just said, ‘This is not true; we did not talk to any NFL teams.'”
“And Jimmy Sexton and Steve Sarkisian, just to be clear, the reporting I did did not come from them,” Russini continued. “Like, Steve didn’t call me on Saturday morning and be like, ‘Hey, report this.’ So, I think, does Steve Sarkisian have thoughts about coaching in the NFL? Absolutely. We’ll just see how this goes the rest of the year. I think it’s totally fair and understanding to say that Steve Sarkisian is always going to keep his options. He should. He should. It would be smart business for Steve to always have options outside of Texas.”