Did Steve Sarkisian entertain NFL offers this offseason? What the Texas football coach said
Steve Sarkisian took the head coaching job at Texas football to win national championships, he said.
Reporting this January indicated he turned down NFL coaching opportunities, choosing instead to persist in his attempts to see that goal through.
Made available to local media for the first time since the end of the 2024 season on Monday, Sarkisian was asked what made him decide against entertaining those NFL organizations.
“We’ve got a lot of unfinished business,” he said. “So I wasn’t entertaining anything that was beyond making sure that I had a really good job here, and I could solidify the job here, and I could hire the best people I could here, and I could recruit the best players I could here.”
Sarkisian holds a 38-17 record as the coach of the Longhorns, and has brought Texas to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff in each of the last two seasons.He received a raise this offseason for the second successive year. His new contract runs through 2031, and will pay him $10.8 million in guaranteed compensation in 2025. His pay is scheduled to escalate by $250,000 annually. Texas also added three additional full-time assistant coaches to bolster Sarkisian’s support staff.
Sarkisian said he’s proud of the work he’s done while at Texas, but feels the “mission is not complete.”
“I didn’t ever want to be a program that was a one-hit wonder, that was able to do it one year and then just fall off,” Sarkisian said. “I think we’ve built this thing in a way that we’ve been consistently growing.”
The Longhorns are the second-favorites to win the 2025 national championship behind only Ohio State, according to BetMGM odds.
Texas football injury updates: Players set to miss out on spring practice
Sarkisian confirmed that the Longhorns will begin their scheduled slate of 15 spring practices on March 26.
Some key Longhorns won’t be full participants, he said.
Edge rusher Colton Vasek and wide receiver DeAndre Moore are among that group. So is defensive back Derek Williams Jr., who had season-ending knee surgery in October.
The same is true of running back CJ Baxter, who missed all of the 2024 campaign after suffering an ACL injury during preseason practice
Sarkisian said he didn’t have a timeline on when Baxter might be fully ready to go. As a freshman, the former five-star recruit racked up 659 rushing yards and 156 receiving yards, finding the end zone five times.
“One thing we’re learning about ACLs is that a guy can feel comfortable and look comfortable, but we’ve got to be mindful of the re-injury,” Sarkisian said.
The Texas coach used former Longhorns running back Jonathon Brooks to illustrate that point. Brooks tore his ACL while playing for the Longhorns in November of 2023, then tore the same ligament with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers last December.
“We’re not in a rush,” Sarkisian said of Baxter’s outlook. “I’m not trying to roll the ball out there and make him carry the ball in spring ball. I’ve got all the way until Aug. 30.