Steve Sarkisian: 5 things to know about potential South Carolina football coach
With the Will Muschamp era officially over in Columbia, Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is being widely mentioned as a possible candidate to be South Carolina’s next head coach. Here are five things to know about Sarkisian:
He’s coached under the best
Sarkisian’s resume — at least on paper — stacks up favorably against every other possible candidate. He’s learned under the tutelage of two of the game’s most renowned coaches in Pete Carroll and, most recently, Nick Saban.
He joined Carroll’s Southern California staff as a graduate assistant in 2001, working alongside current Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin before ascending to the role of offensive coordinator in 2007.
In 2009, Sarkisian took a head coaching job at Pac-12 rival Washington and led the Huskies to four bowl games in five years before returning to Southern Cal as head coach in 2014. Southern Cal fired Sarkisian a year later.
In the subsequent years, he has worked as an offensive coordinator for both Saban in Alabama and the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL. Sarkisian has posted a 46-35 career record as a head coach and has a reputation for being an offensive guru.
The blemish on his resume
A public battle with alcoholism led to Sarkisian’s firing as the Trojans’ head coach in 2015. In August of that year, an allegedly drunk Sarkisian made a profanity-laced speech at a donor event. Two months later, Southern Cal fired Sarkisian after he reported to practice while intoxicated.
A player told ESPN via text that Sarkisian “showed up lit to meetings again today.” Another source said he showed up and “appeared not normal,” then was told to leave. Yet another source told ESPN that Sarkisian “needed to hit rock bottom” to face his addiction.
Sarkisian was also going through a headline-grabbing divorce in 2015.
“It breaks my heart to see how this has gone,” Carroll said at the time. “But he recognizes it and he’s going to do something about it, so this is the day the turn occurs.
“I’m grateful for everybody around him that he’s finally figured it out. ... This is going to take a long time. This is a big battle, and we’ll pull for him all the way.”
‘Sark Nowadays’
While Sarkisian might face questions for his 2015 firing, there’s evidence he has grown from that experience.
In a recent ESPN feature, Kiffin said he calls Sarkisian “Sark Nowadays,” and “Sark Nowadays doesn’t yell so much. The fire’s still there, but he has mellowed. His blood pressure is a little lower.”
While with the Falcons in 2017, Sarkisian discussed his battle with alcoholism with the media, saying it is “something I have to work on every single day, and I do work on it every single day.”
He has already received head coaching interest
Though Sarkisian hasn’t been a head coach since 2015, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had opportunities. Colorado was prepared to hand Sarkisian the head-coaching reins in February before he withdrew his name from consideration, citing his desire to stay with Saban and Alabama.
That desire was mutual, as Saban and the Crimson Tide signed him to a three-year extension with a $2.5 million annual salary. When Saban tested positive for COVID-19 and was in danger of missing a game against Georgia, Sarkisian was the Alabama assistant chosen for an expanded role.
Sarkisian childhood and playing days
Sarkisian was born in Torrance, California in 1974. His father was born in Armenia, raised in Iran and immigrated to America when he was 18. Sarkisian’s mother is of Irish-American descent.
He began his college athletics career playing baseball at Southern Cal before switching sports to football and eventually landing with the Brigham Young football team as a quarterback. Sarkisian played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League for three seasons before beginning his coaching career.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Steve Sarkisian: 5 things to know about potential South Carolina football coach."
