A report from NFL insider Dianna Russini of The Athletic angered Texas college football head coach Steve Sarkisian and his agents on Saturday, and she offered her thoughts about it during a series of interviews on Tuesday.
To recap, Russini reported on Saturday morning that representatives for Sarkisian “have let NFL decision-makers know that he would be interested in potential head-coaching openings, including the (Tennessee) Titans’.”
Sarkisian’s agents, Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz of CAA, proceeded to release 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.”
And on Saturday night, Sarkisian addressed the report and the national story that it turned into during a postgame press conference. Sarkisian said that it “really pissed [him] off,” called it “absolutely ridiculous,” and added that Russini’s reporting was “completely unprofessional.”
Well, on Tuesday, Russini made the media rounds and offered her thoughts on how Sarkisian and his agents reacted to her report.
Russini appeared on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and was asked, “Isn’t that a good thing if there are rumors out there about him wanting to go to the NFL?”
“No, it’s horrible,” Russini responded. “When you’re the head coach of Texas, and you’ve got recruits visiting, and it’s gameday, and you got NIL, and just all the weird landscape of college now that goes with this. You’re right. Like, years ago, who cares? Steve Sarkisian wants to be an NFL coach. Not breaking news, right? Most college coaches want to coach in the NFL. But in 2025, there are just so many different factors. With the portal, players wanting to maybe leave if they don’t trust that their coach is going to be there. There are a lot of layers.”
“And they have every right to be mad,” Russini added. “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.”
Russini also addressed the situation on Maggie and Perloff.
“There’s a million reasons why a program does not want anyone to ever know anything except that Steve Sarkisian wants to be the head coach of Texas for a very long time,” Russini said. “Those words were never said. Right? CAA never said it. Steve Sarkisian never said it. I wanted to hear them say that. They never did.”
“Now, that being said, most college coaches want to coach in the NFL,” Russini continued. “At a time where the college landscape is really difficult to navigate, and there is a lot of unknown, I think it makes all the sense in the world to always have options. Right? The problem is, nobody wants the world to know that you’re always looking just in case.”
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.