{"id":31186,"date":"2025-11-01T21:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T21:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/31186\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T21:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T21:04:09","slug":"texas-ad-mad-about-report-alleging-steve-sarkisian-nfl-flirtation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/31186\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas AD mad about report alleging Steve Sarkisian NFL flirtation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas vice president and athletics director Chris Del Conte blasted the report that stated Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian had interest in potential NFL head coaching jobs<\/a>, saying it had \u201cno truth\u201d and acknowledging that Sarkisian was upset by it during an appearance on \u201cThe Paul Finebaum Show\u201d on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 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\u2019re trying to play a game that evening, and a story that had no merit,\u201d Del Conte said during his interview, according to On3.com<\/a>. \u201cThen, when it\u2019s \u2018retracted\u2019 by saying, \u2018I didn\u2019t hear it from his agent\u2019 or \u2018I didn\u2019t hear it from Steve, but I heard it from somebody,\u2019 that\u2019s just the world we live in today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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\u2019s played out on social media and every outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Del Conte walks off the field after Texas\u2019 game against Sam Houston State on Sept. 20. AP<\/p>\n

Sarkisian\u2019s name has been involved in NFL rumors before, and after guiding Texas to a second consecutive appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinals last year, he received an extension<\/a> from the university to temporarily quiet everything.<\/p>\n

He also previously coached in the NFL, too \u2014 serving as the Raiders\u2019 quarterbacks coach under Norv Turner in 2004 and then as the Falcons\u2019 offense coordinator for two seasons in 2017 and \u201818.<\/p>\n

But amid No. 20 the Longhorns\u2019 7-2 start to the season, The Athletic reported that Sarkisian had interest in jobs that could open up, but Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz \u2014 his agents at Creative Artists Agency \u2014 put out a statement calling the report \u201cpatently false and wildly inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Sarkisian is pictured before Texas\u2019 game against Vanderbilt on Nov. 1. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Del Conte called it \u201cflattering that NFL teams would be talking about him,\u201d but Sarkisian, after the Longhorns defeated Mississippi State, said it \u201creally pisses me off\u201d \u2014 and added he needed to \u201cprotect my locker room and my team,\u201d according to Awful Announcing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was completely unprofessional of that person to put that report out,\u201d Sarkisian said in his postgame press conference last week. \u201cAnd the fact that everybody ran with it is borderline embarrassing for the media. And I respect what you guys do. I really do, and everybody else. But the fact that everybody ran that is truth is really embarrassing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steve Sarkisian celebrates with Chris Del Conte after Texas defeated Oklahoma on Oct. 11. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019ve got a small circle when I make decisions on what I do and what I don\u2019t do, and nobody would speak on my behalf without me knowing. And so, where that report came from, I\u2019d love to talk to that person because it\u2019s absolutely ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas defeated No. 9 Vanderbilt, 34-31, on Saturday behind Arch Manning\u2019s 328 passing yards and three touchdowns, and they\u2019ll travel to face No. 5 Georgia on Nov. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas vice president and athletics director Chris Del Conte blasted the report that stated Longhorns head coach Steve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[261,154,3231,27,29,537,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-31186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-steve-sarkisian","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-longhorns","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}