How Sarkisian, Texas continue to build a winning culture that transcends football

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Conversations in the Texas locker room run much deeper than football, and that’s a big reason why the Longhorns have excelled on the gridiron this season.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian said Saturday that part of rebuilding the culture at Texas was becoming vulnerable, both for him and the players. It was about opening up to each other, speaking earnestly and honestly while developing deep, personal connections. With all Sarkisian has been through in his head coaching career in all the highs and lows, he said the first person to open up had to be him.

“We needed to get honest with one another so that we played more for one another than
playing for ourselves,” he said. “And to do that, it just felt like it was important for me to show them how and what that looked like. And so I became very open, transparent, honest.”

He tells the team his story every season. How he revitalized a Washington program, the one he faces in the Sugar Bowl on Monday, after a 0-12 season to his time in rehab for alcohol abuse following his firing halfway through his second season at Southern California in 2015. Sarkisian’s seven-year absence from head coaching included two stints at Alabama, bookending a job in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons, and that second go-round with the Crimson Tide that included a life-saving open-heart surgery eventually becoming his springboard to Austin and a second chance at not just football, but life.

Sarkisian said he wants to make sure his players know the real him so they can not just reciprocate it, but share those feelings with the rest of the team.

“I wanted them to judge me for who I was,” he said. “That’s why I’ve always given my story every year. I tell them exactly my store, where I’m from, how I was raised, where I went to school, where I worked, why I went to rehab, all the things that have transpired in my life to get me to this point so that they could get to know Steve [Sarkisian], the man, as well as the coach.”

Senior defensive back Jahdae Barron said that approach is what kept him at Texas after Tom Herman was fired and Sarkisian was brought in.

“It was just the connection I built off the field with him, knowing I can trust him off the field,” he said. “It’s easy to trust him off the field with my life and everything and how everything’s playing out for me.”

Barron said “Culture Wednesdays” during summer workouts was where it all began. It was a time when the team shared stories about their lives — where they were from, how they grew up, what challenges they’ve faced, how they overcame them — and building that rapport and bond with each other was the team taking the next step.

“Sometimes it was tough to get through some of them, some of the talks with your brother,
but it always helped us get here right now with the connection that we have,” Barron said. “It always helped us evolve as a family and as a brotherhood. Even with the coaches, assistant coaches, to everybody, we were always involved and we always felt connected as one, knowing what somebody went through off the field.”

Sarkisian is a firm believer that culture is almost like a living organism — it’s something that “grows naturally,” as he put it. It’s organic, and it’s built molecule by molecule consistently.

“We take our time with it,” he said. “We literally do it every single week. We find different topics and different things to talk about. And I really appreciate our players and our staff for buying into that idea.”

How does that translate to the field? It’s all about trusting the guy next to you, the same person you’ve opened up to the Wednesday before game day, and knowing they’ll do their job so you can do yours.

“I believe that it equates to getting a fourth-down stop against Kansas State,” Sarkisian said. “I believe it relates to a third and 12 conversion against TCU. I believe it relates to a fourth-and-1 stop against Houston. In those tough moments, you can count on one another, rely on one another, that it’s not just about me. It’s about everybody doing their part.”

All of this is a conduit to help the players succeed off the field when their playing days are done. Only a select few will play professional football, but as all those NCAA commercials say, the rest of the players go pro in something other than sports. Sarkisian wants to set his players up for success in the real world by putting them in situations that are uncomfortable but necessary to build character.

“I feel like we have a responsibility to raise these guys and to be quality men in society,” he said. “And to do that, we have to expose them to these types of conversations, help them along the way, understand there’s going to be bumps in the road that, ultimately, when they come out on the other side, they’re going look back on this, at their experience at the University of Texas and say, ‘I’m glad I did that because I’m a better father, a better husband, a better friend, a better CEO, a better teammate,’ whatever it is that they go on to do.”