Steve Sarkisian was asked Thursday who his rant on Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference was intended for. The Texas Longhorns head coach had opened that call with a lengthy statement insisting he wasn’t leaving, wasn’t having conversations about leaving, and would everyone please stop saying he was leaving.
“I think it was for everybody,” Sarkisian said Thursday during his weekly Zoom with local media. “It might have just been for me, I don’t know.”
Then he made it clear one person in particular needed to hear it.
“And maybe for some of the pundits out there that don’t cover me and cover our program on a regular basis, so they can’t just take their trash out and have a thought to think that ‘I think Texas is going to have a job opening,'” Sarkisian said. “I don’t know, think about something else when you’re taking your trash out.”
He was talking about Desmond Howard. Howard posted a video to X on Monday while taking his garbage to the curb, speculating that the Texas job could open at season’s end through a “mutual parting of ways.” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte responded by quote-tweeting it with “This is news to me… Thanks for the insight” and a facepalm emoji.
Happy Monday AM! A lil sumthin sumthin you can only get here.#justmythoughts pic.twitter.com/sXy9neKUhD
— Desmond Howard (@DesmondHoward) November 17, 2025
This started three weeks ago, when Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported that Sarkisian’s representatives had informed NFL decision-makers that he’d be interested in head coaching openings. Sarkisian called that report “absolutely ridiculous” after Texas beat Mississippi State in overtime. His agents released a statement calling it “patently false and wildly inaccurate.”
Russini defended her reporting. She clarified her sources weren’t Sarkisian’s reps but pointed out that neither Sarkisian nor his agents actually said he wanted to stay at Texas in their denials. They just said the report was wrong.
Wednesday’s SEC call gave Sarkisian a chance to say it directly.
“I’d like to comment on something before I get into our team, something that has been bothering me now over the past few weeks, and that is people reporting or insinuating that there’s a possibility I could leave the University of Texas, and that is absolutely false and untrue,” Sarkisian said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Sarkisian’s now told us twice in three weeks he’s staying at Texas. Whether Howard believes him or not doesn’t really matter. What matters is whether Texas beats Arkansas on Saturday and Texas A&M next week. If they don’t, people will keep taking their trash out and having thoughts about the Longhorns. Sarkisian can ask them to think about something else all he wants.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.