Thomas A. Brashears

Steve Sarkisian reveals he couldn’t get a job interview in 2015 before Nick Saban gave him a $30,000/yr analyst job that saved his career “In 2015, I had gotten fired at USC, gone to recovery, started working on me personally. Coming out of that, I couldn’t get a job. In 2016, I was ready to go do TV.” “I couldn’t get an interview for a job. And Nick Saban saved my career. He offered me an analyst job. I was willing to do it for free.” “But he said, ‘I gotta pay you $30,000 so you can get benefits.’ I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do that.’ I’m forever indebted to him. Because at that time, somebody in life has got to give all of us a second chance.” “It totally changed my perspective. It changed my perspective on how I coach. How I deal with our players. Because everybody’s going through stuff. Everybody’s got stuff.” “Whatever your stuff is, you’re just trying to get through it. If I can be that guy that can extend that olive branch to our players as we go through this journey, I always lean back to that time.” “Here’s the greatest coach of all time in our era. For whatever reason, he saw something in me. He gave me a chance. He gave me a shot.” “From there, he actually makes me the offensive coordinator for the National Championship game against Clemson. And I was an analyst. I wasn’t even a coach.”