Texas Boosters Wanted Steve Sarkisian Instead of Sonny Dykes: Report
The TCU Horned Frogs are 10-0 and 7-0 in Big 12 play in 2022, and have already locked themselves into a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game in Sonny Dykes first year at the helm.
Meanwhile, Steve Sarkisian is in his second year with the Texas Longhorns and after a 5-7 year in 2021, Sark has put together a 6-4 campaign through 10 games in 2022.
According to a column from the Dallas Morning News, the coaches on the sidelines could’ve been completely different for Saturday’s game if things would’ve worked out differently.
According to the report, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte tried to hire Dykes at UT and a deal was all but finished between him and then-SMU head coach Sonny Dykes.
Here’s what Dallas Morning News’ Kevin Sherrington wrote in his column on Saturday following TCU’s 17-10 win over Texas.
“The Austin American-Statesman reported Friday that a deal between then-SMU coach Dykes and Del Conte, Texas’ athletic director, was all but done in December 2020. Sources told long-time columnist Kirk Bohls that talks went so far, it got to the point where they even discussed when Dykes would be introduced at the university where his father, Spike, once worked for Darrell Royal.
“Of course, it didn’t happen. Or the part where he gets hired, anyway. Of the rest, I have no doubt. Del Conte conceded in the Statesman report that he did, indeed, talk to Dykes, whom he’d recommended to SMU. Known him for years, he said. Great guy. But he described their talks as part of a nationwide vetting process, insisting they were ‘nothing more than conversations with Sonny.'”
Now, Sherrington is quite skeptical of this reports’ validity, and not because he doesn’t believe the American Statesman is a source, but because there are plenty of rumors that Del Conte had little to do with the hiring of Steve Sarkisian.
No, it appears that Dykes was the guy that Del Conte wanted, but Kevin Eltlife, chairman of Texas’ board of regents, wanted someone else.
Eltlife reportedly told the Statesman that he was “involved in the process from start to finish, and Sark was always at the top of the list.”
“We were very excited about Steve from the very beginning, and I am thankful it all worked out because he’s the best man for the job.”
Almost anywhere else in the country, a program of Texas’ size would likely trust its athletic director to make the hire of the head football coach, but at a place like Texas where money is flowing from all kinds of sources, there are a lot of opinions that “need” to be heard.
