"He revived Texas" - CFB insider sees Steve Sarkisian reaching top 3 of the highest-paid CFB coaches

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian fell just short of the 2024 national championship game when his team lost to the eventual champions, Ohio State Buckeyes. It was the Longhorns' second consecutive college football semifinal loss after last year's loss to the Washington Huskies.

In January, Sarkisian agreed to a one-year contract extension to his existing contract that will take him through to the 2031 season. The Texas coach's salary also rose from $10.4 million to $10.8 million and will rise annually by $250,000 and tops out at $12.3 million in 2031, putting him No. 4 among the highest-paid coaches in college football.

Sarkisian is behind Clemson Tigers coach Dabo Swinney ($11.2 million), Ohio State Buckeyes coach Ryan Day ($12.5 million), and the highest earner in college football, Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart ($13.2 million).

During Sunday's segment of "Crain & Company," college football analyst Jake Crain argued that for his achievements at Texas, Sarkisian deserved to break into the top three of the highest-paid coaches in college football (4:00).

"Sark and what he's done at Texas already, getting within a sniff of the natty," Jake Crain said. "He went to the SEC championship. He's revived Texas. Texas wasn't doing this in the postseason, which is harder than anything. And the expectations there are immensely high. So, I think Sark at No. 5 is not that he's underpaid, but I think he could find himself in the top three pretty quickly.

"We'll see with Arch Manning, though. You know, even though I'm not big on Texas this year as big as everybody else is."

Steve Sarkisian received NFL job offers

While speaking to reporters on Monday, Steve Sarkisian revealed that he turned down several job offers from various NFL teams in January to stay with the Texas Longhorns.

"We've got a lot of unfinished business," Steve Sarkisian said. "So I wasn't entertaining anything that was beyond making sure that I had a really good job here, and I could solidify the job here, and I could hire the best people I could here, and I could recruit the best players I could here."

Sarkisian has a 38-17 record as the coach of the Longhorns. He led them to the Big 12 championship during the 2023 season before Texas moved to the Southeastern Conference and reached the conference championship game against the Georgia Bulldogs last season.

During his tenure, the Longhorns have reached two consecutive CFP semifinals, falling just short of their lofty national championship ambitions.