Longhorns HC Steve Sarkisian has cheeky response to Nick Saban's "Texas is not gonna run the SEC" comment

The Texas Longhorns under coach Steve Sarkisian are used to being top dogs in the conference that they call home. The switch to the SEC (Southeastern Conference) could change that aspect of their previous dominance.

During day two of the SEC media days, Sarkisian's former mentor and retired coach, Nick Saban, in his capacity as an analyst for the SEC Network, took a shot at the Longhorns' status in the SEC.

"What tickles me is all (the media) asking questions about how Texas always ran the conference they were in," Saban said. "They're not going to run the SEC. There's a whole lot of arrogant people all over the SEC. You can't forget about all that. They will be a good team and are a great program, and Sark will do a great job, but (the Longhorns running the SEC) isn't going to be a problem."

During day three of SEC's media days, Steve Sarkisian gave a cheeky reply to the observation of his former boss.

"Yeah, I gotta talk to him about that," Steve Sarkisian said.

Steve Sarkisian receives compliment from Nick Saban

Retired coach Nick Saban and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian share a storied relationship. Sarkisian served as Saban's offensive analyst at Alabama after his controversial exit from the USC Trojans in 2016.

In 2019, Saban hired him as his offensive coordinator for one season before he departed for the Longhorns job.

During the SEC Media Days, Saban complimented Steve Sarkisian about the difficulty of playing against his often creative offensive schemes both from his time as his offensive coordinator for Alabama and with Texas.

“I kind of always hated playing against Sark,” Saban said. “In practice for several years, as well as when we played them the past couple of years. Because they do such a good job with what I call squeeze splits. We play in this day and age where people take these huge splits like Tennessee — which, that’s a problem, too — but players are not used to — especially DBs, are not used to playing when you have squeeze splits. Because you put them in unfamiliar positions, whether it’s run support or how they cover.

“When you’re in squeeze splits, how can this guy get to that side of the field quickly, which messes up your pattern matches. So, I always hated playing against Texas and Kirby (Smart's) got some of the same issues that we had.”

The exchange between the pair at the SEC media days certainly shows that they still maintain a cordial relationship.