SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Texas coach Steve Sarkisian used his pulpit in front of thousands of Texas high school coaches to encourage them to fight off outside interests who are getting involved with their players.
Sarkisian, during a keynote address at the Texas High School Coaches Association convention, said he wanted to get on his soapbox about how many coaches -- turned off by agents or handlers -- have taken a back seat in their players' recruitments.
"The game is changing," Sarkisian said. "Not the game on the field, the game off the field, NIL, revenue sharing, publicity rights, whatever you want to call it. Agents have gotten involved, trainers have been more involved. And I'm imploring upon you not to throw your hands in the air and just say, 'Hey, it's out of our control.' We can't do that. Agents are new to us. I've got to deal with agents. That's real."
This year's convention had 18,562 attendees, the second-biggest crowd for the event ever, and Sarkisian spoke to thousands of them -- not as the Texas coach, but as a representative for college coaches as a whole, even covering his Longhorns logo on his shirt at one point.
"You are still the ones raising your kids. You're still the ones right, that they look to for guidance," he said. "This idea right now of what's happening in my opinion, is because of the agents. They're going to shop your kids. And we can't lose sight of trying to offer really good advice."
Sarkisian noted that 19 of the Longhorns' 23 NFL picks over the past two seasons -- the most by any program in the nation -- were Texas products. He told the crowd it was because of them and stressed how important it is to remain the leaders of their players.
"College football has changed for decades. There's been changes all along the way and we're in the midst of a lot of change right now. And not all of it is bad. We'll get to a good place. There's good people involved in this that are going to get us to a good place. I'm just asking of you stay connected. Be the leaders of your program, be committed to your program. That's what we chose to do. We chose to be coaches, we chose to be leaders of men. And so I'm asking that of you as we move forward."
Sarkisian even made a pitch for the roster of coaches across the state, noting that Texas A&M "is in the best hands they've been in a long time with Mike Elko," highlighting TCU's 2022 run to the national title game under Sonny Dykes, Dave Aranda's 2022 Sugar Bowl win, the investment that Joey McGuire has at Texas Tech and the track record of Willie Fritz who's embarking on a rebuild at Houston, and yesterday mentioned SMU's playoff run under Rhett Lashlee last season as evidence that players don't need to play elsewhere.
"The programs in the state of Texas right now -- I can't speak for 20 years ago -- but man, they are on an all-time high level," Sarkisian said. "There's thousands that leave the state that go play college football. But I surely would love that they go play at UTSA or A&M or Houston or Tech."