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Alabama OC Steve Sarkisian shares thoughts on not playing USC, all-SEC schedule
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian does not appear to be said that his current team won’t face his former team. Before the Pac-12 switched to a conference-only schedule and eventual cancelation of its fall schedule, Alabama was scheduled to open the 2020 season against the USC Trojans in Dallas. Sarkisian was a Southern Cal assistant from 2005-08 and returned as the Trojans head coach in 2014, a position he held until a leave of absence and eventual dismissal in 2015.
When the canceled game came up during Sarkisian’s Tuesday media appearance, he said he wasn’t upset about not getting to face his former team. He noted a lack of personal connections to the current USC roster.
“I don’t know if there’s a player left on the roster that I recruited,” Sarkisian said. “That’s the big thing for me.”
On the topic of Alabama’s schedule, Sarkisian noted that 10 regular-season SEC games are as difficult as it gets at the college level.
“Playing 10 of these games is just about as close as you can get to playing 10 games in the NFL,” said Sarkisian, a former offensive coordinator in the NFL.
Alabama is scheduled to open the 2020 season on Sept. 26 at Missouri, one of the two SEC East opponents added in the move to a 10-game, conference-only schedule for this fall.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
