Steve Sarkisian
FameRank: 4

"Stephen Ambrose "Steve" Sarkisian" is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head football coach at the University of Southern California (USC). He served as the head football coach of the University of Washington from 2009 to 2013. Sarkisian played college football as a quarterback at Brigham Young University (BYU) and professionally with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL).

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He's just a genuine good kid. I think the biggest thing is his teammates appreciate him.

Steve's been an extremely pleasant surprise to me. He's been fantastic. He changes speeds and explodes out of the block. He's just got a great knack for the game.

We've been extremely fortunate. We have great kids who know how to prepare -- a veteran group.

We don't have to put it all on Patrick Turner.

Definitely there is pressure. I wouldn't be human if I did not say so, but when you get faced with pressure you can go one of two ways. You can take it on and get excited about it, or you can shy away and hide.

Aside from Kobe (Bryant), he's probably the most recognizable sports figure in Southern California.

Yeah, we're going to be starting over without No. 11. I think it was obvious how good he was tonight. But I thought our front really handled their front. We ran when we wanted to. It's tough.

I see the trend changing and other guys getting more opportunities earlier, but if teams are intent on taking away the run, we'll take advantage of it.

The first two games, they went maybe 40-45 plays and the last game there were 85 plays and they probably went 75. It's not easy to go four quarters all of a sudden.