Texas HC Steve Sarkisian explains the softer side of Nick Saban

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian knows former Alabama head coach and college football legend Nick Saban well.

It was Saban, after all, who gave him a shot to be an assistant for the Crimson Tide in 2016 after Sarkisian was fired as head coach at USC for a rather public-facing problem with alcohol.

Saban gave coach Sark a chance to get back into coaching and Sarkisian parlayed that an offensive coordinator gig with the Atlanta Falcons, another run at Alabama as offensive coordinator and then, ultimately, the head coaching gig at Texas.

Sarkisian is now known as one of the top coaches in college football and he's one of the best comeback stories in sports, period.

So yes, he does know Saban well. Better than most, in fact. And the Saban he knows is far from the gruff image the coach sometimes portrayed on television and certainly in practice.

"I think the general fan sees Nick Saban as the straw hat flying at practice, the headset or the hands going on the sideline or the press conference where he wants to just jump the one reporter for the question, when in reality he, and Ms. Terry (Saban's wife), are probably two of the most compassionate, forgiving people I’ve ever been associated with,” Sarkisian told Paul Finebaum at SEC Media Days (h/t On3 ).

Not only did Sarkisian see the softer side of Saban during their times coaching together, but he also learned that coaching is not just about Xs and Os and wins and losses. It's about being the type of person that players — and people in general — learn to respect.

“We want to talk about the discipline, the consistency, the program builder, the man is way more important to me than the coach was," Sarkisian said. "And I think that sometimes gets missed when people want to talk about the legacy of Nick Saban. Because how do you ignore the national championships and the wins and all those things? But the man, to me, in my life, and my career, is more important than the guy that won all those games. And I was — I’m so fortunate to have spent the time that I was able to spend with him."

In the "big business" of college football that's not a message you normally hear, but it clearly worked for Saban — and it's working for Sarkisian too.