Steve Sarkisian Named Texas Head Coach

One week after winning the Broyles Award, Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian lands one of the biggest jobs in college football

Less than 24 hours after helping Alabama defeat Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl and securing a spot in the National Championship Game, Steve Sarkisian was named the new head coach at Texas. 

Alabama is set to play Ohio State in the National Championship Game on Jan. 11. Sarkisian is expected to coach the game as the Crimson Tide's offensive coordinator.  

"On Jan. 4, 2006, I was the USC quarterback coach when we played Texas in that famed national championship game. There has always been something special about Longhorn football, its history and traditions – not just on that day – and I could never have imagined that 15 years later, I would join the Longhorns as their head coach," Sarkisian said in a release. "This is a unique and compelling opportunity to lead this storied program to the next level, competing once again amongst the best in college football." 

The Horns247's Chip Brown broke the story that Sarkisian was expected to become the head coach shortly after it was reported that the Longhorns had parted ways with Tom Herman on Saturday morning. 

Texas made the announcement later in the day.

Welcome to Texas, @CoachSark! 🤘 pic.twitter.com/6jHwJPoLtA

— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) January 2, 2021

The Crimson Tide's prolific offense is averaging 48.2 points and 535.0 yards per game, and has set numerous records despite Alabama playing a 10-game SEC-only regular-season schedule in 2020. 

Alabama had scored 35-or more points for 24 straight games, the longest streak in major-college football history, before it was snapped during Friday's 31-14 victory over Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl.

Alabama has two Heisman Trophy finalists in quarterback Mac Jones and wide receiver DeVonta Smith, with running back Najee Harris placing fifth.

The three have been named consensus first-team All-Americans along with center Landon Dickerson and left tackle Alex Leatherwood. All but Jones have chance to be unanimous selections when the selections by the Walter Camp Foundation are announced. 

Sarkisian is in his second stint as Nick Saban's offensive coordinator, although the first lasted just one game. After spending the 2016 season with Alabama as an analyst he was promoted to for the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

Sarkisian previously worked as a head coach at both Washington (2009-13) and Southern California (2014-15) before joining Saban as an analyst at Alabama back in 2016. After a stint in the NFL as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, he returned to Tuscaloosa as offensive coordinator.

Two weeks ago, Auburn showed interest in Sarkisian, but he eventually declined to be interviewed to be Gus Malzahn's replacement. 

Last week, Sarkisian was named the winner of 2020 Broyles Award for the most outstanding assistant coach in college football.

“I think Sark has done an outstanding job in terms of, first of all, system and scheme; secondly, in terms of how he teaches the players. And he's a very good quarterback coach,” Saban said last week.” So he's really helped the development of the quarterback. I think Mac would be the first one to probably tell you that.

“And I think a combination of all those things and how he manages his staff and everybody's on the same page and works really, really well together.

“I think the players have a lot of confidence in what we're doing, and I think they sort of have confidence in the fact that they're well prepared for every game so they don't go in with a lot of question marks or apprehensions in terms of how we're going to handle certain things and what adjustments we need to make in the game to be able to continue to have success.

“So he's just done an outstanding job. He's contributed as much as anybody that we've ever had here in terms of his knowledge and experience and how he manages the offensive side of the ball.”

Coaching continuity has been one of the keys to Alabama's title run this season, as the entire offensive staff returned and only one assistant coach on the defensive side was replaced.

However, Saban has had more turnover at the offensive coordinator position than another other coaching position on his staff: Major Applewhite (2007); Jim McElwain (2008-11); Doug Nussmeier (2012-13); Lane Kiffin (2014-16), Brian Daboll (2017); Mike Locksley (2018); Steve Sarkisian (2019-).

Applewhite was back this season as an analyst, but recently accepted the offensive coordinator position at South Alabama. Special assistant Butch Jones recently signed on to be the head coach at Arkansas State. 

Texas made a strong run at Nick Saban in 2012, after Alabama had won three national titles in four years. It reportedly gauged interest with Urban Meyer while Herman was still head coach.

Herman, a former Meyer assistant under Meyer, was due to make $6 million this season, but took a bit of a pay cut due to the coronavirus ($5.8 minus incentives). He had a $15 million buyout for the final three years of his contract, with the staff combining for another $9 million. 

Texas issued the following statement Saturday:

"With our football season coming to a close, our vice president and athletics director, Chris Del Conte, has evaluated the UT program’s strengths and weaknesses and where the program is relative to our goals. While we have made measured progress during the past several years under Tom Herman’s leadership, Chris has recommended to the university president, Jay Hartzell, that UT make a coaching change to get us on track to achieving our ambitious goals. President Hartzell and the chair of our Board of Regents, Kevin Eltife, concur with this recommendation and have approved the change. We thank Coach Herman for his service and dedication to our student-athletes, our program and our university."

Texas had a winning record all four years under Herman (32-18), and finished 7-3 this season. However, the Longhorns haven't won a Big 12 title since 2009, when they lost to Alabama in the national title game. 

Alabama and Texas have a home-and-home series scheduled for 2022-23.

Welcome to the Forty Acres, @CoachSark!https://t.co/IRG92M501E pic.twitter.com/TEQENDjewv

— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) January 2, 2021

This story will be updated