SEC Head Coaches Ranked: Is Texas Longhorns' Steve Sarkisian Too High or Too Low?

Steve Sarkisian was ranked as the second best coach in the SEC heading into 2024, ahead of the likes of Brian Kelly and Kalen DeBoer, on a ranking by an CBS Sports

Jan 6, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns head football coach Steve Sarkisian watches the first half of the Texas basketball game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Moody Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports / Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports

The offseason in college football always feels long, especially when you've hit the sixth month without your favorite sport. As a result, many sites begin to release rankings, oftentimes to the chagrin of certain fans. CBS Sports took their own stab at ranking every head coach in the SEC, with head coach Steve Sarkisian ranking quite high.

In CBS' 2024 SEC coach rankings, Sarkisian was given the third spot in the ranking, ahead of new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, behind Georgia's Kirby Smart and LSU's Brian Kelly. This, of course, stirred up debates on places like X and message boards, especially in a conference like the SEC with so much change.

But is this take outlandish? Does Steve Sarkisian, in his fourth year coaching the Longhorns, deserve to be the third-best coach in the SEC before his team has even taken a snap in the conference?

Let’s take a look.

Something that’s important for SEC elitists to remember is that this SEC isn’t just new because of Texas and Oklahoma, it’s new because of the internal changes this past winter. Nick Saban is gone. Jimbo Fisher is gone. When you include the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, 31% of the SEC features new coaches. 

In the last 10 years, just three schools have won an SEC championship, and by proxy just three coaches. The aforementioned Saban, the former title-winning coach of the historic 2019 LSU team Ed Orgeron, and Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who is first on the head coaching ranking list. Every other coach in the SEC has failed to win the conference. In fact, the only active SEC coach to make an SEC championship is Brian Kelly, which he did in his first year at LSU in 2022.

Smart is rightfully the No. 1 coach in the SEC, winning two out of the last three national championships and being the only coach in the conference to have won an SEC championship. The argument starts after Smart, and that’s where Sarkisian, and another familiar name, come in.

The second, third and fourth spots on the list are held by Kelly, Sarkisian and DeBoer. Though Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Kentucky's Mark Stoops,
Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz and Tennessee’s Josh Heupel all have cases, their spots at the five through eight spots are solidified because of two things: CFP appearances and conference championships.

Jan 1, 2024; New Orleans, LA, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian looks on from the sidelines against the Washington Huskies in the 2024 Sugar Bowl college football playoff semifinal game at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports / Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

This past season, both Sarkisian and DeBoer took teams to the College Football Playoff, with each coach also winning their respective Big 12 and Pac 12 titles. The two coaches have gone farther than any other SEC coach, apart from Smart, even if their head coaching careers are still young. Kelly finds his way into this group because of the pedigree he instills. 

Since 2017, Kelly has never had a single-digit win season in his tenure with Notre Dame and LSU. He is one of the most consistent head coaches in college football, and LSU has been a ten-win team in back-to-back years.

Now, with three coaches narrowed down, who actually deserves that No. 2 spot? 

DeBoer has the easiest argument, as he has beaten Sarkisian twice and made the national championship, unlike Sarkisian and something Kelly hasn’t done since 2012, with a completely different school. The real separator, however, is about how these teams look heading into 2024.

Recruiting is the easiest place to start, and though DeBoer had help from Nick Saban in creating this class of 2024, only Kirby Smart’s Georgia team has a better recruiting class. Texas is sixth in the nation according to 247Sports, with LSU at seventh. DeBoer, in his short time at Alabama, is winning the recruiting war as he also has the best 2025 class so far.

In the portal, however, the lead gets tighter. Alabama had the best overall transfer class in 2024 of the three teams, but Texas had the highest average caliber transfer of any team in the SEC, meaning they got fewer players, but better ones. Kelly loses a lot of steam here, as LSU is 41st in the nation in portal acquisitions in 2024. 

Kelly, though lacking the more recent results, likely deserves the spot as the second-best coach, however, as outlined by CBS.

"Kelly's already got an SEC West title under his belt and has proven that he can compete for national titles before," wrote Will Backus of CBS. The coach is experienced, has won in the SEC, and has competed for national titles, a hard resume to overcome.

With DeBoer and Sarkisian separating themselves into the next tier, especially given that Sarkisian had been the better recruiter in the 2022 and 2023 classes, the deserving coach for the top spot goes to whoever has the better chance of winning in 2024. Though it isn’t easy to quantify who’s going to be better, there are a few metrics to help out.

On 247Sports’ overall team rankings, Alabama is given the second-best team in the conference, ahead of the Longhorns. But when you look at betting odds, most sites give Texas the edge when it comes to the chances of winning the SEC. At the end of the day, it seems like either coach is rewarding the spot as the third-best head coach in the conference, and SEC Unfiltered mostly got it right at the top of its list.

Though it may seem like overly high praise, Sarkisian has the resume to be called the third-best coach in the SEC. Now it's up to him, his staff and his players to prove that in 2024.