With the announcement that Alabama Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is now the 31st head football coach for the Texas Longhorns, the focus is on how Sarkisian will build his first staff on the Forty Acres.
As Sarkisian has grown and aged in the years since several alcohol-related incidents led to his dismissal at USC, he increasingly emphasized the value of his assistants.
Sarkisian first compared himself as a head coach to a fire hose and admitted that he initially tried to solve all the problems himself.
“Sometimes you do not inspire enough confidence in the staff you hire,” Sarkisian said in an introductory Zoom call with reports on Saturday. ‘But I think now, after spending some time in the National Football League and of course spending two years with Coach Saban here in Alabama, you realize that the value of the staff is why you hire such a great staff, to put people in place to do what you ask of them. I think it takes the burden off your shoulders as a head coach and allows you to manage people and not overreact to some of the other things that are going on, and allows people to do what they do. And I think it keeps you focused, I think it keeps you grounded. ‘
Setting up an initial coaching team is an area that has confused Charlie Strong and Tom Herman.
Strong was forced to fire two of his assistants after his first season, including Bruce Chambers, the one-time Mack Brown-era authority, and then fired his attacking coordinator and defense coordinator during the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Whether Strong simply did not get the necessary support from the administration to hire better or simply made the wrong choices decreases in importance because he repeatedly made out-of-season decisions during the season.
Herman believed most of his Houston staff would be with him, but the failure in development and a disappointing regular season forced Herman to fire both coordinators and replace five other assistant coaches.
The substitutes hired by Herman have been successful this season, especially defensive coordinator Chris Ash and his staff, so Sarkisian’s first challenge will be to decide if he wants to retain one of Herman’s assistants.
Before Sarkisian met with the media on Saturday, Sarkisian initially made a call with the assistants and individual interviews will be conducted in the coming days, though discussions may be suspended until Sarkisian completes coaching for Alabama in the national championship game.
According to Bruce Feldman, Sarkisian did not make decisions about the support staff.
In addition to the social media team, which has done an excellent job over the past few years, two potentially easy decisions for Sarkisian would include retaining high school relations director Bob Shipley and recruiting director Bryan Carrington. Several current and former players have already pleaded for Carrington and his retention would allow for some continuity in the 2021 and 2022 recruits. Shipley has long-standing ties with soccer coaches in Texas in high school, which will benefit Sarkisian, who has never coached in the state.
Ash’s return, along with an up-and-coming young assistant such as corner coach Jay Valai or longtime defensive coach Oscar Giles, could provide significant continuity on the field and help avoid transfers on the side of the ball after Ash’s defense throughout season has improved significantly. good in bowling, despite losing four starters to not pick.
However, there is a big name in the market who is already connected to work and has previous ties to Texas – former Florida and South Carolina coach Will Muschamp, who was named head coach when he waited on Mack Brown several lives ago. Although Muschamp has failed as head coach in both of his previous stoppages, he is still considered a defensive thought.
FootballScoop also mentions one of Muschamp’s former players in Texas, the Ole Miss special team coordinator Blake Gideon, who has coached defensive rugby in the past and looks like an emerging young coach. He has been from West Carolina to Georgia State to Houston for the past four years and now to Ole Miss. When Muschamp spent one season as Auburn’s defense coordinator, between his head coaching job in Florida and South Carolina, he hired Gideon as a graduate assistant.
Sarkisian could also choose to take one or more assistants from Alabama with him.
The main name is Kyle Flood, the former Rutgers head coach who worked with Sarkisian on the Hawks before joining him in Tuscaloosa. It was the flood that convinced the Brockermeyer brothers to reject their ties in Texas and sign with Alabama. As an offensive line coach, Flood would be a household renter, but he could also serve as Sarkisian’s attacking coordinator, a title he held at Rutgers before taking over the program.
Another interesting Alabama assistant could bring recruitment ties to the state. Jeff Banks currently serves as the coach and coordinator for special teams for the Crimson Tide after spending five years with the Aggies. As a recruiter, Banks was instrumental in helping Alabama commit the former Texas quarterback to Jalen Milroe and five-star full-back Camar Wheaton in the 2021 recruiting class.
Banks, however, are not the only high-profile recruiter initially linked to Sarkisian, with FootballScoop driving the name Tosh Lupoi. In 2019, Lupoi teamed up with the Clevaland Browns to jump to the NFL and move the season to the Atlanta Falcons, adding the title as coordinator for the defensive game. It is not clear if Lupoi would consider returning to the college game, but he does have experience working with Sarkisian in Alabama and Washington.
However, Sarkisian chooses to gather his staff, his past experiences and the experiences of his two predecessors make it clear how important those initial decisions will be in determining whether Sarkisian succeeds or fails in Austin.