With more than 24 hours to absorb the addition of new Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, the success of this move is tied to one of the most exciting aspects of Sarkisian’s arrival.
It's all about the coaching staff he assembles.
With Sarkisian set to be in control of the offense in a way that Tom Herman was never truly prepared for, a significant piece of the puzzle is in place, leaving the new coach in a much better starting position than his predecessor.
That leaves a few more vital decisions that will likely determine Sarkisian’s success.
a. His defensive coordinator selection
b. The number of recruiting rainmakers he can hire
Keep in mind that history is littered with Texas coaches from the past 25 years that hindered themselves by failing to assemble the right staff.
When Tom Herman arrived in December 2016, public concerns existed with hiring Tim Beck as offensive coordinator, along with the decision to bring so many of his assistants from Houston. The decision to hire Beck and so many coaches that eventually needed to be replaced was a death blow for Herman’s long-term success.
Same with Charlie Strong, who famously hired Shawn Watson as his offensive coordinator and then took too long to replace him.
If you miss with your first hiring process, it's hard to recover.
Hell, even Mack Brown made a couple of choices that limited the ceiling of the program when he arrived. It wasn't until Brown replaced Tim Nunez as his offensive line coach and upgraded from Bull Reese at defensive coordinator that the Longhorns finally emerged as more than championship Cinderellas.
The details always matter.
For Sarkisian, the defensive coordinator hire appears to be off to a much better start than what Herman or Strong worked with, primarily because the worst-case situation would appear to be retaining Chris Ash. He proved this season under trying circumstances that his reputation as a top-flight defensive coach is deserved.
If the Longhorns can upgrade from Ash, more power to Sarkisian. If he keeps Ash, it's completely understandable. Finishing with someone worse would feel like starting an inning on second base and getting picked off.
On paper, Texas should have its best playcallers in quite a few years.
What remains is putting together a staff that can not only get the job done in Texas, but achieve success in California and other regions. Perhaps the most underrated facet of the Sarkisian hire is that he doesn't need to take care of guys who might otherwise be jobless if he doesn't take them.
Cherry-pick off the Alabama staff? Sure. Take the best guys from his USC/UW staffs? Ok.
This just isn't a position where you have to worry about half of the staff coming from non Power 5 programs without proven track records when it comes to recruiting at a big boy level. Loyalty flat out put Herman and Strong in unfavorable positions.
That worry doesn't seem to exist with Sarkisian. Any "comfort hire" might come from the No. 1 program in the country.
If Sarkisian can stick the landing on these initial staff moves, the sky would be the limit. Miss on this staff in a way that requires redos in 2023 or 2024, and we likely know what it means.
Sometimes it is that simple.
No. 2 - Inspecting Sark's Previous HC performance...
It's no secret that part of Tom Herman's undoing was his inability to beat the teams on the schedule that he should have beaten.
This set of stats from The Athletic's Max Olson has made the rounds, but it bears repeating.
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If we ignore the first three seasons at Washington -- the program was winless when he arrived -- and simply focus on his final three seasons as a head coach (two at Washington and one at USC), here is the breakdown of losses to unranked teams:
2013 - L 52-17 at Arizona
2013 - L 31-28 OT at Oregon State
2014 - L 53-24 at Arizona State
2015- L 41-31 vs. Stanford
2015 - L 17-12 vs. Washington
Quick thoughts: I probably wouldn't take too much out of those losses, other than to note that a couple of them were true ass-kickings on the road.
During those same three seasons, here's a look at how Sarkisian's teams fared against ranked teams.
2012 - W 38-6 vs. No.19 Boise State
2012 - L 31-29 at No.5 Stanford
2012 - L 45-24 vs. No.2 Oregon
2012 - L 41-31 at No.13 UCLA
2013 - L 20-13 vs. No.16 Stanford
2013 - L 45-20 at No.9 Oregon
2013 - L 24-10 vs. No.14 Arizona State
2013 - L 44-30 vs. No.18 UCLA
2013 - L 27-26 at No.17 Arizona
2014 - L 41-31 at No.14 Notre Dame
2014 - W 42-24 vs. No.3 Utah
2014 - L 48-28 at No.23 Oregon
2014 - W 40-21 vs. No.22 UCLA
2014 - L 41-22 vs. No.7 Stanford
Quick thoughts: A 3-11 record against ranked teams in what amounts to his three best seasons as a head coach is concerning, especially since eight of the losses were by double digits and three of them were by 20+ points.
Overall, there's a lot to unpack from this data, but the bottom line is that Texas is banking on Sark being a much better version of himself after a half decade of working on improving his skills.
No. 3 - A Low-Key Thank You From Yours Truly...
I've long come to know that there are few saints in the world of college football. Almost everyone in the coaching business has some kind of dark past that pretty much makes you give a piece of your soul in order to remain a fan.
Urban Meyer is one of the greatest coaches that has ever been in the college game, but he protected and enabled Zach Smith to be Zach Smith (seriously, I hope his name never appears on this site again).
Brian Kelly seems to be a guy that can bring in 10-win seasons at every stop he makes, but I'll never get over what happened to Lizzy Seeberg and Declan Sullivan, with the Seeberg story being a personal soapbox cause of mine for years.
When you look at Sark's history, he obviously has a past that will come under scrutiny, but I've never seen anyone question his humanity, and I'm thankful for that as someone that will be covering his program. In fact, one of the things that seems to stand out about Sark is that he does seem to have a rep for being a decent person, which makes it pretty easy to root for his personal redemption story.
A man has to live by some kind of code, and Sark isn't going to make anyone on this site trade in theirs for the sake of following the football team.
It may seem like a small thing for some, and I know what Meyer would have represented for the program, but consider me thankful that I don't have to live in a world where a piece of my humanity needed to be destroyed in the name of doing my job.
No. 4 - Speaking of old history ...
As soon as it became apparent that Sarkisian was about to become the head coach at Texas, I wondered if there was anything I had ever said on social media about Sarkisian that might get thrown in my face, just as my comments about Urban Meyer from the Zach Smith situation were brought up when Texas was talking to Meyer.
In the end, this feels pretty harmless.
a. At the end of the day, I didn't think Sark was quite ready for the USC job when he arrived from Washington.
b. Ironically, the big question about his hire by Texas is the big one that existed when he was hired by USC. For all of his many positives, he's not yet proven that he's a high-level college head coach.
c. It can't be stated enough how much the last few years in the NFL and at Alabama have lifted his overall profile.
Among the most impressive moments of Sarkisian's opening press conference was his reflection on how he's grown on many levels over the last half-decade plus.
"I know I'm a better man today than I was a little over five years ago. That's just not as a football coach, but as a man, as a father, as a husband, and all those things are very important to me because at the end of the day, when you're sitting in a young man's living room, or you've got a young man on your team that's going through something, you have real life experiences like I have now to lean on that I think they can relate to. That they can value that I'm being sincere with them. At the end of the day, they can recognize the work that you put in, who you are and how you treat people. I'm proud of the work, But I will say when you battle what I battle, you have to work on it every day. This isn't just a one-time thing and you take the happy pill. Everything's good all of a sudden and you never have to work on it. I work on it every day. I worked on it through meetings, through sponsors, whatever that may be. That's important to me that's important for me to be the best football coach at the University of Texas that I can be, and so that's what I do.”
No. 5 - Emptying my brain ...
Here's a collection of other things rolling around in my brain about what has transpired this weekend.
* I can't say enough about the quarterback coaching tree that Sarkisian brings to the table. What he touches seems to turn to gold there.
* I'm guessing the national championship game broadcast does crazy numbers in the Austin market.
* This is an interesting little box that Chris Del Conte is in. Either he misled local media members with his comments regarding his vote of confidence for Tom Herman or he released a vote of confidence that didn't include him having yet considered a number of key aspects of his most valuable program that were already widely known to have existed. If it were me, I think I'd rather people think I had been slightly deceptive instead of the alternative, but that's just me.
* Tom Herman can leave Austin knowing that no coach in UT history has ever departed with a team ranked higher in the final rankings than his 2020 Longhorns, which includes a 32-point win in the bowl/final game. In keeping him after the losses to Oklahoma and Iowa State, it allowed Herman to slightly rebuild the closing chapter of his career in Austin from a national view.
* The positives in keeping Stan Drayton include his popularity with current star Bijan Robinson, as well as a number of key running back targets in the 2021/2022 classes. The downside is that he hasn't been a recruiting rainmaker outside of signing Robinson. I'm curious to see how much more productive he can be as a recruiter under Sarkisian.
* Tim Brando is something else.
* This will make you smile.
* Game on for Casey Thompson and Hudson Card.
* I expect Texas to have a huge presence at Mater Dei High School in California moving forward. The state of California will be left unattended no longer.
* There's a part of me that wonders how much Sam Ehlinger will play thew what-if game with his career and whether 10 years from now he'll wish he had another season to play.
* From The Department of There Are No Accidents in Life, I found it very interesting that in a five-person photo that the University of Texas used to showcase the hire of Sarkisian, the two people on each side of Sarkisian were his wife and BOR chair Kevin Eltife.
No. 6 - A DAMN GOOD WIN!!!
It won't matter at all if the Longhorns bomb out of the NCAA Tournament in the opening weekend. It probably won't matter much in a year from now because we're talking about a sport that doesn't prioritize the glory of regular-season accomplishments, especially in a single game.
Still, what Texas accomplished on Saturday at Kansas registers as a top-five regular-season win in the history of Texas basketball. It's one thing to go on the road and win a huge game against the No. 3 team in the country. It's an entirely different thing to go into Phog Allen Fieldhouse and deliver the biggest ass-kicking in the 65-year history of the building. Technically, it tied a beatdown that Missouri gave Kansas in 1989, but still.
It was twice as emphatic as any home loss Bill Self has ever endured at KU.
Every time you wondered if the Texas performance was going to fade, someone hit a three ... or threw down a dunk ... or made a big defensive play. It just never stopped.
How bad did Texas beat the brakes off the Jayhawks?
"There were blank stares in the huddle," Kansas coach Bill Self said.
I don't know what it means for the rest of the season. We've seen so much fool's gold over the years with this program that I'm convinced I'll have to eat these words in due time, but this team is hell on wheels when it plays its A game.
Kansas learned that the hard way.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) This seems like a slam dunk. Even Bama folks seem to be bracing for the reality that Sarkisian is going to take a few staff members with him. It doesn't seem like anyone from Alabama is too worried about it, though.
(Buy) With Stan Drayton already confirmed and locked in, a second retained staff member feels more likely than not.
(Buy) We can only hope.
(Buy) I'm not sure how high of a bar we're trying to clear.
(Sell) Nothing feels more subjective than ranking S&C coaches.
(Buy) His chops as a recruiter and his rep as a quarterback developer overcome the edge Harsin has in the win-loss department at a non Power 5 conference. But I still like the hire for Auburn.
(Buy) Yeah.
(Buy) There's no getting around the fact that Texas aimed for a Mount Rushmore head coach and came away with a Mount Rushmore coordinator. Name-brands don't assure anyone of anything these days on the head coaching hiring front.
(Buy) I think Texas signs a top five class at a minimum in 2022. Sark will recruit like gangbusters on an annual basis.
(Sell) That's going to be handled this off-season, and he won't have to deal with this like Herman did.
(Buy) I think Texas plays in the Big 12 championship game and has a top 5 class in year one.
(Sell) However, it's much nicer for us to have excitement in the program than negativity.
(Buy) On some level, the reset button gets hit every time change happens in the program. Everyone with sources in Herman's program will need to find new sources/contacts. It's one of the exciting things about change being made from our side of things. We've got work to do.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the world of sports...
... It's been quite a nice little bowl season for the Big 12. Can't thumb your nose at it.
... Give A&M some credit. Like it or not, the Aggies can finally claim a top five ranking at the end of the season. I wonder if they'll hang a banner?
... Iowa State handled Oregon with much more ease than I would have guessed. Frankly, they outclassed the Ducks, and I'm not sure they did that a ton in the Big 12 this year.
... I really thought Ohio State would beat Clemson, but not enough to put myself out on a limb before the game. Not guts, no glory!
... Dan Mullen and Luke Fickell did not impress in their bowl games in different ways. With Mullen, he has to start closing his mouth when his brain thinks something, while Fickell and the players in his program really need to learn to count by intervals of 40.
... I laughed.
... Admit it, that was the perfect way for the season to end for the 2020 Dallas Cowboys. It can't ever be straight-forward. It always has to include some sort of kidney shot.
... Buffalo is going to be a problem in the AFC playoffs.
... Baker Mayfield and the Browns are in the playoffs. That's an accomplishment that warrants a head nod.
... Worst flag of the year?
No. 9 - The List: Eddie Murphy movies
With Coming 2 America set to be released on March 5, I thought I would take a stab at a Top 10 Eddie Murphy movie list. Priority was placed on rewatchability and the amount of times I have quoted the movie throughout my life.
10. The Golden Child
9. Life
8. Boomerang
7. Harlem Nights
6. Shrek
5. Raw
4. 48 Hours
3. Trading Places
2. Coming to America
1. Beverly Hills Cop
No. 10 - And finally...
After the frustration everyone has felt for the past few years over the football program, I just wanted to end things by saying it feels... dare I say... damn good to wake up and have a pep in the step.
Apathy being in the rearview mirror for the immediate future should not be underappreciated. I know I won't.
