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If you're a regular here, you've probably heard me beat this drum more times than a marching band at halftime. I would say stop if you’ve heard me say this before, but I would prefer it if you kept reading.
Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy once dropped this gem on me — the sign of a healthy coaching staff is one where the assistants are climbing up to coordinator gigs, and those coordinators are being eyed for head coaching positions.
Dungy’s coaching tree included Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh), Herm Edwards (Jets), Rod Marinelli (Detroit), Lovie Smith (Chicago), Jim Caldwell (Detroit), and Leslie Frazier (Minnesota), who all became head coaches after working on Dungy’s staff. Mike Shula (Carolina), Clyde Christensen (Tampa Bay), Joe Barry (Washington), and Frank Reich (Philadelphia) evolved into coordinators.
Bill Parcells arguably has one of the NFL’s best coaching trees: Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Sean Payton, Todd Bowles, and Mike Zimmer. Jim Lee Howell’s coaching tree produced two of the greatest coaches in NFL history—Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban has arguably produced college football’s greatest coaching tree. Saban is not only one of the greatest football coaches in history, but his pupils also include Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian, Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin, Jimbo Fisher, Mario Cristobal, Dan Lanning, Billy Napier, Mike Locksley, Curt Cignetti, and Will Muschamp.
However, Sarkisian has found a way to blend coaching stability with upward mobility.
The best of both worlds.
Sarkisian was forced to deal with first-world problems this past week when programs targeted two of his assistants.
The Dallas Cowboys interviewed running backs coach Tashard Choice for their vacant position nearly a week ago. Texas was able to give Choice a raise and keep him in Austin.
However, Longhorns safeties coach Blake Gideon was hired as Georgia Tech’s new defensive coordinator this past week. I was told Georgia Tech “only” offered Gideon $100,000 more than he was making in Austin, but he could not pass up the opportunity to become a play-caller.
Here we are in 2025.
— Five of Sarkisian’s original hires are still with Texas.
— There have only been six departures during his tenure (Stan Drayton, Jeff Choate, Andre Coleman, Brennan Marion, Bo Davis, and Gideon).
— Drayton and Choate became head coaches, Marion was promoted from receivers coach to offensive coordinator and is currently Sacramento State’s head coach, while Gideon is now a defensive coordinator.
— Sarkisian has only dismissed one assistant coach (Coleman).
Here is Sarkisian’s original staff and where they are now:
Jeff Banks – Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends
Jeff Choate – Co-Defensive Coordinator/Inside Linebackers (Nevada’s head coach)
Andre Coleman – Wide Receivers (not listed as a coach on his Twitter account)
Bo Davis – Defensive Line (LSU defensive line coach)
Stan Drayton – Offensive Run Game Coordinator/Running Backs (former Temple head coach)
Kyle Flood – Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line
Blake Gideon – (recently hired as Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator)
Terry Joseph – Defensive Passing Game Coordinator and Secondary
Pete Kwiatkowski – Defensive Coordinator and Outside Linebackers
AJ Milwee – Quarterbacks
*Torre Becton, Director of Football Performance, is still with the Longhorns.
"I think, one, for us, I try to create an environment where it's a want-to rather than a have-to," Sarkisian said. "I think we have a pretty good culture in our building. I know I talk a lot about our culture with our team, but I think our entire organization does. We've got a lot of people who want to come to work every day. When it's time to work, we work. When it's time to not work, we get them out of here.
"I think we've created a really family-friendly environment on our staff. I think not only the coaches, but their spouses and their families appreciate how we go about it. I think they also appreciate living in the city of Austin—it's a pretty good place to live—and they appreciate being part of a team that has been building, growing, and having success.
"There's always a risk of taking another job and going somewhere else and starting over. Sometimes having some consistency in life, especially in our profession, is beneficial. Guys like Kyle Flood, Jeff Banks, Pete Kwiatkowski, and Terry Joseph have been around a long time. They've bounced around. We're a top-five team. We live in a really cool city. A lot of our kids go to Texas. They all go to school there. It's kind of like, we've got a pretty good thing going. Is it worth losing that to start over somewhere else?"
Sarkisian’s ability to keep his core group of coordinators together is unlike Saban’s approach.
Banks, Kwiatkowski, and Flood will seemingly remain in Austin for a long time. Each coordinator is content and not in a hurry to leave Texas. However, each coordinator is a great recruiter and a solid play-caller, meaning Sarkisian is not settling for second-best with those guys.
Yet, when Sarkisian has lost coaches, he has replaced them with upgrades.
- Texas receivers coach Chris Jackson had no prior college coaching experience when he was hired, but he was recently named Rivals’ National Recruiter of the Year.
- Texas defensive line coach Kenny Baker was an upgrade after Davis’ departure.
- Texas linebackers coach Johnny Nansen had an immediate impact with the Longhorns.
- Choice is viewed as a key recruiter on Sarkisian’s staff, especially in Georgia.
Judging by Sarkisian’s ability to replace assistant coaches, Gideon’s replacement will likely be an upgrade as well.
"You've got to remember when I left Alabama to come here, I obviously had pretty good camaraderie with Banks, Flood, and Milwee," Sarkisian said. "We all came together. We had built that on the offensive side of the ball, and really, with Holman Wiggins (receivers) and Charles Huff (running backs). I mean, all of us, we were very close on the offensive side of the ball. Coach Huff goes on to Marshall and now is at Southern Miss. Coach Wiggins is at A&M, but that offensive staff—we had a great rapport. We had great camaraderie. I can't speak for all those other ones that they've had over the years. Truly, there have been some great coaches.
"Go to Kirby, Lane, Billy (Napier)—a lot of guys have gone on to be really successful. Coach Saban was a master of bringing in new coaches and starting it all over again. Ours has been a little bit different.
"We've had some turnover this year, and I think the addition of Johnny Nansen and Kenny Baker has been awesome. There's going to come a time when somebody is going to offer Kyle Flood a head coaching job, or somebody's going to hire AJ Milwee for a job he can't turn down, or Jeff Banks for a head coaching job. That's going to happen over time, and that falls back on us to find the right people to bring into the organization.
"It's not always about what the résumé looks like. It's about personality. Do they fit what we're about?"
Funniest Things You Will See This Week
Enjoy this trip down memory lane
You were today years old when you realized …
NIL in a nutshell (bad language alert)
He risked it all for this joke
Maybe not funny, but there is a life lesson here
Sports A Dime
1. I was previously told Sarkisian’s goal was to find Gideon’s replacement this weekend. However, it appears Sarkisian will attempt to enjoy the Super Bowl and hit the ground running on Monday.
2. One person told me Texas left tackle Trevor Goosby has emerged as a leader in the offensive line room. I was told Goosby arrives at winter conditioning at least one hour before practice. Other offensive linemen have followed Goosby’s lead and started arriving early, too. I was previously told the staff wanted Goosby to emerge as a leader this season and it appears he is meeting their expectations.
3. I was told if Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian decides to eliminate the spring game in April, he will revisit the possibility of reviving it in 2026. We could receive an official announcement this week.
4. No pressure …
PFF’s Way-too-early top-25 for the 2025 season
1. Texas Longhorns (2024 Record: 13-3, Lost CFP Semifinal)
Let the Arch Manning era begin. The next in line to his family’s quarterback dynasty takes over for the departed Quinn Ewers after spending his first two years on the bench. The top overall recruit in 2023 impressed in backup duty this year, earning an 88.0 PFF grade on 239 snaps.
Texas also returns some key pieces from its elite defense like safety Michael Taaffe, edge defender Colin Simmons and cornerback Malik Muhammad. While the Longhorns lost many of their top offensive players to the NFL draft, they do bring back a potential star running back in CJ Baxter who missed his entire sophomore season with a knee injury.
After losing in the semifinals each of the last two years, Texas looks like the early favorite to win it all in 2025.
5. ICYMI
6. The second National Signing Day occurred this past week and most college football fans did not notice. Once you get past the first signing day in December, followed by transfer portal activity, signing day in February is an afterthought.
7. December was a wild month for most college football teams. Texas was forced to deal with national signing day, the transfer portal, competing for an SEC Championship, and participating in the college football playoffs in December. Texas spent most of the month trying to retain players. One person told me as soon as the Cotton Bowl was over, nearly every Longhorn player with an agent wanted a new NIL deal for their client.
Virginia’s football team did not have the same success as Texas, but coach Tony Elliott faced the same challenge as most college football programs.
“The month of December was different than any other December that I've ever been a part of. To be honest with you, really couldn't anticipate what it was really going to be like until we got into it. I think the approach was let's first make sure it's a fit, right? We know where we're trying to go. We know what the culture of the team is.
“I think the first thing was retention, that the guys we had in our program that we needed to retain, we focused there first, then go out and bring in the acquisition and try to balance it out the best we can in terms of high school acquisition and then also portal acquisition ...This December was even different than the December before and the other windows. I think we still wanted to go attract the best talent in the country, but we also wanted to make sure we got the right fit from a team dynamic.”
8. CBS Sports recently graded college football coaches after their third season. Here are the grades of a few coaches worth sharing:
Rhett Lashlee, SMU, A-: “A former SMU offensive coordinator who returned to Dallas after Sonny Dykes' departure for TCU, Lashlee has taken full ownership of this surging Mustangs program that is starting to recapture levels of success it has not seen in decades. Lashlee guided the Mustangs to an AAC title in their final year of conference membership and then nearly won the the ACC the following season. With a conference championship, a Power Four runner-up finish and a CFP appearance already under his belt, Lashlee's stock is soaring heading into 2025.”
Sonny Dykes, TCU, B: “This is an extremely difficult grade to assign. Credit has to be given for leading TCU all the way to the national championship game in Year 1. The program's talent level had been backsliding under the previous regime and Dykes got them all on the same page for one of the best seasons in program history (even if it ended with a lopsided title game loss). But the Horned Frogs are just 14-11 in the last two seasons and have not cracked the top 25 since the 2023 preseason poll.”
Joey McGuire, Texas Tech, B-: “It's been a really solid start for McGuire's tenure at Texas Tech. His Red Raider teams have gone to three bowl games and compiled a 16-11 record against Big 12 opponents. We have yet to see him hit a program peak or experience a breakthrough season or moment, with no top-3 finishes in the Big 12 standings and not even a single appearances in the AP Top 25, but he's got a great reputation on the recruiting trail. His ouststanding recent portal haul has created a buzz around the program heading into 2025.”
Lincoln Riley, USC, C+ : “Coaches are going to be graded on a curve based on what program they're at and the expectations involved, but we're also going to be grading to their own expectations based on previous results. Lincoln Riley went 55-10 at Oklahoma with four conference championships, four top-10 finishes and two College Football Playoff appearances. He's already lost more games at USC (14) in three years than he did at Oklahoma in five, and after finishing as the Pac-12 runner-up in 2022 has gone a combined 15-11 over the last two seasons. If Caleb Williams doesn't injure his hamstring in the Pac-12 title game then the Trojans probably have at least one CFP appearance, but as it is Riley's tenure gets the kind of grade that keeps you eligible but remains far from the Dean's List.”
Oklahoma, Brent Venables, C: “While Oklahoma has been to three straight bowl games with Venables, they are not the games that the Sooners are used to playing in and the results have produced a pair of 6-7 finishes in his three years. He's navigated the move to the SEC and significant turnover on the coaching staff, but enters 2025 under immense pressure because a 12-14 record against conference opponents is not the standard in Norman.”
9. You have to give Deion Sanders credit for building a strong staff. Sanders has been more successful at Colorado than I expected.
10. Jameis Winston is the hero we never knew we needed
