Sarkisian's road record is trash, here and previously. Our program has been relative trash for a long time. This is apparently the first version of sober HC Steve. This is the first version of post-Saban-tutelage HC Steve. There is more than one logical but non-definitive way to assess our evidence of his promise as a HC. I reject the "exclude title-winning HC" metric. We are not shooting for decent; we are shooting for awesome. The big question is whether sobering up, learning under Saban, and getting his rebuilding year-1 behind him makes Steve a bit of an unknown. If one's inclination is to answer that question "yes," then we are headed for undiscovered country. If "no," then he has shown us what he is, a loser on the road, 7-win Steve.
Out of the infuriating collapse that was the Tech second half, however, I witnessed a team that had fight and promise in a road game, IMO. The last-minute drive was the performance of winners. A lot of fail went into setting it up, and the fumble brought it to an end, but it was not the attack of an unprepared or demoralized team. If we end this year at 5-7 after another losing streak, it will be hard to blame it on external factors. OTOH, if we play for or especially win a conference title this year, I will lean strongly toward the opinion that 7-win Steve has sobered and matured into a legitimate winner.