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2024 Texas Football Coaching and Support Staff Thread


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(Scipio Tex) Saban, Sark and The Coaching Carousel

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A few quick thoughts on the current excitement:

If you want to understand Saban’s impact on college football and why he’s the GOAT please watch the latest Xs and Os installment on the Inside Texas channel. I think you’ll find it very informative, with several good takeaways for Texas and Sark. Possibly even your life in general, if you’re in charge of anything professionally or personally.

In part, the show will dispel the notion that Nick Saban retired because of change. He won 7 national titles and has more 1st round NFL draft picks than losses at Bama because no coach has ever flourished more in changing environments. Only one coach in college football history has won national titles in three different decades: Nick Saban.

I hope that Sark uses the Saban news as a leverage amplifier to extract NIL commitments from the Athletic Department in addition to his maximizing his own comp. Assuming he wants to win a natty, that is. Which he does. The real goal of leverage for smart people isn’t to feather your nest and move from very wealthy to marginally wealthier, it’s to create conditions that guarantee your professional success and create personal fulfillment and legacy. Which takes care of the first part, anyway.

Dabo Swinney, the world comes at you quickly, doesn’t it? If Saban had retired two or three years ago, Dabo Swinney would be standing on a stage at a podium in Tuscaloosa right now. But Dabo’s inflexibility cost him his reservation as the de facto Bama head coach in waiting. The once guaranteed successor never learned the real lesson that Nick Saban teaches us all: Adapt or Die. Interesting dichotomy there. To study Saban all of your life and never comprehend his defining characteristic.

Greg Byrne is the AD at Alabama, but Nick Saban ran that program. Saban agreeing to help him with the hire is not only incredibly beneficial for Byrne given Saban’s knowledge and mastery of process, but it also gives Byrne real coverage if the selection doesn’t pan. There’s nothing a bureaucrat values more. Sark going to Alabama is incredibly unlikely. If he went anywhere, it would tell me something deeper about Texas AD commitments.

The ripple effects of this Alabama hire will be significant. For example, if it’s Mike Norvell, you now have Bama filled, the ACC discredited, and another Top 12-15 job open, which creates its own ripple effects. With what FSU has going on at the moment, their commitment to winning football is total. They’d go get a big name. And the carousel continues. If Bama hires a Kalen DeBoer, obviously a lesser ripple.

I pointed out in my Washington previews, that while DeBoer is an excellent coach, elite program building skills at the top levels of football are unproven. Chris Petersen provided the bones of that Husky program and DeBoer’s willingness to recruit against the maniacs in the SEC is unknown. If he failed, it wouldn’t be Xs and Os. It would be acquiring the Jimmys & Joes.

Anyone speculating that Kirby Smart would take the job can be safely placed on ignore forever. Smart has his own empire, Alabama isn’t a better job without Saban (I’d take Georgia, all things equal) and he just saw his window open even wider. Why on earth would he leave Athens? No one is happier today than the Auburn Tigers and Hugh Freeze.

Ian Boyd: Nick Saban's impact on Texas

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With Nick Saban‘s retirement the game of college football is losing the greatest head football coach the sport has ever seen. Perhaps some could quibble about one of the great forefathers of the profession deserving the “GOAT” label but in terms of achievements, Saban’s record is unassailable. The man won seven national championships with six coming at Alabama over a 17-year tenure which also included nine SEC Championships and sixteen consecutive 10-win seasons (even in the abridged 2020 COVID season).

To that he could add another pair of SEC Championships and a National Championship from a prior stint at LSU. All of those National Championships and wins also came while competing in the SEC West, the toughest division in football. No other coach can claim to have won more while competing at a higher level. With all of that success, a lot of other college football programs were crowded out from enjoying much fortune in the Saban era.

Despite only competing directly with Saban’s Alabama toward the beginning and very end of his tenure, Texas has long felt the impact of his astounding run. You can scarcely tell the story of 21st century Texas football without regular inclusions of the Hall of Fame coach. Let’s review some of his biggest impacts on the Longhorn program as a hat tip to the GOAT.

The end of Mack Brown-Texas Football

Mack Brown‘s Texas football brand and program had a few cracks in the foundation by the time Saban took over at Alabama in 2007. Many of them were papered over by two pronounced factors on the late 2000’s Longhorns.

The first was a particularly old and skilled passing game powered by Jordan Shipley (a 6th year senior in 2009), Colt McCoy (5th year senior in 2009), and Quan Cosby (a 26-year old senior in 2008). As those old veterans moved on, the bottom fell out of the Texas offense, although there are other factors we’ll get into. The other dynamic holding Brown’s Texas together was a revitalized defense whose overhaul was engineered by Will Muschamp, a Saban protege.

The last hurrah for Brown was the 2010 Rose Bowl which served as the National Championship Game for the 2009 season and pitted Texas against Saban’s first SEC champion Alabama team. Obviously we all know what happened. McCoy was injured early in the game, Alabama won, and Texas spiraled in following seasons as the offense collapsed and Muschamp departed despite owning a “head coach in waiting” title.

One of the most pronounced impacts of this defeat was the impact on how Brown ran the Longhorn program in subsequent seasons. Despite losing largely due to a somewhat fluky and certainly unlucky quarterback injury, the loss sent Brown into a tailspin. He determined to rebuild the Texas offense around a downhill run game like Alabama had utilized in the title game and get back to the pre-Vince Young days of Ricky Williams and Cedric Benson.

This was a strange decision at the time considering Brown had failed to win even the Big 12, much less the National Championship, before pivoting to the spread offense with Young and McCoy. Nevertheless, Brown made the move and used it to sell 5-star running back recruits Malcolm Brown and Jonathan Gray on joining the program. When his longtime offensive coordinator Greg Davis (understandably) fumbled the transition to an under center run game in 2010 with no running back and a retooled offensive line, he was replaced with Boise State play-caller Bryan Harsin.

What followed was a disastrous run of offense which cost Brown his job and wasn’t satisfactorily resolved until the 2023 season.

The long winter

The transition to a power run game was a disaster for the Longhorns and the search to replace Brown as the head man for Texas football a long one. Naturally, it began with Saban, who’d quickly racked up three National Championships during the time in which Brown was trying to rebuild the Longhorns after their collapse in 2010.

There was a plan to edge Brown out for emerging Saban which didn’t materialize and a brutal decade for Texas football ensued. For both of the next two hires, Texas was basically stumbling into decisions rather than making them with total institutional buy-in or oversight. Here’s how things went in this period while Saban was racking up titles in Tuscaloosa.

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Texas had a few blips of strong offense now and again but the 2023 season was the first in which the offense was consistently present in big games.

The Longhorns put up 34 points in Tuscaloosa, helping to signal the end of Saban’s time at Alabama, scored 30 in the Red River Shootout despite some costly red zone mistakes, put 49 on Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship, and had 31 in the playoffs against Washington. Previous Texas teams, even with similar offensive numbers, couldn’t come through on the biggest stages in the same fashion and didn’t have as much offensive talent.

For many of these seasons the Longhorns tried to build a power run game and couldn’t get the passing component right which had propelled them to their top seasons under Brown. Until the 2022 season, Texas and Alabama existed in two worlds apart. The Tide dominating in the brutal SEC West while the Longhorns languished and watched their rivals in Oklahoma (or even their former punching bags in Waco) dominate the Big 12.

Steve Sarkisian and the return of the passing game

The Longhorns spent the 2010s looking to emulate Saban under Brown before then making repeated attempts to emulate Urban Meyer by hiring his former coordinators before taking a stab at getting the main guy himself. During that time, Saban went in a very different direction.

After taking a series of losses against HUNH (hurry-up, no-huddle) spread teams popping up in the SEC, Saban resolved to update his offensive approach to include more RPOs, spread formations, and passing. He hired Lane Kiffin, of the Pete Carroll/Norm Chow tree and eventually followed that up by getting Kiffin’s USC colleague Steve Sarkisian.

While Texas fans spent the offseason after 2020 wondering if Meyer might come to Austin for the final act of his coaching career, a new administration in Austin was making a move to snatch up Sarkisian.

To pull a coach with origins from the very USC program Texas notably vanquished for their only Championship of the modern era was a bit unexpected but has ultimately righted the ship. Texas had Saban to thank for sending the program into a spiral which took over a decade to overcome but also for revitalizing Sark’s career and giving him a stage upon which to demonstrate his potential to be the head coach who brought Texas back.

Eric Nahlin: Why I'm not concerned about Steve Sarkisian leaving Texas for Alabama

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Nick Saban’s retirement from Alabama has some Texas fans on edge. Given Steve Sarkisian‘s recent success at the school, there is some concern that Sark would entertain leaving Austin for Tuscaloosa. I don’t share that concern. Here’s why:

1. I haven’t been told to be worried about it

Nick Saban stepping down just as Sark’s representation is negotiating his extension with Texas makes for curious timing. Over the weekend IT reported we expected a painless negotiation between Texas and Sark. There’s a lot of embedded knowledge in that sentiment that informs the current situation, but No. 1 on my list of reasons for not being worried about Sark leaving is because nobody has given us a reason to be worried. On the flip side, I’ve heard plenty of optimism a deal with Texas will get done.

Worrying about things without having a good reason seems like a waste of time.

2. Embedded knowledge

Sark has always been grateful of the opportunity to be the Texas head coach. That gratitude remains to this day and has been increased by the support he’s received even when the first two seasons didn’t go nearly as well has he’d hoped. Sark is also part of the UT fabric. He hasn’t siloed himself into football reclusiveness. He’s “one of the guys” in the UT coaching circle. He fully bought into UT upon his arrival and now he’s the central figure in UT’s football revival and probably the most popular man on campus.

3. Sweat equity

Going from 5-7, to 8-5, and 12-2 this year is proof his hard work is paying off. And it is hard work. As we often chronicle, the guy always has something pressing on his plate. There are no true openings on his calendar, save maybe a week or two in July. But even then, he’s working on closing recruitments. You know how busy July is with recruiting. That’s “vacation”.

He has spent a lot of time and energy, along with his current staff, in developing the players he has. Look how many inherited players are going to get drafted — the sorts of players many fans have given up on. That took a lot of work. Despite making the playoffs this year, he still hasn’t fully reaped the rewards of his work. Wait until the offensive and defensive lines are fully stocked with upperclassmen. They’re getting closer.

He’ll want to see roster maturity through. The program is very close to creating inertia.

4. He has elite quarterbacks lined up for the next three years and possibly beyond

Quinn Ewers will be a front-runner for the Heisman, assuming he returns. After Ewers is Arch Manning who might have more upside than Ewers. That’s a three-year window where winning a National Championship is a plausible goal. 2024 will be the first year he has a consistent joystick at the position. For an offensive play caller that’s a major consideration.

5. Comfort in Austin

Sark and his wife are a bit of a power couple. Loreal Sarkisian has hit the sweet spot of being both prominent yet not attention-seeking. I recall her getting emotional in front of a group of fans and donors she addressed at a “brunch” before Sarkisian’s first spring game. She instantly felt the support from fans and the school, and she, just like Sark, was grateful for their opportunity.

She is much more ‘Austin’ than ‘Tuscaloosa’. Austin is a very good fit for her just like it is for Sark. Sark’s a SoCal dude, and judging by the increase in Austin traffic over the last decade, those sorts are comfortable in Austin.

6. Thanks to institutional support, the Texas job has increased stature

The Texas job has always been desirable because of ‘potential’. Now it’s a great job because it’s starting to realize its potential. This growth is big because Sark is a tried and true football coach who wants to win more than anything else. To win big in college football you need institutional support. Sark has that in Jay Hartzell, Chris Del Conte, and Kevin Eltife. That support and shared goals have fostered an excellent working relationship between the four.

The move to the SEC, which underscored the school’s commitment to winning, and competitive NIL gives Texas a good opportunity to become the new Alabama. If one school can emerge in this chaotic climate and create a dynasty of sorts, it’s Texas.

Along these lines, what does Alabama have over Texas other than tradition? Alabama’s maniacal resolve to win used to be a massive differentiator over Texas but that’s no longer the case. If NIL didn’t exist, I don’t think Nick Saban would be retiring. Yet Sark is just now starting to thrive at Texas in the same climate. There’s perhaps a lot of embedded knowledge in that, too.

 

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1 hour ago, Bodacious Bevo said:

just checking to see if anybody would read it or if everyone else also just scrolls past all this stuff like I do 

Hopefully we see some dominoes in the secondary 


Go fuck yourself for wasting space on this thread. 

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15 minutes ago, Herpa Derpa said:

So a hot blonde with big tits is in your wheelhouse? Man, you are one unique fella.


Have you been following surly at all over the years? You would think fat cholas were the wheelhouse of most posters. 

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1 minute ago, Hookem2147 said:

Drinkwitz, Rees and Locksley had to be agent throw-ins.

I would piss my pants with laughter at the thought of any of those 3 coaching Alabama.

Drinkwitz is an excellent politician who just beat OSU in the Cotton Bowl. He makes sense as a guy on the longlist.

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4 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Drinkwitz, Rees and Locksley had to be agent throw-ins.

I would piss my pants with laughter at the thought of any of those 3 coaching Alabama.

Or nobody wants to follow Saban. 

If Sark and Kiffin said no after Lanning there are only a couple more good options. DeBoer and Norvell are two good options. After that, you're probably reaching for somebody. 

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12 minutes ago, CaseMcCoyTruther said:

Not sure Loreal would comment “Let’s get it! 🤘🏾🔥” on Quinn’s return post if her husband was ditching QB1. Jimmy Sexton is busting our balls to get his client paid. Good agent.

I mean is Sexton even busting anyone's balls? 

Football scoop is the most reliable coaching source and it doesn't even sound like Sark is in the mix. He's either already told them no or Bama knew that wasn't happening. Outside of online rumor stuff, there's been nothing reliable about Sark having any interest in Alabama. 

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6 minutes ago, DanTheHorn said:

Bobby keeps pushing for Ed Orgeron and he looks tanned and ready.

orgeron-4.jpg?resize=654,1024&quality=75

In all seriousness, would there be any reason to dislike Orgeron? 

He's a legit recruiter, produced good DL at USC and LSU, and probably gets us even more into Louisiana. Outside of maybe Roach he looks like the best option. 

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9 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

In all seriousness, would there be any reason to dislike Orgeron? 

He's a legit recruiter, produced good DL at USC and LSU, and probably gets us even more into Louisiana. Outside of maybe Roach he looks like the best option. 

The only concern would be what Saban said in his interview. He surrounds himself by people that are fully committed. I don't know if Coach O has found that commitment again. We know he lost it at LSU when he started bringing girlfriends and their kids to practice.

Edited by DanTheHorn
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9 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I mean is Sexton even busting anyone's balls? 

Football scoop is the most reliable coaching source and it doesn't even sound like Sark is in the mix. He's either already told them no or Bama knew that wasn't happening. Outside of online rumor stuff, there's been nothing reliable about Sark having any interest in Alabama. 

Sark ain’t going to say “no” until his extension gets done. There is no reason to even respond at this point and it is not like he has had any required media availability right now.
 

Sexton doesn’t want to link Sark to Bama too hard because he might hurt Sarks extension and more importantly moving Sark to Bama while pissing off Texas makes it that much more likely that Texas won’t deal with him for their new vacancy. 

 

My guess is that if Sark was heavily interested in going to go to Bama we would have already heard about it and Ewers would not have announced today he is coming back.

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3 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

In all seriousness, would there be any reason to dislike Orgeron? 

He's a legit recruiter, produced good DL at USC and LSU, and probably gets us even more into Louisiana. Outside of maybe Roach he looks like the best option. 

I know he looks a little younger but he's 62.  That's pretty old for the hustle and I don't know that his LSU resume carries a lot of weight with a 17 year old. 

I'm not for Okam or Rod Wright but at least they aren't eligible for social security. 

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3 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I know he looks a little younger but he's 62.  That's pretty old for the hustle and I don't know that his LSU resume carries a lot of weight with a 17 year old. 

I'm not for Okam or Rod Wright but at least they aren't eligible for social security. 

Maybe he's too old....I dunno but Orgeron has 20X as many recruiting and development skins as either Okam or Wright. 

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3 minutes ago, TexasRenegade said:

I mean in that light..O has more skins than the man he'd be replacing.

Well, I personally think Orgeron would be a home run hire. IMO he's a much better recruiter than Davis. Probably not a better developer but he produced very good DL at some major programs. 

 

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Just now, Rickylovesweed said:

Well, I personally think Orgeron would be a home run hire. IMO he's a much better recruiter than Davis. Probably not a better developer but he produced very good DL at some major programs. 

 

I wasn't disagreeing with you. If O has the drive to work he'd be a damned good D line coach.  But as has been pointed out we will probably never know.

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8 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

A guy who has been coaching way longer has way more results? No way. 

I laughed but so far that's the mold that Texas has had success with under Sark. 

Flood, Banks, Davis, Choate, etc had vast experience prior to Texas. Legit skins on the wall prior to Texas. The only top-tier assistant that might not fit that mold is Choice. So yeah, give me the guy that's proven himself over the guys you hope will produce results with more experience. 

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1 minute ago, closetojumping said:

Anyone worrying about a down side with Ed Orgeron is a dickless coelenterate. We can’t lose with that guy. He’s an amazing DL coach, one of the best recruiters literally ever, an absolute train wreck of a human, and extremely loyal. He interviewed with UF and decided he didn’t like the fit. He wants to coach because he loves coaching. Yes, please. 

 

I have it on good authority that a dude named after an Australian City and thing milk used to be stored in said O didn't like the metropolitan vibe of Gainesville.

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4 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I don't think people realize how big of a recruiting witch Orgeron is. 

He's been one of the best recruiters in the country for 2 decades. 

Which is amazing considering you need Google translate to tell what the hell he is saying. I guess wimmenz romancing each other in his lap is a hell of a recruiting pitch. 

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32 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Anyone worrying about a down side with Ed Orgeron is a dickless coelenterate. We can’t lose with that guy. He’s an amazing DL coach, one of the best recruiters literally ever, an absolute train wreck of a human, and extremely loyal. He interviewed with UF and decided he didn’t like the fit. He wants to coach because he loves coaching. Yes, please. 

If Sarkisian were to leave, and it looks really unlikely, Deboer would be #1 on the list. 

If his time at Maryland doesn’t impress you, wait until you see what that imbecile did at New Mexico. 

Nielsen is a better option, but we’re probably splitting hairs. 

There’s what people say and then what people do. Saban employed Lane Kiffin because he needed him. That dude was erratic as hell while at Bama and Saban let him get away with it. Similar stories exist regarding other staff members at times. 

To be fair to Locksley he's done a couple things incredibly well at Maryland: Not killed any players and not been Randy Edsall 

I don't expect him to get a real look at Bama because he shouldn't but knowing a lot of Maryland people I think they're almost totally fine with how he's done minus a little consternation from not having taken down any of OSU/Michigan/PSU when they're not having awful years. Will be interesting to see how he fares post-Taulia though.

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35 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

I have it on good authority that a dude named after an Australian City and thing milk used to be stored in said O didn't like the metropolitan vibe of Gainesville.

Perth Bottle? Never heard of him.

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12 minutes ago, Teryor said:

To be fair to Locksley he's done a couple things incredibly well at Maryland: Not killed any players and not been Randy Edsall 

I don't expect him to get a real look at Bama because he shouldn't but knowing a lot of Maryland people I think they're almost totally fine with how he's done minus a little consternation from not having taken down any of OSU/Michigan/PSU when they're not having awful years. Will be interesting to see how he fares post-Taulia though.

He also didn't turn himself into a caricature in dumb athletic equipment commercials.

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6 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

Columbus, OH, is as big or bigger than Austin, TX, from a population perspective. It's the biggest city in the state by far and fucking dwarfs cities with pro teams like Cincinatti and Cleveland. I'm not super familiar with the kind of business and industry in Columbus, but I'm betting it's fairly decent. 

In my more naive youthful days I would have rebutted with "Yeah but its in fucking Ohio" as I chuckled to myself round the decay of our own colossal wreck.

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4 hours ago, Rimbo said:

And has anything happened in regards to these in the past 3 hours?

No.

So we're fine. Lemme know if anything actually important happens, and I'll keep shitposting about Audrey, Marilyn, and all the weakass fucks who merely want to be Audrey and Marilyn.

And @SydneyCarton, Michigan IS a higher tier than Ohio State, but not because of their location. Michigan is Marilyn Monroe, and tOSU is Jayne Mansfield; plenty hot in her own right, but no Marilyn Monroe.

ok boomer, could you maybe update your references so the people under 50 can understand?

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