Steve Sarkisian: Austin Bound

The 2020 Broyles Award winner (best assistant coach in college football) as offensive coordinator at Alabama, and the former head coach at USC and Washington, Steve Sarkisian was named the 31st Head Football Coach at The University of Texas on Saturday.

"I'm excited, I'm pumped, I'm honored, I'm humbled to be named the head coach at The University of Texas," Sarkisian said following the announcement. "This morning I was on the phone with my parents, my dad is 84 years old and I mentioned I think I'm getting this Texas head coaching job, and he said, 'You know, about 20 years ago you told me, "Dad, that's the job, that's the best job in America."' It's amazing to think, here we are, 15 years removed from me standing on the opposite sideline and Vince Young running in the end zone of the Rose Bowl, of being named the head coach at Texas. It's a tremendous opportunity for me. There's a lot of talent on this team. I think there's championship talent on this team…it's time to roll our sleeves up and go to work."

Sarkisian was the quarterbacks coach at USC when Texas defeated the Trojans to win the 2005 National Championship, and he has now helped guide Alabama to this year's National Championship Game. He will continue in his role with the Crimson Tide in that game on Monday night before heading to Austin.

"I wanted to make sure when I took a head coaching job that it was the right job, that it was a job I felt like had the resources in place, had the people in place, ultimately was a university that we could recruit to and that we could win championships at, had the rich history, had the traditions, and so when this opportunity came, then I jumped on it," Sarkisian said. "When Texas came along it felt right initially and continued to feel right the more I got engaged and researched it. This just felt like an awesome opportunity to me."

In the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama, Sarkisian was the architect of 24 straight games in which the Crimson Tide's offense scored 35 or more points, the longest streak in major college football history. Despite coming up just short of that in a 31-14 win over Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals, the victory propelled Alabama to an opportunity to play for a National Championship.

"I think Sark has done an outstanding job in terms of, first of all, system and scheme; secondly, in terms of how he teaches the players," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. "And he's a very good quarterback coach. So he's really helped the development of the quarterback. I think (quarterback) Mac (Jones) would be the first one to probably tell you that. And I think a combination of all those things and how he manages his staff and everybody's on the same page and works really, really well together."

This season, Alabama's offense ranks second in the nation in scoring and has led all Power 5 schools with 48.2 points per game, which is on pace to set a school record and includes five 50-point games against Southeastern Conference competition. The Crimson Tide became the first team in league history to record five such games in a single season in conference play. The Tide followed that by posting 52 points against Florida in the 2020 SEC Championship to earn the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

"I think the players have a lot of confidence in what we're doing, and I think they sort of have confidence in the fact that they're well prepared for every game so they don't go in with a lot of question marks or apprehensions in terms of how we're going to handle certain things and what adjustments we need to make in the game to be able to continue to have success," Saban said. "So he's just done an outstanding job. He's contributed as much as anybody that we've ever had here in terms of his knowledge and experience and how he manages the offensive side of the ball."

Alabama leads the nation in third-down conversion percentage (59.3), team passing efficiency (198.48) and completion percentage (75.8), led by Heisman Trophy finalist Mac Jones, who has posted the top individual ratings in passing efficiency and completion percentage, as well. The receiving end of the nation's No. 5 passing offense (349.3 ypg) features another Heisman Trophy finalist in DeVonta Smith, who leads the nation in receiving yards (1,641) and receiving touchdowns (20), and is second in receiving yards per game (136.8 ypg). The offense also claims the nation's leader in rushing touchdowns in Doak Walker Award finalist RB Najee Harris with 24, while Harris is third in rushing yards (1,387) and 12th in rushing yards per game (115.6 ypg). Harris finished fifth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy to make Alabama the second team ever to place three players in the top five of the same Heisman vote, joining 1946 Army with Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard and Arnold Tucker. Sarkisian has also coached two Heisman winners at USC in Carson Palmer (2002) and Matt Leinart (2004), who was also a finalist under him in 2005.

Blocking for that Alabama unit is an offensive line that won the 2020 Joe Moore Award as the nation's best and was anchored by two first-team All-Americans in Outland Trophy finalist LT Alex Leatherwood and Rimington Trophy finalist C Landon Dickerson. Jones, Smith and Harris have all received first-team All-America honors, as well. As a team, Alabama ranks sixth in the nation in total offense at 535.0 yards per game and is on pace to break the school record.

The 2019 Alabama offense averaged a school-record 47.2 points per game, which ranked second nationally, while averaging 510.8 yards per game, which was sixth nationally and is currently second on school record. Quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones combined to throw for 4,449 yards and 49 touchdowns which equated to a school-record 342.2 passing yards per game that ranked third nationally. Alabama's 199.61 passing efficiency rating was not only a school record, but the second-best mark in NCAA history. Smith ranked fifth nationally with 14 receiving touchdowns and 11th with 1,256 receiving yards. The receiving corps also featured Jerry Jeudy, who was 25th (10) and 20th (1,163) in those categories, respectively. Harris was also in the top 25 in rushing touchdowns (21st/13) and rushing yards (1,224). Jeudy and Leatherwood both earned first-team All-America honors, while Smith and OT Jedrick Willis were tabbed second-team All-America. Four members of the Crimson Tide offense went on to be drafted in the first 15 picks of the first round, including Tagovailoa (No. 5/Miami), Willis (No. 10/Cleveland Browns), WR Henry Ruggs III (No. 12 Oakland Raiders) and Jeudy (No. 15/Denver Broncos).

The past two seasons marked Sarkisian's second stint at Alabama after serving as an analyst for most of the 2016 season before being promoted to offensive coordinator for the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game.

Prior to his return to Alabama, Sarkisian was the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons. During his two years coordinating the Falcons' attack, Sarkisian built one of the most dangerous offenses in the NFL. The 2018 unit finished in the top 10 in the NFL in passing yards (fourth – 4,653 yards), total yards (sixth – 6,226 yards) and scoring (10th – 25.9 ppg). Quarterback Matt Ryan was third in the NFL in passing yards (4,924 yards) while tossing 35 touchdowns. Wide receiver Julio Jones caught 113 passes for 1,677 yards and eight touchdowns, and Calvin Ridley added 64 catches for 821 yards and a team-high 10 scores. Jones led the league in receiving yards in 2018, while Ridley paced all rookies in receiving yards and touchdowns.

In 2017, two pieces of the Falcons offense, Jones and center Alex Mack, were selected to the Pro Bowl. Atlanta led the NFL in third-down percentage in Sarkisian's first season, while finishing eighth in the league in passing offense (249.4) and third in yards per play (5.93).

Sarkisian not only boasts play-calling experience at the highest levels of football, but seven years as an FBS head coach. He guided the Southern California program in 2014-15, and the Washington Huskies from 2009-13. He posted a head coaching record of 46-35 over those seven seasons while leading his teams to five bowl appearances.

During his time as head coach at USC, Sarkisian led the Trojans to a 12-6 overall record including a second-place finish in the Pac-12's Southern Division in 2014. His 2014 offense ranked in the top 25 nationally in passing efficiency (fourth – 165.35), passing offense (15th – 296.6 ypg), third down conversions (19th – 46.6 percent) and scoring offense (22nd – 35.8 ppg). The Trojans finished 9-4 overall, including wins in four of their last five games, and capped the year with a Holiday Bowl win over Nebraska.

In 2014, Sarkisian produced a pair of first-team All-Americans in DE Leonard Williams and WR Nelson Agholor, a sophomore All-American first teamer in S/LB Su'a Cravens, a quartet of Freshman All-American first teamers in CB/WR Adoree' Jackson, who was the Pac-12 Freshman Defensive Player of the Year, along with OL Toa Lobendahn, WR JuJu Smith and OG Viane Talamaivao. Quarterback Cody Kessler had the most efficient passing season in USC history (69.7 completion percentage, 39 passing TDs, five interceptions), Agholor had 104 receptions, which was third-best in USC history, and Allen rushed for 1,489 yards, the most by a Trojan since 2005. USC's offense ranked in the national Top 25 in passing efficiency, passing offense, third down conversions and scoring offense, while the defense was in the nation's Top 20 in turnover margin, red zone defense and third down conversion defense. Six Trojans were drafted by the NFL, including a pair of first rounders in Williams and Agholor, along with four players he coached at Washington, including three in the first round in DT Danny Shelton, CB Marcus Peters and LB Shaq Thompson.

At Washington, Sarkisian inherited a program in 2009 that had won just 12 games during the previous five seasons, including a winless season the year prior. Despite that challenge, he guided the Huskies to bowl games in his last four seasons. His eight victories in 2013 were the most at UW since 2000 and the Huskies finished ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press poll. His overall Washington record was 34-29, and his tenure in Seattle resulted in eight wins over Associated Press Top 25 teams (No. 3 USC, No. 19 California in 2009; No. 18 USC, No. 18 Nebraska and No. 24 Oregon State in 2010; No. 7 Oregon State and No. 8 Stanford in 2012; No. 13 Boise State in 2013).

Among the UW players Sarkisian coached were nine additional NFL draftees, including QB Jake Locker, CB Desmond Trufant, LBs Donald Butler and All-American Mason Foster, DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim and RB Bishop Sankey, plus All-Pac-12 RB Chris Polk.

Sarkisian arrived at Southern Cal as an assistant in 2001 and took over as the quarterbacks coach in 2002, where he tutored quarterback Carson Palmer to the Heisman Trophy and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft. After spending the 2004 season as the quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders, Sarkisian returned to the Trojan staff in February of 2005 as the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach for four seasons (2005-08). He added the offensive coordinator role to his duties in 2007 and 2008 at USC.

At USC, Sarkisian coached Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks in Palmer and Leinart, along with NFL signal-callers Mark Sanchez, John David Booty and Matt Cassel. The Trojans went 23-3 during his tenure as the offensive coordinator.

Prior to his start in coaching as quarterbacks coach at El Camino College in 2000, Sarkisian starred at the quarterback position at the prep, collegiate and pro levels. He spent time with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League for three seasons (1997-99) following his collegiate career at BYU.

While with the Cougars from 1995-96, he completed 549-of-824 passes (66.6 percent) for 7,755 yards and 55 touchdowns. His 162.0 career passing efficiency rating was third on the all-time NCAA list when he finished playing. As a senior in 1996, he led the nation in passing efficiency (173.6, the fourth-best mark in NCAA history at the time), leading the Cougars to the WAC championship and a win in the 1997 Cotton Bowl. He was the WAC Offensive Player of the Year in 1996 and earned second team All-America honors.

Sarkisian earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from BYU in 1997 after getting his associate's degree in general studies from El Camino College in 1994.

He is married to the former Loreal Smith, who competed and coached in track and field. He has two daughters, Ashley and Taylor, and a son, Brady.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

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