Actually, Steve Sarkisian said Wednesday, this has been your normal game week in terms of preparation and game planning.
You know, getting ready to call plays for Alabama in the College Football Playoff national championship game against Ohio State. Oh, and also working on the foundation for his new full-time job come Tuesday as Texas’ head coach, including building a staff and recruiting.
“Quite honestly, my week for me would be a normal game week as if I hadn’t taken the Texas job,” Sarkisian said during a media Zoom call.
“My focus is on the game. I’m prepping for the ballgame. Any of the spare time that I do have, that’s getting my attention for the job at Texas, whether that’s staffing or recruiting, things of that nature.”
Just your average week.
Riiiiiight.
As much as Sarkisian said he wanted to keep the focus on the national title game, questions about Texas kept intruding on the edges this week.
And yes, he’s busy assembling a staff. All signs point to Alabama offensive line coach Kyle Flood, joining Sarkisian in Texas. He’ll have the title of offensive coordinator and O-line coach, although Sarkisian will still call plays, his specialty.
Running backs coach Stan Drayton, a very good recruiter, has tweeted that he is staying.
FootballScoop.com reported that Mississippi State’s Zach Arnett is a leading candidate for defensive coordinator.
Meanwhile, the search to fill other positions continues — when Sarkisian isn’t focusing on how to use all those wondrous Crimson Tide skill players one more time.
“Everyone is happy for Coach Sark,” Heisman winner DeVonta Smith said. “That’s part of the business. But he’s going to be here with us throughout this last game, and we’re trying to finish things the right way.”
Nick Saban, who is scheduled to bring Alabama to Texas in the 2022 season, provided a testimonial of sorts.
“Sark has done a marvelous job here,” Saban said. “He’s very well organized. He works very well with all the people in the organization, players and coaches alike. He’s a good play caller on game day. He does a really good job of preparing the players game plan wise for each and every game, and he’s just done a great job.”
Of course, there’s a difference between being a productive assistant in Saban’s football factory and succeeding on your own, as Saban’s own coaching tree proves.
In this case, Saban sees Sarkisian, 46, continuing to do what he does well, overseeing an offense averaging 49.7 points a game. That promise is one reason Texas is paying him $34.2 million over six years, even though he hasn’t been a head coach since 2015 at USC.
“He’s been a real asset to our organization, and I think he’ll be very successful as a head coach,” Saban said. “And he’s taken over a good program, so it’s going to be challenging for anybody that plays them in the future, I think.”
Saban has lately specialized as a landing spot for once-promising coaches to rebuild their resumes and reputations. The two Alabama OCs before Sarkisian were Lane Kiffin and Mike Locksley, for example.
“Clearly, coach Saban offers guys like myself an opportunity to come into his program, learn, develop as coaches, but I think it’s a two-way street in that I think when you come in like a guy like myself, I think you need to come in understanding what your role is,” Sarkisian said.
In other words, no coach is going to be the star of the show at Alabama besides Saban.
Sarkisian came to Alabama as an analyst in 2016, called plays in the national title game after Kiffin wore out his welcome and then returned as OC in 2018 after two years with Atlanta Falcons.
“I don’t want to call it necessarily humble, but I do think there’s a piece of humility that has to come into this. This is the greatest college football coach of all time, and recognize the space that you’re in, regardless if you’d been a head coach for seven years, and there’s been a variety of us that have come and gone through here,” Sarkisian said.
“But he’s a tremendous mentor, and if you allow yourself to be mentored, I think you gain even more out of this experience.”
