Sarkisian, Longhorns stand tall against the Tide

Confetti from a college football weekend.

Quinn Ewers

When it became clear that Texas would throttle Alabama, 34-24, on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Steve Sarkisian finally delivered a fist pump and held up his index and pinky fingers, in the Longhorn salute.

Across the field, Nick Saban was busy filling mental notebooks with the snafus that beset his Crimson Tide. He was too busy to dwell on his own pivotal role in getting Sarkisian to this point, particularly since Saban himself was serving as the milestone. Nor was Saban familiar with demonstrations during big wins in September, since all of his seven national championships came along in January. But he probably didn’t begrudge Sarkisian the opportunity to party. Lord knows Sark had fought for the right.

Sarkisian’s first shining moment as a head football coach was meticulously planned and faithfully performed. The Texas defensive line did a drum solo on the heads, and on the bloated bodies, of the Alabama blockers, creating five sacks and nine tackles-for-loss. Texas QB Quinn Ewers had a hermetically sealed pocket most of the night and took advantage. The Longhorns fell behind in the third quarter and struck back immediately, scoring on a 3-play drive that consumed 69 seconds, and they had far more playmakers than did Alabama. It was a fitting way for Texas to balance the scale from 2022, when it might have done the same thing to Alabama in Austin except for two quarterbacking details: Alabama had Bruce Young, and Ewers was knocked out of the game. 

“I loved the grit and the perseverance we showed,” Sarkisian said. “It shows what we’re capable of.”

In the minds of their fans, Texas is capable of winning every game it plays, and when that doesn’t happen, it’s time to summon the coaching search committee. But the Longhorns have not won a national championship since 2005, when Vince Young tiptoed through the Trojans at the Rose Bowl, or a conference title since 2009. That was the year that Texas got to the College Football Playoff final, also at the Rose Bowl, but lost to Saban and Alabama.

Texas has finished in the postseason top ten of the wire-service polls only once since that season, and that was 9th in 2018, the second of Tom Herman’s four years at the helm. Sarkisian is the seventh Texas coach to try this since Darrell Royal hung it up after the 1976 season.  Last year’s 8-5 finish, including an Alamo Bowl loss to Washington, was only Texas’ third winning record since 2013.

So let Sarkisian dance in the end zone if he likes, at least for one day. The only misgiving is that the Longhorns don’t get to join the Southeastern Conference until 2024. In two weekends, Alabama has lost to Texas, LSU was kicked around by Florida State, and Texas A&M got torpedoed at Miami. As it is, Texas will have to convince its Big 12 rivals that it really is different this time. It also will have to deal with bitter resentment from precincts in Waco, Lubbock and Fort Worth, although Texas is accustomed to that.

Until Saturday, Sarkisian’s two-year highlights at Texas were confined to a 49-0 win over Oklahoma last year and three shiny recruiting classes. The Longhorns never lack for “blue chips,” even if they turn out to be plastic. Ewers was the top quarterback in his class at Southlake High near Dallas, and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders was a prized tight end from Denton, Tex. There were quite a few others, and then Sarkisian worked the transfer portal to get safety Ryan Watts from Ohio State and wide-out Adonai Mitchell from Georgia. They, and most of their mates, brought their recruiting rankings to life on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was a formidable running threat and showed a live arm. He also threw two interceptions and had trouble picking out the best targets, although Davonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle don’t live here anymore. Neither is there an obvious NFL-caliber runner. Saban admitted the Tide failed this test, but added that it’s a “mid-term, not a final.” This might take more than tutoring.

When Saban threw his latest lifeline, Sarkisian had been the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons, the man who replaced Kyle Shanahan after that particular magician of an offensive coordinator helped make a 25-point Super Bowl lead disappear. San Francisco offered Shanahan the head coaching job anyhow. Sarkisian became Atlanta’s offensive coordinator. Suddenly the Falcons had no big leads to squander, and Sarkisian was in the wilderness when Saban brought him to Alabama as an adviser, then as the play-caller.

This followed Sarkisian’s head coaching debut at Washington, which devolved into a streak of bad bowl appearances. That led to Sarkisian’s surprise appointment as USC’s head coach, when interim coach Ed Orgeron was popular and Vanderbilt coach James Franklin was available (before he went to Penn State). At that point Sarkisian was being pulled into deep water by a drinking problem, which prompted his firing in the middle of his second season.

Saban brought Sarkisian to Tuscaloosa as an offensive adviser and then the emergency play-caller for a College Football Playoff title game when Lane Kiffin took the Florida Atlantic job, and recommended Sarkisian to Saban on the way out.

Saban does not add distressed coaches because of his charitable instincts. Working for him is a boot camp experience. It’s also beneficial to coaches who want to know the totality of a football program, the way teaching, recruiting and nurturing are all integrated.

Sarkisian has now seen the best days of Saban and Pete Carroll (while at USC) up close. On Saturday he became the first coach to beat one of Saban’s teams by 10 points on its own gridiron. As Saban well knows, no good deed goes unpunished.

Elsewhere on a college football Saturday:

Miami 48, Texas A&M 33

– Tyler Van Dyke might already be the Comeback Player of the Year. He reeled back his 2021 season as he went 21 for 30 with five touchdowns and no interceptions for the Hurricanes.

– The beating was worse than it looks. A&M’s first two touchdown drives were 15 and nine yards, thanks to Miami’s snafus in the kicking game. Miami was unstoppable during a 27-point second half.

– The 1983 team that kicked off Miami’s great run held its 40th reunion over the weekend. That’s the team that knocked off Nebraska, 31-30, when Nebraska coach Tom Osborne refused to kick an extra point that would have sent the Orange Bowl into overtime. The Hurricanes thus won the first of five national championships.

Colorado 36, Nebraska 14

– Prime Time is standard time at Colorado these days, with another week of touchdowns and bravado. The Buffaloes have scored 81 points in two games with Deion Sanders coaching. In 2022 they scored 185 in 12 games, eleven of which were losses.

– Shedeur Sanders got sacked seven times but also hit 31 of 42 passes for 393 yards and two touchdowns. His prime receiver this week was Xavier Weaver, who brought in ten for 170 yards.

– The cheapest ticket was going for $400 on certain websites this week, which was the highest floor for any ticket in college football or the NFL. The mania continues with a visit by rival Colorado State on Saturday.

Rice 43, Houston 41 (2 OT)

– Finding your favorite college player is difficult without GPS technology. Quarterback JT Daniels has surfaced at Rice, where he went 28 for 42 for 401 yards Saturday. Two of his three touchdowns went to Luke McCaffrey, brother of Christian, as Rice built a 28-0 lead.

– Rice thus took the Bayou Bucket away from Houston for the first time since 2010.

– Daniels’ 401 passing yards tied a career high. It’s been an eventful career. Daniels was one of the nation’s top high school QBs at Mater Dei in Santa Ana, Ca. He began at USC in 2018 and was there two years, although he suffered a knee injury in the first game of 2019. He transferred to Georgia, where he spent two years and was injured after he had won the quarterbacking job. When he was ready to play, Stetson Bennett had established himself. Danie was beaten out by Stetson Bennett, and then spent last year at West Virginia before he joined coach Mike Bloomgren at Rice. Saturday was Daniels’ 34th collegiate game.