Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was on the offensive staff at Alabama for two seasons (2019-2020). In the 2019 NFL draft, the Crimson Tide produced nine draft picks, four of which were on offense and happened to be first-round selections. In 2020, it looks like Alabama will have as many as 11 draft picks and six of those could be offensive first-round selections.
We’ve already seen the impact that Sarkisian’s offensive pedigree is having in Austin with the additions of highly sought-after offensive additions in Maalik Murphy, Jaydon Blue and Armani Winfield for the 2022 recruiting class.
What about defense?
Looking back at Sarkisian’s time at Washington and USC, he was able to land plenty of defensive players. Some even made it to the pro level such as Danny Shelton, Marcus Peters, Cory Littleton, Shaq Thompson, Kevin King, Adoree’ Jackson, Uchenna Nwosu, Rasheem Green, Iman Marshall and Porter Gustin among others.
The ability to recruit and develop offensive talent has been Sarkisian’s bread and butter. However, his ability to find defensive talent and turn them into pros has been an unnoticed aspect of his coaching.
He’s inherited promising defensive playmakers DeMarvion Overshown, D’Shawn Jamison and Alfred Collins in Austin. The 2022 class on that side of the ball appears to be a solid group thus far with early commits from Bryan Allen Jr and Jaylon Guilbeau.
Sarkisian will continue to bring in and develop future NFL offensive talent, and given his history of doing so defensively, it’s not too hard to imagine that in the next two to three seasons that we start seeing the Longhorns put out 10 prospects per draft, just as they did in the Mack Brown era.