The greatest college football coach of all time has retired. Alabama head coach Nick Saban broke news on Wednesday night with the announcement.
As you might expect, the news sent the college football world into a frenzy. With that came wild speculation about several coaches including the head coach of the Texas Longhorns, Steve Sarkisian.
There are several reasons why Sarkisian probably isn’t leaving Texas for anywhere other than the NFL, and certainly not to Alabama. Bama247 shared its thoughts on the potential move.
“We’ll include Sarkisian’s name for the sole purpose of stating this: it wouldn’t make much sense for Sarkisian to leave Texas. The Longhorns are surging and they have a formidable program in the NIL space with a large, deep-pocketed group of donors. … Our feeling has been that Sarkisian is among a very small group of current head coaches who wouldn’t make the move to Alabama. It’s still worth a call, though.”
Like the Alabama news source, we would agree Sarkisian leaving Texas for Alabama wouldn’t make much sense. Why would you leave the culture you just built, that happened to beat Alabama by 10 points in Tuscaloosa, to start over again?
It certainly wouldn’t make much sense to leave behind the Longhorns’ talent laden roster who Sarkisian and his staff went to great lengths to develop. The reason Alabama was better than Texas from 2010-2022 had nothing to do with Tuscaloosa. It had everything to do with the coach who led the Crimson Tide. Coaches, not programs, win championships. Great programs are great because they hire great coaches.
Despite the above facts, Texas boosters have deeper pockets than Alabama. Austin is a more impressive city than Tuscaloosa. And the state of Texas is far more fertile recruiting ground than what surrounds the Tide.
There’s been plenty of speculation about several coaches in college football, but the head coach in Austin is building a juggernaut. For that reason, Sarkisian is right where he belongs.
Bama247 says that "it wouldn't logically make much sense for Sarkisian to leave Texas" for the Alabama job. pic.twitter.com/I6iqyY8e7M
— Hook'em Headlines (@HookemHeadlines) January 11, 2024