Many expected Texas to compete for the Big 12 title in Steve Sarkisian’s first season as the head coach, but the Longhorns ultimately ended the year with a disappointing 5-7 record.
There seemed to be mixed feelings about the Sarkisian hire, as he has had mores success an offensive coordinator than as a head coach. During his previous couple stints, the most wins a Sarkisian-led team has reached is nine.
After finding great success at Nick Saban’s home for struggling coordinators, also known as Alabama, Sarkisian was viewed as one of the most sought after coaches on the market.
Little did the public realize, Sarkisian would inherit a very flawed Texas team plagued by the attrition of the 2018 and 2019 classes recruited by Tom Herman.
Sarkisian’s underwhelming production garnered an “F” from CBS Sports’ Barret Sallee, who graded how each of the first-year coaches did last season. Here is what Sallee had to say about Sarkisian’s first season at Texas:
Texas is back … to being below .500 for the first time since the Charlie Strong era. What’s more, Sarkisian’s Longhorns lost to Kansas at home in the middle of a historic six-game losing streak. What an abject disaster in Austin.
Of the 18 coaches that were graded, Sarkisian tied with Butch Jones (Arkansas State) for the worst grade, as coaches like Arizona’s Jed Fisch, Kansas’ Lance Leipold, and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea all had higher grades.
While the grade is a fair assessment of Sarkisian’s first season, it is also fair to assume that with the addition of his first recruiting class, which is headlined by quarterback prodigy Quinn Ewers, Texas will have much better season in 2022.
