Monday night’s national championship game between Alabama and Ohio State was a glimpse of the future for Longhorn fans.
Newly hired Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian put on a clinic against the Buckeyes, scoring 52 points with no problems. At times, it looked silly how open and easy the game looked for the Crimson Tide’s offense.
It wasn’t just Monday night where Alabama’s offense shined. From a numbers perspective, Sarkisian’s offense averaged 48.5 points, 541.8 yards and 7.8 yards per play this season. Three players (DeVonta Smith, Mac Jones and Najee Harris) finished in the top five of the Heisman voting with the wide receiver eventually taking home the trophy. The success of Alabama’s offense derived from Sarkisian’s play-calling and designs.
In a recent interview with the Austin American-Statesman, Sarkisian doubled down on his ability as a play-caller. He specifically mentioned that there is no reason for him to hand the job off to someone else.
“I definitely want to be the play-caller. I will be the play-caller,” he said. “I made that mistake one year of my career (in 2015 at USC). It won’t happen again, not in the near future. But the reality of it is, part of the reason Chris and the people at Texas liked me is because of the job I was doing as a play-caller. All of a sudden, why would I relinquish one of the best traits that I have?”
This is precisely where the excitement in Austin will stem from. If the product mirrors what it was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, then Texas is going to be on an excellent path. On the field results, team culture and recruiting locally and nationally will all benefit.
Sarkisian is the type of guy always looking for the next big thing in football. During his days at Washington and USC, he ran a simple pro-style offense. Moving to Alabama, at its core, it was the same. Handing the ball off to Najee Harris and letting your award-winning blockers create lanes was a staple this season.
However, where he has changed and excelled is in the passing game with Jones and Tua Tagovailoa. It’s all about RPOs, presnap motion and finding your top players the best possible matchups.
Sarkisian mentioned how he tries to stay ahead of the curve in his introductory press conference in Austin today.
.@CoachSark: “You have to remain on the cutting edge. We’re always trying to find a new wrinkle, formation, shift, personnel grouping.”
— Cami Griffin (@CamiAnnG) January 12, 2021
Only Lincoln Riley of Oklahoma has been able to open this kind of offensive explosion inside the conference. With Sarkisian now calling plays across the Red River, ‘Big 12 offenses’ is going to have a new type of meaning.
Shifting all of his innovation and thoughts to Texas is going to create a buzz that has not been in town since Colt McCoy’s final season. High flying, high scoring and elite level offenses are going to be returning to Austin.
Next, we’ll look at a few plays that make Sarkisian’s offensive mind so brilliant.