On3's JD PicKell Believes Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian Is A Top Coach In CFB
For well over a decade, the Texas Longhorns were missing arguably the most important necessity in football.
It wasn't the fact that they had down years in quarterback talent, poor defenses, or skill position guys that didn't pan out. It was however the fact that they didn't have the right head coach leading the program. Mack Brown's time as one of the best had run out, Charlie Strong was tabbed as the next great one and immediately flopped, and Tom Herman ended up being the guy before the guy, as he could never get over the hump of mediocrity.
The guy in question is current head coach Steve Sarkisian, whose vision came to fruition this past season and has him being viewed as one of the best coaches in the country.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian
USA TODAY
Sarkisian led the Longhorns to a 12-2 record in what was his third season as head coach at Texas, winning the Big 12 for one final time, and appearing in the final four-team College Football Playoff. On top of that, he has been recruiting at arguably the highest level possible and has been developing those blue-chip recruits.
His success hasn't gone unnoticed either, as On3's JD PicKell even ranked him as the third-best coach in college football recently.
"Think about how many coaches have tried and failed at Texas," said PicKell. "There was a point in time where there was a feeling around the Texas job at least from the college football public point of view where like "Hey I don't know if you want to take on that kind of venture. I don't know if that's a winnable situation because of the culture that's on that roster, because of how involved the boosters are, because of the lack of patience in the 40 acres." That was kind of the perception before Steve Sarkisian took it over."
He continued, explaining that due to the success of Sarkisian, the job is viewed in a completely different light.
"Think about the way we talk about Texas now. We talk about Texas as being a contender in the SEC. Not just in the Big 12, they won the Big 12 last year and that's great. We talked about their potential for what they should've done in 2023 and that was always what we threw around potential this, potential that. We're not talking about potential anymore for Texas. We're talking about adding on to what they did a season ago."
The word that the program and Sarkisian are focused on should no longer be "back" but should instead be "remaining". It is one thing to have a flash-in-the-pan season, but the Longhorns are capable of being among the best teams in the country for years to come as long as they can replicate that success and remain at this high level in every aspect.
The program has come a long way from treating a Sugar Bowl win like the absolute resurrection of the program.
