EXCLUSIVE: Longhorns Ex Dawson on Sark: 'Resume Speaks For Itself'
When The University of Texas hired Steve Sarkisian to be its next head football coach, the rest of the nation took notice. Some even labeled it as the best new coaching hire in the country, amid a substantial turnover in the industry.
Whether it was television analysts, radio hosts, or sportswriters, the Longhorns have been the talk of college football.
Ex-Texas players have been impressed with Sarkisian as well, including former Longhorns and NFL kicker Phil Dawson, who spoke exclusively with LonghornsCountry.com on Wednesday, and gave his thoughts on the new direction of the program.
"I believe Sark’s resume speaks for itself, most recently at Alabama," Dawson said. "When your unit performs at an elite level on the national stage, others will take notice, and the University of Texas is no exception."
Dawson, 46, was a four-year letterman with the Longhorns under John Mackovic from 1994-1997, where he became one of the top kickers in the country. He currently presides as the special teams coordinator for Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee.
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While he never experienced a head coaching change at Texas, Dawson has first-hand knowledge of that experience during his 20-year NFL career, going through no fewer than half-a-dozen coaching changes throughout that time.
Dawson, however, believes that while those changes can be disappointing, it also brings a renewed excitement that can permeate throughout the team.
"A coaching change is always a mixed bag," Dawson said. "On one hand, the coach you have been supporting and pulling for is being dismissed. On the other hand, a new coach is named, and with that comes excitement. I am disappointed that Coach Herman’s tenure ended in this way, but I am also now excited for Coach Sarkisian and his new staff."
Also with a new staff, comes the expectation of improvement. After all, the majority of the time, the cause of a coaching change stems from the underperformance of the previous staff.
And while Texas has hired many impressive assistants, Dawson believes that the most impactful of those hires come from a position that he is all too familiar with, in new special teams coach Jeff Banks.
"I am a special-teams guy," Dawson said. "Coach Banks is widely regarded as one of the top special-teams coaches in the country. There is no quicker way to improve your team than to do so on special teams. I expect a huge jump in special teams production this season which as a result will improve our offense and defense as well."
Banks was one of many assistants that Sarkisian was able to lure away from Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide, who are coming off yet another dominant national title run.
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But it's not just on special teams where Banks, Sarkisian, and company are looking to make their impact known - it's also on the recruiting trail, where Sarkisian has already off to a red-hot start during his first weeks at the helm.
Even more impressively, Sarkisian came to the Longhorns knowing that, because of the importance of recruiting the in-state prospects well, he needed to develop a strong relationship with the Texas high school football coaches.
"I got really excited when I saw Sark on day one at the Texas High School Coaches Association board meeting," Dawson continued. "If we can keep the recruits from Texas in Texas, we will be elite. Having good relationships with the Texas high school coaches is necessary to accomplish this."
One of the biggest problems for Texas under Herman and his predecessor Charlie Strong was letting some of the state's high-impact recruits escape to out-of-state programs, such as the aforementioned Alabama Crimson Tide, the Oklahoma Sooners, and the LSU Tigers, among others.
While that has obviously played a major role in Texas' struggles over the last decade, there has also been another issue that has plagued previous Longhorns teams over that time ... the ability to show up every week and win the games they are supposed to win.
Playing in a Power-5 conference is never easy. Especially when you have to face coaches such as Lincoln Riley, Gary Patterson, Mike Gundy, and Matt Campbell on a week-to-week basis.
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In recent years, every one of those coaches has upset a favored Longhorns team at one point or another, and for Texas to take the next step, that is going to have to change.
"Texas has been able to carve out signature wins during these past several seasons," Dawson told us. "The problem has been losing one or two times a year against opponents we should beat. If we can handle our business against the opponents we should beat, now 8-3 becomes 10-1 very quickly."
For Texas to get to that 10-1 mark on the field, however, Sarkisian and his new staff are going to have to win in all of the off-the-field aspects of the game as well.
The good news for Longhorns fans everywhere is, he is already off to a fantastic start. And he has support from people like Phil Dawson who understand what it takes.
