Steve Sarkisian won’t turn Longhorns’ play-calling duties over with Arch Manning era set to begin
Sark on calling plays: “As long as I’m decent at it, I’ll probably continue to do it.”
Steve Sarkisian was hired by Texas administrators chiefly for his offensive mind. The Longhorns didn’t want a “walk around” head coach.
They wanted someone who would run the offense, score points, win with class and — considering the controversy at the time of his arrival — sing “The Eyes of Texas.”
That’s one of the reasons why Sarkisian was attracted to the Texas job. He wanted to keep calling plays, just like he’d been doing at Alabama en route to a national title. High-ranking school officials have no complaints.
“I definitely want to be the play-caller. I will be the play-caller,” Sarkisian said before his introductory press conference at Texas in January 2021. “All of a sudden, why would I relinquish one of the best traits that I have?”
Sarkisian admitted Thursday that he’s not going to give up play-calling duties anytime in the foreseeable future, especially not after back-to-back trips to the College Football Playoffs.
That means quarterback Arch Manning will likely be in the same offensive system for his third season on campus when he takes over for current starter Quinn Ewers in 2025.
“There’s something about that aspect of the game that I love,” Sarkisian said. “As long as I'm decent at it, I'll probably continue to do it.”
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Said Ohio State coach Ryan Day, “You’re definitely decent at it, coach. I can say that, geez.”
Sarkisian is 38-16 in four seasons as UT’s head coach. This year, the offense is ranked 21st nationally in scoring (34.3 points per game) and the defense shot to fourth (14.5). But third-quarter offensive woes the last four games have some wondering what exactly is going on when the Horns come out of the halftime break.
Sarkisian and Day both spoke during the Cotton Bowl Classic coaches’ press conference at AT&T Stadium.
Both Sarkisian and Day are essentially CEOs of mid-sized Fortune 500 companies that generate millions of revenue. Some coaches prefer to farm out various duties and be traditional “walk around” head coaches, like Mack Brown was at Texas. Day hired former Oregon and UCLA coach Chip Kelly to call plays, for example.
But Sarkisian is going to hold onto that play sheet as long as possible. As someone who loves talking about putting together his opening play script, it seems impossible to think Sarkisian would ever give it up willingly.
“I always felt like, you know, I got hired to do this job,” Sarkisian said. “I was the offensive coordinator at Alabama, and we were a pretty good offensive team and we brought a lot of those same pieces from that staff over.”
Offensive line coach Kyle Flood and tight ends/special teams coach Jeff Banks were both at Alabama with Sarkisian under head coach Nick Saban. AJ Milwee was an analyst at Bama and became the UT quarterbacks coach. “And we’ve kept that continuity,” Sarkisian said.
“Coach Flood and I were together with the Falcons two years before that, so we've been together for eight years now,” Sarkisian said. “So our line of communication is really pretty healthy and clean. You know, I don’t know if that day will come. I do know we keep getting more and more stuff put on our plate as head coaches that we have to deal with.”
