Texas Football: BR ranks Sark hire as the top in the country in 2021

There’s a lot of change occurring on the Forty Acres this offseason, as the Texas football program is looking to find a more promising trajectory with a new coaching staff in place. As a result of making significant changes to overhaul the coaching staff, from top-to-bottom, the roster and future results on the recruiting trail are likely to look a lot different too.

Back on Jan. 2, the Longhorns parted ways with now former fourth-year head coach Tom Herman. After a roller coaster ride of a year, the Longhorns replaced Herman with the former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator and the reigning Broyles Award winner Steve Sarkisian.

Sark has since assembled a quality staff of assistant coaches around him. The highlighting assistants/coordinators he’s hired in the last few weeks includes defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, special teams coordinator Jeff Banks, and offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Kyle Flood.

Moreover, the takes continue to pour in as to how various voices around the college football media landscape feel regarding the Sark hire and the staff he’s assembled around him. One of the latest to come in was from David Kenyon of Bleacher Report heading into last weekend.

Not only did Kenyon of BR (in a piece published on Jan. 22) mention that Sark was a top head coaching hire since the conclusion of the 2020 college football season, he also brought up a solid hire in Kwiatkowski. The former Washington Huskies co-defensive coordinator was mentioned as one of the three or five most notable coordinator hires in the country since last season officially concluded.

The take on Texas football HC Sark

Moreover, the most notable part of this piece from BR was the fact that Kenyon mentioned Sark as the top head coaching hire since the conclusion of last season. He finished ahead of the likes of new Utah State head coach Blake Anderson and new South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack.

Here’s more on what this piece from BR had to say on the matter of the Longhorns hiring Sark to be their next head coach.

"While no single reason led to Tom Herman’s dismissal, his lack of creativity on offense will be a defining memory. Based on what Steve Sarkisian did as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, that portion of the Longhorns’ concerns should be gone.Oh, and welcome to Alabama Lite.Washington’s Kwiatkowski will serve as the defensive coordinator, but the staff otherwise has a strong Crimson Tide influence. Sark brought in Kyle Flood as offensive coordinator, landed top recruiter Jeff Banks to oversee special teams and coach tight ends and added Alabama analyst A.J. Milwee as the quarterbacks coach."

At least in terms of the impact he’s made so far, and the spark on the recruiting trail of late, the Sark hire looks like it’s going well so far on the Forty Acres. But only time will tell if this was the right hire for the program.

Patience will have to win the day for Longhorns fans, which is going to be really difficult to pull off come this fall.

Texas is now hoping that they can start assembling a good roster, and find more national success on the recruiting trail, just ahead of National Signing Day 2021. The finish to this past calendar year both on the field and on the recruiting trail brought about a lot of concern for Herman’s future, and will present further difficulties for Sark to establish a foundation of success with this program.

Under the direction of the now former head coach Herman, Texas finished up last season with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12), including wins in five of their last six games. Their final game resulted in a dominant 55-23 win over the Colorado Buffaloes in the Alamo Bowl back on Dec. 29.