Texas Football: Opposing HC diminishes the hire of Steve Sarkisian

The time of year where the national preview magazines around the college football landscape are dropping has arrived. Big-time national preview magazines like Athlon Sports, Lindy’s, Sports Illustrated, etc. will get the attention of a lot of Texas football fans in the coming months as a way to get informed/hyped about the upcoming college football season.

A lot of the discussion pertaining to the previews for the Longhorns this coming season surrounds expectations for new head coach Steve Sarkisian. The former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator/reigning Broyles Award winner Sark has a lot of hype for what he can do for the Longhorns in the near term and over the long haul.

But not everyone is a fan of Texas replacing former fourth-year head coach Tom Herman with the ex-Alabama offensive coordinator Sark.

HC questions Texas football’s hire of Steve Sarkisian in Athlon

And one head coach that reportedly spoke anonymously with Athlon Sports in their national preview magazine this year clearly questioned the hire of Sark as the next Longhorns head coach. Here are some of the core parts about what this opposing head coach had to say about the Longhorns hiring Sark as their next head coach.

"“There are a ton of questions here long term,” the coach said. “Why make this move? It doesn’t seem like you’re doing anything fundamentally different. Texas’ problems are all off the field and inside their culture, and I’m not sure this is the coach who can fix issues that only Mack Brown seemed to know how to handle.”"

Former Texas head coach (now with the North Carolina Tar Heels for another go-round) Mack Brown is often noted as an example of how Sark can be successful on the Forty Acres. And while that’s clearly a good case study to work off of, Sark is going to carve out his own path, for better or worse.

The good news is that Sark looks to be off to a good start in terms of how he’s built out the roster and assembled his coaching staff. He took a different approach to build out the staff around him compared to former head coaches Herman and Charlie Strong. And that might be a key to finding more success in the near future.

More so than anything, Sark looks to bring that potent and exciting offense from Alabama to the Forty Acres. Executing schemes at a higher level and improving the stature of player development will make a world’s difference at Texas if Sark can be successful in those areas.

Texas finished up last season with a record of 7-3 (5-3 Big 12) under the direction of the former head coach Herman. Sark took over for Herman as the next Texas head coach back on Jan. 2 and is set to open up the regular season at home on Sep. 4 against Louisiana.