Texas Football: 3 WR coach candidates that Sarkisian has interest in

One of the biggest discussions surrounding the Texas football program in the last week or so is the looming task for head coach Steve Sarkisian to find a replacement for the recently-departed wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator Brennan Marion. On Jan. 8, the news dropped that Marion would be leaving Texas after one year on the staff to take the offensive coordinator job with the UNLV Rebels.

Marion will be joining new head coach and former Arkansas Razorbacks defensive coordinator Barry Odom for his first FBS offensive coordinator job.

What this means for Texas is that Sark will be seeking out his third wide receivers coach in the last two years. Last offseason, Sark replaced former wide receivers coach Andre Coleman with the ex-Pitt Panthers WR coach Marion.

Texas will now be looking for someone that can be an elite recruiter at the wide receiver position while developing the talent that is currently in the program. Both of those tasks were issues for Texas’ wide receivers coach at different points in the last few years.

Ra’Shaad Samples and the WR coach candidates Steve Sarkisian and Texas football have found interest in

But it does appear that Sark has already identified and/or contacted at least a handful of interested candidates to fill this position. With that in mind, here’s a look at three candidates that Sark has already found some interest in to be the next wide receivers coach at Texas.

Ra’Shaad Samples, Arizona State WR coach

An early favorite among the fans to get the wide receivers coach job to replace Marion was the former Los Angeles Rams running backs coach and new Arizona State Sun Devils WR coach/pass game coordinator Ra’Shaad Samples. The former Texas assistant wide receivers coach (during the 2018 season) Samples is definitely one of the rising stars around the college football coaching landscape.

And he drew plenty of attention when Texas first had this job opening come to fruition last weekend.

It does sound like there is some buzz surrounding Samples and the Longhorns at the moment. How that buzz will lead to some actual meaningful discussions between Samples and Sark is yet to be known.

Moreover, given that Samples was recently hired at Arizona State under new head coach Kenny Dillingham, if this were to come to fruition I think it would’ve happened faster. Samples is certainly still a possibility for Texas, but I would put the chances of him ending up at Texas slimmer than I would’ve just a few days ago.