ESPN recently published an interesting article that ranked the top 30 college football head coaches according to their success as players. Deion Sanders and Eddie George lead the pack, but the Longhorns' coach isn't far behind.
Steve Sarkisian played two seasons for BYU in 1995 and 1996 after transferring from El Camino (junior college), where he set the single-season school record for passing yards and touchdown passes with 4,297 and 41, respectively.
Already being a record-setting quarterback in the JuCo ranks, he was highly regarded heading into BYU in 1995.
In his first season as a starter for legendary Cougar head coach LaVell Edwards, he completed 64.9% of his passes for a conference-leading 3,437 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. Not a bad start to his Division 1 football career in Provo, UT.
The top 30 head coaches ranked as players via ESPN. 👀 pic.twitter.com/1tejfvvY21
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As a senior in 1996, he took the college football world by storm as one of the best quarterbacks in the league. He completed an FBS-leading 68.8% of his passes for 4,027 yards, 33 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. Sarkisian also led the WAC conference in completion percentage, touchdown passes, yards per attempt with 10.0, and passer rating with 173.6 that year. He won the 1996 Sammy Baugh Award and was the WAC Offensive Player of the Year as well.
It's easy to see why guys like Deion Sanders and Eddie George are ranked at numbers 1 and 2 due to their extensive and successful NFL careers. Sarkisian being ranked at No.4 and the 2nd best collegiate quarterback on this list is a great honor, seeing as there are so many active head coaches who were great college signal-callers.
Josh Heupel at No.3 was the Walter Camp and AP Offensive Player of the Year in 2000, and if it weren't for that, Sark might have been No.3 on the list.