Texas Football: 3 possible candidates for UT to replace Billy Glasscock
Scott Aligo, Kansas director of scouting
If Sarkisian and the Longhorns decided to go with an outside hire to replace Glasscock as the next director of player personnel, there's a bevy of candidates to choose from.
Sarkisian has got this program to a spot where they can be very judicious with their selection process. This is a very attractive position for prospective rising coaches/personnel staffers looking to take that next step in the collegiate ranks.
A possible option for the Longhorns to consider with this hire, if they look outside of the program for prime candidates, is a rising coach who has proven success with building a winning roster. This candidate also must be able to balance recruiting at an elite level in the portal with building relationships and identifying talent at positions of need in high school recruiting.
One potential candidate that checks many of these boxes of what Texas could be looking for in their next director of player personnel is the Kansas Jayhawks director of scouting Scott Aligo. The third-year Kansas personnel staffer is one of the rising stars in this department in college football in the last few years.
Aligo was an early adopter of the transfer portal for roster building when he was on staff in the early 2020s with the recently-departed head coach Mel Tucker and the Michigan State Spartans. He helped Michigan State construct a roster predominantely of transfers in 2020 and 2021.
With that roster of high-level transfer talent, Michigan State had their best run in the last decade, winning 11 games and a New Year's Six Bowl during the 2021 season.
Aligo was hired away from Michigan State by head coach Lance Leipold at Kansas in the summer of 2021. In the last few years, Aligo has played a critical role helping Leipold and the Jayhawks build a consistent winner for the first time in over a decade in Lawrence.
Kansas has won 15 games in the last two seasons, which is the first time that's happened in over 15 years. That success on the field in the last couple of years under Leipold has translated to heightened success with portal and high school recruiting.
Under Leipold and Aligo, the Jayhawks are on pace to achieve back-to-back top-40 ranked recruiting classes in the On3 Industry Ranking and Rivals for the first time in the modern era of recruiting rankings.
Aligo not only has the resume to back his ability to scout and recruit talent in the portal and at the high school level, but he's also a young and forward-thinking personnel staffer with a bright future.