Just hours after firing Tom Herman, the Texas Longhorns hired current Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian as the team’s new head coach. Sarkisian will coach Alabama’s upcoming national championship game against Ohio State on Monday, January 11th.
University of Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte said, “Steve Sarkisian is one of the top offensive minds in the game of football, which he has proved over and over during his time with USC, Atlanta, and most recently, Alabama. We are confident our players and coaches will thrive under his leadership and in response to his energy and passion for the game.”
Sarkisian has not coached a team since USC in 2015 when he was 3-2 before being fired by the team. Before USC, he was the head coach at the University of Washington for five years. He went 34-29 at Washington, including winning the Holiday Bowl in 2010 before losing the Alamo Bowl in 2011, and the Las Vegas Bowl in 2012.
Washington led the Huskies to an 8-4 record before departing for USC in 2013, with Marques Tuiasosopo filling in for the Huskies bowl game. Washington would go on to win the Fight Hunger Bowl over the BYU Cougars 31-16.
In Sarkisian’s first year at USC, he led the team to a 9-4 record. The Trojans won the 2014 Holiday Bowl over the Nebraska Cornhuskers 45-42. Since his abrupt end at USC, Sarkisian had been in Alabama as an analyst for their football team in 2016, and an offensive coordinator in 2017 after Lane Kiffin left for Florida Atlantic.
He would leave Alabama to become the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons for two years before being fired and wound up returning to Alabama again as the offensive coordinator. Overall, Sarkisian’s coaching is 46-35 with a 2-2 bowl record.
