Steve Sarkisian, the head coach, has proven himself as one of the best in college football while rebuilding Texas into a national power. The Longhorns are the only team to reach the national semifinals in the past two seasons and are months removed from inking the first No. 1 recruiting class in program history.
Steve Sarkisian, the offensive coordinator? It’s time for a change. We have seen enough from Texas after three weeks to confidently say it now: At the end of this season, Sarkisian must surrender the offensive controls.
Sark got the Texas job after putting together some of the best offenses in the sport at Alabama. The skill has been hidden this year, but he is still among best play designers in the sport, consistently pushing the envelope. At the same time, Texas unit has slowly grown stale as Sarkisian has remained as the primary play-caller (Texas allows OL coach Kyle Flood the title of OC for competitive pay purposes, but the operation is fully Sark’s).
“I feel very confident and comfortable doing those things,” Sarkisian said in March of retaining playcalling. “And if that day ever comes when I don’t, my ego is not too big to where I wouldn’t be able to pass that off. But as of today, I feel very comfortable doing those things.”
Last season, some of the cracks started to form in big spots. Georgia went up 23-0 against Texas in Austin, despite the defense forcing turnovers on two of the first three possessions. Then in the season-ending loss to Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, Texas was held scoreless for the first 29 minutes in a 28-14 performance. Sark’s ill-fated goal-line decision cost his team any chance at tying the game.
In 2025, though, things have really started to tank. First-year starting quarterback Arch Manning was held to 38 yards and an interception through the first three quarters of a 14-7 loss to Ohio State, the first game that Texas ever played as a preseason No. 1 team.
Saturday against lowly UTEP, Manning was held completed five of 16 passes in the first half. He finished a ghastly 11 of 25 for 114 yards. For comparison, UT-Martin threw for 295 yards on the Miners a week earlier. Texas scored only 14 points in the half, both touchdowns coming against short fields. Utah State recorded first-half 20 points against the same defense.
Even the advanced numbers back up that this is not a scary Texas offense. In 2023, Texas ranked No. 6 in offensive SP+. Last year, the Longhorns slipped to No. 13. Before the UTEP game, Texas sat all the way at No. 45, surrounded by Syracuse and Colorado. The signature of Sarkisian, his offense, threatens to waste yet another elite Texas defense.
Manning’s bizarre struggles deservedly get the majority of the headlines, but Texas has major problems everywhere. The offensive line under Flood, the nominal offensive coordinator, has been wildly inconsistent. Of a vaunted 2022 recruiting class made famous by Texas’ clever NIL workaround, Kelvin Banks may have been the only true hit. The receiver room has been hugely underwhelming. The running back talent is good, but injuries have decimated the group for two straight years.
Out of the six offensive assistant coaches at Texas, four of them have been with Sarkisian since he arrived in 2021, going on five years. Stability is valuable. It can also turn into complacency.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t a conversation about Sarkisian’s aptitude for designing or calling plays. He’s one of the brightest offensive coaches in the game. But in this era of seemingly endless head coaching responsibilities, being a primary playcaller has slowly become a liability.
“When you’re just calling plays, it’s a completely different deal than calling plays and trying to manage a game,” Florida State offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn told CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello. “You have a whole lot more time in between series, and now that you can look at the video and sit down with your quarterback, you have a lot more time to think about the next series and what they are doing and what you need to do.”
Perhaps that’s why Texas is known for its exceptional scripted drives under Sarkisian (or it was, though this year has not yielded any first-drive fruit). Once the game gets going, the Longhorns have tended to falter.
Looking around college football, the days of playcalling head coaches on the biggest stages are coming to a close. The last playcaller to win a national championship as a head coach was Jimbo Fisher at Florida State in 2013. There has not been a single playcalling head coach to win the national championship in the College Football Playoff era.
The best example of the shift, ironically, involves Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who bested the Longhorns in the season opener. Last season, he spent big money to reel in mentor Chip Kelly to run the offense. The change helped set up a national championship season. When Kelly left for the NFL, instead of retaking playcalling, Day gave wide receivers coach Brian Hartline the keys.
It’s also a little different when resources become an issue. For example, UTEP’s Scotty Walden calls plays. The gap between him and the next-best playcaller they could hire is probably quite wide. That’s not the case at Texas. The Longhorns have endless resources to hire any handpicked offensive mind that Sarkisian could ever want.
An outside offensive coordinator can even add to Sarkisian’s brilliance. Day is one of the best pass game schemers in the sport. Kelly revolutionized the running game. The braintrust helped create one of the most potent offenses of the past five years.
It’s not just about calling the plays on gameday. It’s having someone in the organization who is allowed to think about the comprehensive state of the offense at all times. It’s too much for a head coach in this era. And with so many of “Sark’s guys” in the building who have followed since his Alabama days, it’s time to hear new voices.
Sarkisian has built a monstrous organization at Texas, one capable of winning a national championship in the coming years. He has said many times he’s obsessed with doing so. To reach the ultimate stage, it’s time to bring in a real offensive coordinator.
