Joel Klatt explains why Steve Sarkisian will not accept Alabama job
Alabama head coach Nick Saban retired and with that, the landscape of college football received a major shake-up. With that, several coaches have also been suggested to be the next head coach at Alabama. That includes Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian.
However, despite Sarkisian’s name being floated for the job, analyst Joel Klatt explained why he doesn’t think Sarkisian would accept the Alabama job.
“Well, he’s the name that you have to call first,” Joel Klatt said. “So, whether he’s going to take it or not, that’s the name that you have to start with. And it’s because he has every single box that they want to check off. He is a very strong recruiter, he’s got a long history of being a head coach, and frankly — and people don’t want to admit this — he was successful at every place, even through the disaster that was his time at USC.”
Prior to becoming the head coach at Texas, Steve Sarkisian was the offensive coordinator at Alabama. Many people have pointed to his success there and their familiarity as a key reason why he could become the Crimson Tide head coach.
“He’s got a history at Alabama and then here’s a note that I don’t think many people realized about Steve Sarkisian; a few years ago, he was in line and offered a job that he wanted to take. And he went to tell Coach Saban that that was his intention. And Coach Saban said, ‘No, that’s not what you’re going to do. You’re going to be the next coach here.’ Nick Saban, I believe, had every intention to go the Bob Stoops or Urban Meyer route with Alabama and Steve Sarkisian. That had worked so well in Oklahoma and clearly had been working at Ohio State, and he wanted to keep Sark around,” Klatt said.
Texas is, like Alabama, one of the biggest jobs in the sport. Next season, they’ll both be SEC jobs coming off a trip to the College Football Playoff. 2024 would also be Sarkisian’s fourth season in Austin, having rebuilt the program.
“Now, it just so happened that Texas opened up and that’s one of those jobs that everybody acknowledges. Yes, go ahead and go do that there. So now that he’s at Texas, he doesn’t make a lot of sense to go back to Alabama because he’s his own man at Texas. He has built this in his own image. He’s not in the shadow or footsteps of anybody else. This is Sark’s program,” Klatt explained.
“If you go to Alabama, you will be in Nick Saban’s shadow. There’s there’s no ifs ands or buts about it. He’s the greatest college football coach of all-time. So for that reason, even though they have to start with Sark, and they like him — and clearly Nick liked him enough that he wanted to promote him from within a couple of years ago, I don’t think Sark is wanting that job.”
Pete Thamel on why Steve Sarkisian will not get the Alabama job
ESPN insider Pete Thamel doesn’t think that Steve Sarkisian will leave for Alabama either. Like Joel Klatt, he feels the Texas job, with where it stands now, is too good of a position to be in.
“I just don’t think Steve Sarkisian would leave Texas, so that’s why I did not put him on the list,” Thamel said.