Steve Sarkisian: The Quarterback Whisperer

Should Texas fans be worried about their starting quarterback when the offense takes the field on September 4th against Louisiana? Worry has been a fundamental attribute of the Longhorn fan experience since 2010, but Steve Sarkisian has a track record that speaks for itself. 

As detailed in the 9th Annual 2021 Texas Football Prospectus: Thinking Texas Football, Steve Sarkisian has a well-deserved reputation as a QB guru and has coached a variety of throwers to success at the college and NFL level. He has also managed to inflate several NFL draft values along the way, generally by featuring the very best attributes of his signal callers and minimizing their weaknesses.

Let’s go school by school, focusing on college jobs where Sark was either the QB coach or offensive coordinator.

USC 2001-2003
Carson Palmer, 1st pick, 1st round
Matt Leinart, 10th pick, 1st round

Sarkisian’s debut as Carson Palmer’s QB coach coincided with Palmer blowing up, transforming from an elite prospect whose on field performance never matched the hype, to a Heisman winning senior campaign. Palmer finished his senior season with 3942 passing yards and a 33/10 TD-INT ratio. A player once perceived as a college bust (he had as many interceptions as touchdowns in his prior three years at USC – 39/39) became the #1 pick in the NFL draft. Palmer was the classic drop back pro style prototype: huge arm, accurate with a clean pocket, 6-5, 235. Sarkisian helped build out a NFL style passing attack around that arm and turned Carson’s senior year into a draft infomercial.

In 2003, Palmer’s successor, a relative unknown named Matt Leinart debuted with a 38/9 TD to INT ratio, 3556 yards passing, and an amazing 9.7 yards per attempt. Leinart didn’t have Palmer’s arm strength and shared his immobility, but he was accurate, understood how to get the ball out quickly, and he thrived in Sarkisian’s play action heavy pro style offense.

USC 2005-2006
Matt Leinart, 10th pick, 1st round
JD Booty, 5th round

Sarkisian returned to the Trojans as QB coach after a NFL diversion and helped lead Matt Leinart to a terrific senior season. But we all know how that season ended! Leinart went on to be the 10th pick in the 2006 draft and eventually a NFL bust. However, he was indisputably a great college player.

In 2006, USC started former high school 5 star prodigy John David Booty and he was acceptable in his first season as a starter, throwing for 3347 yards and a 29/9 TD to INT ratio. No one confused Booty with Palmer or Leinart – he labored to make timely reads and his alleged arm talent was often AWOL – but it was naturally assumed that his senior campaign would show improvement and the Trojan juggernaut would roll on.

USC 2007-2008
JD Booty, 5th round
Mark Sanchez, 5th pick, 1st round

It didn’t get better. Sarkisian’s first year as the USC OC coincided with several high profile offensive recruiting busts and JD Booty crashing to the ground, no longer buoyed by the talent that drove USC’s run from 2002-2006. Booty struggled badly to get the ball down the field, demonstrated a penchant for untimely picks, and Trojan fans clamored for a guy named Mark Sanchez. Sarkisian was heavily criticized by Trojan fans for the drop in offensive production. We know now that Booty’s inflated rankings were largely a creation of early spread adoption, but at the time, his deficits were blamed squarely on Sark. Somehow JD Booty was drafted in the 5th round.

In his second year as offensive coordinator, Sarkisian silenced the critics. Mark Sanchez threw for 3207 yards, a 32-10 TD to INT ratio, and a healthy 8.8 yards per attempt. Sanchez looked the part of a star QB and he threw a beautiful ball off of play action, but much of his success came from Sarkisian putting him in excellent spots and creating easy progressions and reads. Sanchez owes Sarkisian a lot of money for featuring his best attributes and Jets fans curse Sark to this day for making a moth look like a butterfly. Sanchez was the 5th overall pick in the NFL draft and despite a heady start elevated by the dominant Jets defense, he crashed and burned into a butt-fumbling bust.

Washington 2009-2013
Jake Locker, 8th pick, 1st round
Keith Price, UDFA

At Washington, Sarkisian coached Jake Locker, the ultimate projection, who lacked every possible on-field skill needed to succeed as a quarterback. But the charismatic 6-3, 230 pound athlete had a big arm and did look good in a uniform. Sarkisian struggled to showcase the slow-reading, inaccurate Locker, but he also can shoulder some blame for making his offense needlessly complex for a QB who badly needed Offense 101 and a chance to better feature his legs and physicality. Sark struggled through two years of Locker who was, amazingly, drafted 8th by the Tennessee Titans, who compared him to “a bigger, stronger, right-handed Steve Young.” If you needed further proof that nearly anyone can become a NFL GM…there you have it. 

Locker was replaced by his opposite: a coordinated, weak-armed, slow QB named Keith Price. Sark could work with a guy with some feel, even one with major physical limitations. Price would start for Sark for three years and proved to be a massive upgrade over Locker despite few redeeming physical attributes. Two of those years were quite good in terms of production, but Sarkisian’s offense could be highly inconsistent. Particularly when defenses tested Price’s physical deficiencies or the unit struggled to get on the same page with Sark’s required route adjustments. Price had zero future in the NFL, but the fact that Sark extracted much more value from him than the heralded Locker is worth noting.

USC 2014-2015
Cody Kessler, 3rd round

Sarkisian returned to USC and inherited the closest analogue to what Sark was as a player at BYU in the form of the undersized, smart Cody Kessler. Kessler was accurate and a competitor. That is all Sark needs. Kessler rewarded his mentor with a huge year: 39/5 TD/INT and 9.7 yards per attempt. Eventually, he was drafted in the 3rd round by Cleveland. About three rounds too high. Once again, Sarkisian proved that he can meld with a limited quarterback who can execute what he wants when he has the necessary surrounding offensive tools (Nelson Agholor and a young Juju Smith Schuster were his receivers).

Alabama 2019-2020
Tua Tagovailoa, 5th pick, 1st round
Mac Jones, 15th pick, 1st round

After a public burnout and a two year cup of coffee with the Atlanta Falcons, Sarkisian found himself at Alabama. Little needs to be written about what he did with Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones, but in 2019 the two combined for 47 TDs and only 6 INTs as Alabama averaged 11 yards per pass attempt. Tua was already accomplished and heralded, but Sark allowed him to feature some NFL route concepts that secured him as the #5 pick in the draft despite significant injury concerns. 

In 2020, the cerebral Mac Jones – effectively a Matt Leinart clone – shattered Tide records with 4500 yards passing, a 41-4 TD to INT ratio, and an incredible 11.2 yards per attempt. Jones got everything Sark was trying to do and no Sarkisian pupil has exhibited a better grasp of his offense than Jones. A pure distributor, Jones evidenced good pocket feel, but very little athleticism and his arm is only adequate. Sarkisian also effectively integrated the best of NFL and college passing game concepts, allowing Bama to feature their talent and steamroll a succession of quality defenses. 

There are a few things that can be reasonably surmised from this extensive and varied history: 

1. Sark can succeed with a variety of physical types, but prefers the QB to be pass first.

2. Sark has little patience or success with quarterbacks who lack feel or timing. 

3. Sark wants the quarterback to enable creators, not do the creation.

4. Sark, the QB coach, has always been very good.

5. Sark, the offensive coordinator, was still improving and growing into his 40s.

6. He has covered up a lot of warts on some pretty mediocre NFL prospects and made them a lot of money.

7. He has also maximized several college guys with little NFL future. All he needed from them was competitiveness, accuracy, feel, and some heart.

So who will Steve Sarkisian pick to lead the Longhorn offense? 

He will pick the athlete that opens up the offense for others with their arm, accuracy, and decision making.  

Sarkisian already knows who that player is…and we’ll know soon enough, too.

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Cover photo by Will Gallagher for Inside Texas. An excerpt from the 9th Annual 2021 Texas Football Prospectus: Thinking Texas Football, available wherever you buy books online.