With the announcement that the Alabama Crimson Tide coordinator entering the game, Steve sarkissjan, now the 31 head coach of las vegas or New York Texas, is focusing on the way Sarkissjan builds his first staff on Forty Acres.
While Sarkisian has grown and matured over the years, as several alcohol-related incidents have led to his dismissal at USC, he has increasingly focused on the value of his assistants.
Sarkissian compares a first head coach to a fire hose and admitted that he had first tried to solve all the problems himself.
“Sometimes they don’t instill enough confidence and belief in the employees they hire,” Sarkisian said in an introductory Zoom call with reports on Saturday. “But I think that now, after spending some time in the National Football League, after obviously the last two years with Coach Saban here in Alabama, you realize the value in the staff, why they hire such good staff is to get people to do what they ask them to do. I think that takes some of the burden off your shoulders as a head coach and allows you to deal with people and not overreact to some of the other things and allow these people to do what they do. And I think it keeps you focused, I think, it keeps you on the ground.”
Setting up an initial coaching staff is an area that has confused Charlie Strong and Tom Herman.
Strong was forced to sack two of his assistants after his first season, including Bruce Chambers, the sole owner of the Mack Brown era, and then sacked his offensive coordinator and his defensive coordinator in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Whether Strong has simply not received the necessary support from the administration to make better adjustments or simply to make the wrong decisions is diminishing in importance because he has repeatedly made Offseason decisions throughout the season.
Herman believed that most of his Houston staff would deliver with him the alignment of the program he was looking for, but mistakes in development and a disappointing regular season forced Herman to dismiss the two coordinators and replace five other Coaches last year.
The replacements hired by Herman have had some success this season, especially defensive coordinator Chris Ash and his staff, so Sarkisian’s first challenge will be to decide if he wants to keep one of Herman’s assistants.
Before meeting with the media on Saturday, Sarkisian made a first call with the assistants and will have one-on-one meetings over the next few days, although those talks may be put on hold until Sarkisian completes training for Alabama in the national championship game.
According to Bruce Feldman, Sarkisian has not made any decisions about the Support staff.
In addition to the Social media Team, which has done an excellent job in recent years, two potentially easy choices for Sarkisian would include retaining high school Relations Director Bob Shipley and Recruiting Director Bryan Carrington. Several current and former players have already pleaded for Carrington and his retention would allow some continuity in recruitment in 2021 and 2022. Shipley has longstanding ties with Texas High school football coaches who would benefit Sarkisian, who never coached in the state.
The return of Ash, with a young assistant on the rise such as cornerback Jay Valai or longtime defensive line coach Oscar Giles, could provide some important continuity on the field and help avoid Transfers on this side of the ball after Ash’s defense has improved significantly over time.
However, there is one big name in the market that is already connected to the work and has previous ties to Texas — Former Florida and South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp, who was appointed several lives ago as head coach in waiting for Mack Brown. While Muschamp failed as head coach in his previous two stops, he is still seen as a defensive spirit.
FootballScoop also mentioned one of muschamp’s former players in Texas, OLE Miss Special team Coordinator Blake Gideon, who has coached defensive backs in the past and looks like a young coach on the rise. He has moved from Western Carolina to the state of Georgia to Houston and now to OLE Miss over the past four years. When Muschamp spent a season as Auburn’s defensive Coordinator between his Jobs as head coach in Florida and South Carolina, he hired Gideon as a graduate assistant.