Anonymous Big 12 Coach: Steve Sarkisian Was Snubbed As Coach of the Year
For years, the discussion around the Texas Longhorns has been centered around when they would return to relevance in college football.
In 2023, Texas finally surged back to the forefront of the national championship discussion, and after an 11-1 regular season and a Big 12 Championship, the Longhorns are in their first-ever College Football Playoff.
The job that Steve Sarkisian has done in his first three seasons in Austin, Texas, cannot be overstated. Going from 5-7 in 2021 to 12-1 in 2023 has been as impressive a turnaround as there has been in college football.
Ahead of UT’s Sugar Bowl matchup with the second-ranked Washington Huskies, The Athletic interviewed 11 anonymous Big 12 coaches who faced Texas over the course of the 2023 season. Under the cover of anonymity, they were quite candid about the team down in Austin.
“It’s the best Texas team I’ve seen in years,” a Big 12 offensive analyst told The Athletic. “It’s not even close. Outside of the talent, it’s the most disciplined, as well as the toughest. They were always gonna be the most talented, but we always thought we’d be the tougher team and we could get to them mentally.
“I think they’re very disciplined, more so than they’ve ever been. That’s a great compliment to Sark.”
A Big 12 defensive analyst also had high praise for the Longhorns’ third-year head coach.
“He has little-to-no tendencies,” the Big 12 defensive analyst said. “If he has one, he breaks it the next week. His in-game adjustments are elite. We played a stack man concept to a route we thought was coming and he had a counter that we had never seen that was something off an And1 mix tape. He’s patient in his play calling as he leans on the run game and perimeter pass game and is very calculated when he takes shots.”
He then took it a step further, saying that Sarkisian’s omission from being named Big 12 Coach of the Year was a snub, and said more about UT leaving the conference than it did anything else.
“In my opinion, the fact he didn’t get Big 12 Coach of the Year was as big a snub as I’ve seen considering the job he’s done with this team,” said the Big 12 defensive analyst. “The sad part is, it’s the coaches that vote on this, so it tells you it’s more about Texas leaving the conference than who is the most deserving coach.”
Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year after leading the Pokes to a 9-3 regular season record after starting the year 2-2. Two of OSU’s losses were via blowout, a 33-7 loss to South Alabama and a 45-3 loss to UCF.
Two coaches finished the year with better records than Gundy: Texas’ Steve Sarkisian (11-1) and Oklahoma’s Brent Venables (10-2). An argument could certainly be made for either of those guys, but with them, both headed out of the Big 12, they weren’t ever going to get the votes from the league’s other coaches.
Sarkisian’s coaching performance in 2023 was certainly one to remember, and now he’ll have a chance to get Texas to the National Championship game if UT can get past National Coach of the Year, Kalen DeBoer, and Washington.
The 2024 Allstate Sugar Bowl is set for Monday, January 1, with kickoff slated for 7:45 p.m. CT on ESPN.
