The Steve Sarkisian era at the University of Alabama has started.
Head coach Nick Saban made the hire official on Friday via press release from the school’s athletic department of communications. After serving as an offensive analyst this season, Sarkisian will be the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach starting next year. He takes over for the departing Lane Kiffin, who accepted a head coaching job at Florida Atlantic. Kiffin, 41, aided the Tide to three Southeastern Conference championships and a College Football Playoff national title in 2015, after being hired in 2014.
“We are pleased to be able to hire an offensive coordinator with the pedigree and experience of Steve Sarkisian,” Saban said. “He has a tremendous offensive mind and is someone we believe will do a great job of teaching and developing our football team on the offensive side of the ball. He has been a great asset to our coaching staff this season and brings a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to his job. Steve will be a phenomenal addition to our coaching staff and someone who can seamlessly transition into the job with a full understanding of how our organization works.”
Sarkisian, 42, was the head man at both University of Southern California (2014-15) and University of Washington (2009-13), before landing an on-field role at Alabama.
“I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to join Coach Saban’s staff, and I can’t thank The University of Alabama enough,” Sarkisian said. “I have always admired the Alabama program from afar and getting to be part of this football team these past few months has only reinforced my belief that this is the best college football organization in the country. There are many outstanding coaches and athletes at The University of Alabama, and I am extremely excited to start working with them in my new role. This is a very special place to have the opportunity to coach when you consider the program’s rich tradition and the unrivaled passion of the fan base.”
Before accepting the head role at USC, Sarkisian spent seven years at quarterbacks coach, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator (2001-03, 2005-06, 2007-08). Under Sarksian, the Trojans had two Heisman-winning quarterbacks (Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart) and a Heisman-winning running back (Reggie Bush, vacated).
He would mentor four 3,000-yard passers (Palmer, Leinart, John David Booty, Mark Sanchez), while guiding the offense two Associated Press national titles in 2003 and 2004. As a head coach at Washington, he molded two solid quarterbacks in Jake Locker and Keith Price. Despite his love for the trigger pullers, Sarkisian brought balance to the Huskies. In his five seasons, he had at least one running back to eclipse 1,000 yards.
When he returned to California in 2014, Sarkisian got his hands on Cody Kessler.
He aided him to two 3,000-yard seasons passing, while coaching wide outs Nelson Agholor and JuJu Smith-Schuster to 1,000 yards each. Though he was fired after five games at USC in 2015, Sarkisian endured only one season with a losing record in seven years at head coach (2009, Washington, 5-7).
Stephen M. Smith is a senior analyst and columnist for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @Smsmith_TDALMag
