Alabama football: 3 reasons the Tide will beat No. 11 Texas in Week 2

1. Can’t trust a Sark-led squad — yet

Despite Texas being ranked No. 11, the Longhorns are still not a team to be trusted. Yes, Steve Sarkisian has done a phenomenal job in recruiting since he’s taken the reins in Austin (two top-five recruiting classes, per 247Sports), however, just because you can recruit, doesn’t mean you can coach.

To be fair, Sark has impressively won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach twice, although it’s notable that the award was won under the tutelage of two legendary head coaches in Pete Carroll and Nick Saban. And, whilst Sarkisian has graduated to head coach at Texas, he still performs like a student.

Texas is Sark’s third job as lead man of a collegiate program, and I’d say he’s failed thus far.

While at Washington, he went 34-29. During this five-year period, the Huskies finished no higher than third in the Pac-12 North. Yet, somehow he was able to parlay that mediocrity into his second head coaching role, this time at the prestigious Southern California. There he lasted just a season and a half en route to an unforgivable 12-6 record.

Sark has an excellent offensive mind, which is indicative of his two Broyles Award wins. Even with recognizing these achievements, legendary coaches aside, one has to wonder was the offensive success of the 2003 Trojans and 2020 Crimson Tide appropriately attributed to him? Were these triumphs due to his footballing acumen, or were they due to the illustrious players that he had the luxury of utilizing?

I mean, the 2003 Trojans had two Heisman Trophy winners in the squad, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinhart, not to mention Biletnikoff finalist and consensus All-American wide receiver Mike Williams. Meanwhile, the 2020 Crimson Tide included 10 future NFL players on the offensive side of the football, including Heisman winner DeVonta Smith.

Therefore, it appears that Sark is only able to compete at a CFP level if he has generational talents to play with, coupled with world-class management above him.

At Texas, he has neither.

While the roster is good, it’s not elite — yet. As the head honcho, there’ll be no gameday instruction from Carroll. However, Saban’s master class will be in session Saturday night, with Sark front row to see it. But, if Sark is still around in a year or two’s time, ask me again when Arch Manning is under center.