Alabama Football: ‘Over-qualified’ Steve Sarkisian a strength for the Tide offense

Alabama football OC, Steve Sarkisian, is what the Tide needs in the 2020 season.

Next month will mark a five-year odyssey for Alabama football, OC, Steve Sarkisian. It was August 2015 when Sarkisian’s second season as USC head coach began to unravel. Five games into the 2015 season, USC fired him.

Sark was in his seventh season as a college football head coach. He stepped into a Washington Huskies’ program that had gone 0-12 in the 2008 season. He built the Huskies back to respectability. Winning seven games each season from 2010-2012, his final Huskies team was 8-4.

At 38 years of age, Sarkisian left Seattle for a better opportunity. USC called and Sark had a strong history with the Trojans. As a USC assistant, Sark had once coached with Pete Carroll, Norm Chow and Lane Kiffin.  As a player at BYU and assistant coach at USC, Sark learned the intricacies of the West Coast offense from acclaimed offensive Guru, Norm Chow. The sharpest young mind on the USC staff was Sark, rather than Kiffin.

From 2001-2008 (except the 2004 season) Sarkisian taught quarterbacks for USC. That 2004 season, he had the same task for the Oakland Raiders. Sarkisian was also OC at USC in 2007 and 2008.

The ‘West Coast’ label became popular during the Bill Walsh era with the 49ers. Many of its principles went all the way back to Sid Gillman and Don ‘Air’ Coryell. Simply described, the West Coast used frequent short passes to set up long passes and long runs. It was designed to be unpredictable. Quarterbacks like Ken Anderson and Joe Montana loved it. So did running backs who busted long plays as both runners and receivers.

A strength of Steve Sarkisian is his willingness to use all his offensive tools. As a play-caller, his tendencies are hard to decipher. He does ask much of his QBs mentally to quickly make good decisions. Correct reads are essential. But a Sark QB does not have to be a dual-threat and is rarely asked to make tough throws. Check out Sark’s comments before the 2019 season.

"The game of football is ultimately about being physical up front, being able to run the football, taking care of the football and scoring when you have opportunities to score. Those things will never change in the game. How you get to all of those points is always evolving, and that’s our job as coaches to evolve to put our players in the best position to be successful."

Check out another Bama Hammer perspective on Steve Sarkisian’s offensive designs.

Rather than a set system, Sarkisian uses schemes. The personnel of the Alabama football, 2020 offense is well-suited to those schemes. Mac Jones is smart and accurate. Najee Harris is arguably the best running back in the nation. The 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide offensive line has physical,  dominant run-blockers. Waddle, Smitty and Jahleel Billingsley are explosive receiving weapons.

Without Tua, the 2020 Alabama football offense will be less flashy. It can also become more dominant, able to control games with power, speed and finesse. The Crimson Tide will not discard RPO concepts. It will continue to distribute the ball to speedsters outside. When an opposing defense has to load the box, Sark’s offense is designed to make defensive backs single-cover Waddle and Smitty. Properly disguised and executed, the offense can be deadly.

Steve Sarkisian is generally underappreciated by Alabama football fans. He is, however, the most qualified OC, in the Crimson Tide Saban era.

UPDATE:

On Tuesday, it was learned Steve Sarkisian had a recent surgical procedure to correct a congenital heart problem. He is expected to make a quick and complete recovery.