Nick Saban reveals what makes Steve Sarkisian such a dangerous, successful play-caller

Nick Saban knows exactly what he’s dealing with in his coaching matchup against Steve Sarkisian this weekend. Sarkisian spent two separate stints in Tuscaloosa under Saban as an offensive mind on the Crimson Tide staff. It’s now on Saban’s defense to slow Sarkisian’s scoring down for the first time as opponents.

Saban spoke about Sarkisian’s offensive mindset during his press conference on Monday. He said Sarkisian’s preparation as well as his understanding of both sides of the football gives him his edge.

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“I think he’s a very bright guy. He’s very well organized and did an outstanding job when he was here. He’s got a good system and he understands defense,” said Saban. “(Sarkisian) like to see what you’re in if he can so that he can run a play that’s gonna be an effective play against that particular look or give his players the best chance to be successful. I think all those things and good preparation make you a very, very good play caller.”

Alabama’s offense ranked 16th at 38.8 points per game in 2016 when Sarkisian was an interim OC and analyst. In 2019 and 2020 when he returned to be the Tide’s OC and QB coach, their offense ranked second in both years. They scored 47.2 points a contest in ’19 and 48.5 points a contest in ’20.

Texas’ offense ranked 18th in the nation in Sarkisian’s first season at 35.2 points per game. They enter this weekend’s matchup against Alabama after scoring 52 points in their opener last week.

Saban continued to put focus on Sarkisian’s understanding of defense as the reason he’s so good offensively. Sarkisian diagnoses the situation, calls the correct play, and adds whatever else he needs to confuse his opponent’s defense.

“He has a really good understanding of defense. He has a really good understanding of what he wants to do on offense against certain things on defense. And he tries to implement those in the game,” said Saban. “Whether it’s formationally, using motions, adjustments, eye candy or whatever you want to call it to sort of get the look that they’d like to have and then run that particular play against it.”

Nick Saban at least has the advantage of familiarity with Sarkisian as he heads to Austin this weekend. He also has a defense capable of slowing the Longhorns down after they pitched a shutout this weekend. However, it’ll be much harder to keep Sarkisian’s team off the scoreboard. After benefitting from it earlier in his career, it’s now on Saban to stifle the Texas offense he knows all too well.