How big of an accomplishment it would be for Steve Sarkisian to lead Texas to a title

Steve Sarkisian has brought Texas back to the national stage with their appearance in the College Football Playoff in his third season as head coach. Now, both for the program and him as an individual, he has a chance to add quite the feat to his resume.

On3’s Andy Staples spoke with Richard Johnson of Sports Illustrated about the Longhorns’ playoff appearance during his show on Sunday. They agreed that a win in the national championship would speak volumes about Sarkisian, starting with Staples’ point about how far he has come on, on and off the field, in the last decade and a half.

“What a full circle moment,” said Staples. “Against the program where he started as a head coach where he kind of couldn’t get off the plateau. You wondered, ‘Is this guy ever going to figure it out? Is he ever going to get it?’. It took, unfortunately, a pretty bad life situation to get him to evolve and emerge as a different coach.”

“But, I mean, if he could do that? Take this team to the national title game? It’s a pretty big accomplishment,” said Staples.

Staples continued by discussing the overall challenges that come with the job on The 40 Acres. He’d give Sarkisian just as much credit for finding a way to do it and being the coach that officially brought Texas ‘back’.

“I don’t think Texas is an easy job. I know everybody says you’ve got all the resources, you’ve got so many good players. If it were that easy? It would look like Alabama and Georgia,” said Staples. “It’s not.”

“They would not have had to go through that many coaches. Even Mack Brown, who was an all-time great there, fell off. Then Charlie Strong and Tom Herman couldn’t get it done,” Staples explained. “If he can get this done? It’s a big accomplishment.”

That’s when Johnson chimed in with a point of his own. He noted that most national title-winning coaches secure their championship earlier on in their careers. That would make Sarkisian fairly uncharacteristic with this being his 10th season as a head coach.

“You don’t see guys win a national championship often that don’t do it early, right? If you get your championship, you get it early,” said Johnson. “Jimbo got it pretty early, Urban got it pretty early. Obviously, Nick Saban got it pretty early, Kirby – you get it early and it kind of is what you are. It kind of defines you.”

“Sark has been able to, in more than just a football sense, get back on the horse and have a renaissance,” Johnson said.

It’s obvious how pivotal a victory in Houston would be for Sarkisian’s career and the program at Texas. However, considering all these circumstances, Staples and Johnson concur that it would somehow represent that much more down in Austin.