Steve Sarkisian changed the narrative as a head coach, can James Franklin, Mario Cristobal or Billy Napier do the same?

Steve Sarkisian is going to win a national championship at Texas.

It may be as soon as this fall. Or maybe it’s 2026 when Arch Manning is a senior. But I feel confident in that prediction, and there’s no way I could’ve made such a statement with a straight face this time just one year ago. 

In the last 12 months, no head coach in the country has dramatically improved their standing in the sport more than Steve Sarkisian. A year ago, the Longhorns’ head coach was paid less than Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck and was ranked as a Tier 5 coach by top insiders at The Athletic. He’d never won 10 games at USC, Washington or Texas. 

But all offseason, he expressed confidence that the Longhorns were set for a Year 3 surge, and sure enough, Texas went out and won the Big 12 for the first time since 2009. The Longhorns narrowly lost to Washington in the College Football Playoff Semifinals, but Sarkisian’s Q-rating had soared so high that he was seen as one of the top options to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. 

In a recent interview with ESPN, Sark, who had two different stints on Alabama’s staff, admitted he briefly pondered the thought of returning to Tuscaloosa and succeeding his former boss before quickly coming to the realization that he has it rolling now on the Forty Acres. 

“Naturally, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it,” Sarkisian said, who was rewarded handsomely with a giant raise that made him the third-highest-paid head coach in the game.

“But it took me all of about 60 seconds to say, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing that.’ I had an awesome two years at Alabama and loved my time under Coach Saban, but ultimately you want to reap what you sow.

“We’ve poured a ton into this program for three years, and we’re on the cusp, I think, of going on a run that will be epic. I believe that. Our staff does, and our players do, too, just the support we have and the culture we’ve created here. Why leave something like that?”

Few coaches are fortunate enough to get three chances at three major programs to grow into a really good head coach, but Sarkisian has become a shining example of just because you haven’t, doesn’t mean you won’t — or can’t. 

For some, perhaps that is true. 

It wasn’t for Sarkisian though, who clearly learned some invaluable aspects of program-building, culture, staffing, how to practice and recruiting while working for Saban at Alabama. Pair all that with Texas’ infinite resources and Sarkisian’s brilliant offensive mind, and voila! 

Sure, it took some time to get the engine humming at Texas, but the fixes Sarkisian implemented under the hood worked, so leaving for Alabama this offseason never made any sense.

“I remember talking to him in his office and it was, ‘Coach, I want to go build my own legacy. I don’t want to just stay here to continue yours,'” Sarkisian told ESPN. 

“So those same thoughts came over me when I heard he was retiring. We’re building something here that I think is going to be sustainable for a long, long time.”

Sarkisian is finally comfortable in his own skin. He’s dealt with a lot off the field, but on the field, he’s changed a lot, too. 

Sarkisian isn’t some lone wolf who did a 180 on the narrative surrounding his coaching acumen, either. Others have — and will — as well, and there are three obvious head coaches who could drastically change how they’re viewed within the sport in 2024. 

Billy Napier at Florida, Mario Cristobal at Miami and James Franklin at Penn State

Working backward, obviously, Franklin is the most accomplished head coach of the aforementioned trio, but Penn State’s longtime leader has been labeled “overrated” for several seasons now. The Nittany Lions are seen as an underachieving program because they only win games against teams they’re more talented than and lose to Ohio State (seven in a row) and Michigan (3-7 over Franklin’s tenure). Franklin has also burned through offensive coordinators and leveraged PSU for a monster contract by flirting with other jobs. 

But what if Penn State does finally beat Ohio State this season? What if the Nittany Lions make the College Football Playoff and win a game or two? Franklin would instantly be viewed in a totally different light. In such a scenario, some might suddenly believe he’s the best coach in the Big Ten! However, if Penn State stumbles with this veteran roster that he has? Then Franklin will continue to be discussed in a pejorative manner. 

Meanwhile, this week’s headlines did Mario Cristobal no favors, as USA Today reported that the Hurricanes shelled out $22.7 million to get the head coach out of Oregon — the largest single-year payment to an athletics employee at any private university on record. 

On a related note, Cristobal is 12-13 at Miami — with multiple bone-headed losses due to the head coach’s own poor in-game management (see: Georgia Tech). No one doubts Cristobal’s ability to accumulate talent, but be it at Oregon or Miami, there are legitimate qualms about his ability to maximize his roster advantages. 

Like Franklin, Cristobal has had prior success (35-13 at Oregon with two Pac-12 titles), but the nickname (Cristofraud) and lampooning would immediately disappear if Miami won its program’s first ACC Championship this fall. Say everything clicks with Cam Ward & Co., and the Hurricanes become a CFP team, then much like Sarkisian, the narrative would totally flip on Cristobal. 

Finally, Billy Napier is the lone coach here who is at risk of getting fired this season. He’s been scrutinized for Florida’s poor special teams play, bloated staff and refusal to cede play-calling duties. 

But what if Napier leads the Gators to a surprising 8-4, 9-3 season in 2024? That may seem modest compared to what Franklin or Cristobal must accomplish to flip their narratives, but considering Florida will face a nightmarish schedule this fall, that would do the trick for Napier.

No one who spends time with Napier thinks he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s a man with a plan. The issue thus far — and the reason he’s been dubbed Sun Belt Billy by some — is that the blueprint worked at Louisiana-Lafayette and it’s been a disaster at Florida. 

Maybe Year 3 is when everything clicks?