This Week in Coaching: Steve Sarkisian tells the truth, why Kirby Smart got the band back together and Ed Orgeron just can't help himself

It’s been in the mid-90s every day in Austin this week, so when Steve Sarkisian poured some water on the importance of Texas’ marquee matchup with No. 1 Alabama on Saturday, many Longhorn fans took great offense. 

“I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is like, ‘This is gonna be the game that’s going to define our program’. It might, it might not,” Sarkisian said. 

“I’m not that concerned about it. I’m more concerned about just the way we play the game. I’ve said all along: My goal is to be in Dallas (in the Big 12 title game) on Dec. 3. This game has no impact on that.”

HOW DARE HE!

Breathe, folks. 

The thirst for Texas to be BACK has left some Longhorns fans hot and bothered by the tamest of admissions. 

Make no mistake, Steve Sarkisian wants to beat his former boss Nick Saban. He didn’t wave some sort of pregame white flag. But Steve Sarkisian also understands the situation here. 

He’s walking into a Texas gunfight with two water pistols — in a state with a never-ending drought. The Longhorns are 20-point home underdogs with a freshman quarterback and a couple rookies on the offensive line expected to block Will Anderson and Dallas Turner. 

Sarkisian didn’t dismiss Texas’ goal of pulling off the monumental upset, but he’s not wrong to softly downplay the importance of the Big Noon Saturday showdown for the Longhorns. 

Alabama is a national championship contender. Texas hopes to compete for the Big 12 title. Saturday won’t define its 2022 season — however it plays out. 

Looking at the rest of the weekend slate for This Week In Coaching, Sarkisian isn’t the only Year 2 head coach facing a big test in Week 2. I’ve highlighted new coaches in tricky spots this coming weekend, but what about Shane Beamer and South Carolina’s road trip to Arkansas or Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols as nearly a touchdown favorite on the road at Pitt?

Jedd Fisch has a sneaky opportunity to record an upset win Saturday, as Arizona hosts Mississippi State — with a 11 p.m. eastern kick due to state advisory heat laws. Meanwhile, Gus Malzahan could really crank up the head on Louisville’s Scott Satterfield, as UCF hosts the Cardinal on Friday night.

WHEN GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER WORKS

Kirby Smart raised a few eyebrows this offseason when he tabbed a couple former Georgia staffers to replace a couple outgoing coaches. 

The Dawgs saw four assistants, including current Oregon head coach Dan Lanning who was last seen being taken to the woodshed by his mentor Saturday, depart from their national championship team in 2021. 

Smart replaced defensive backs coach Jahmile Addae, now at Miami, and Lanning, who also coached outside linebackers in addition to his coordinator role, with a pair of young and up-and-comers in the industry in TCU linebacker coach Chidero Uzo-Diribe and Rutgers secondary coach Fran Brown. But Smart’s decision to bring back former UGA wideout Bryan McClendon to coach receivers and North Carolina offensive line coach Stacy Searels, as well as hire Mike Bobo to an analyst role, left some Bulldogs fans wondering if this was 2007 again. 

Well, it’s only one week, but Smart looks exactly that with Georgia’s 2022 staff, betting on continuity and chemistry with so many familiar faces. 

After Georgia dismantled Oregon by 46 on Saturday, Smart called his current staff “the best it’s ever been” at Georgia because of the group’s “alignment.”

“We’ve always had a good staff, but we’ve got a really great staff right now in terms of guys enjoying the work together and putting plans together, and I thought they did a great job of doing that,” Smart explained. 

“The buy-in of those four coaches, the alignment, the understanding of this program’s bigger than me and that I’ll sacrifice for the program. They understand their role.”

Smart still has two members off his 2016 inaugural staff in tailbacks coach Dell McGee and co-defensive coordinator Glenn Shumann. Tight ends coach Todd Hartley, another UGA alum, and defensive line coach Trey Scott have been staples at Georgia for years now, too. 

Together the group, along with Will Muschamp and Todd Monken, have coalesced exactly how Smart envisioned when he brought so many familiar faces back to Athens this offseason. 

“They’ve done what they’ve been asked to do and they embrace it. And there’s a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm at practice,” Smart said. 

“It works. So it’s created a really good kind of connection among the staff.”

COORDINATOR OF THE WEEK TO WATCH

This is a great week to spotlight Baylor offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. 

In one of the few Top 25 matchups this weekend, The No. 9 Bears take on the No. 21 BYU Cougars — where Grimes was the offensive coordinator before coming to Waco. 

The 53-year-old OC started his career as a well-regarded offensive line coach, making stops at Arizona State, BYU, Auburn, Virginia Tech, LSU, among others, before getting his first true shot to call plays in 2018 with the Cougars. Grimes is credited with developing quarterback Zach Wilson, the eventual No. 2 pick by the New York Jets in the NFL Draft. 

After Wilson’s 2020 season where BYU finished in the Top 10 nationally in scoring and total offense,  Dave Aranda poached Grimes away to Baylor. 

In his first year with the Bears, Grimes dramatically improved Baylor’s offensive line and run game, with the offense finishing 33rd nationally in yards per play — up from 126th (second-worst among all Power 5 schools) in 2020. Very quietly, Grimes has 

Grimes is among the coordinators to watch for potential head coaching jobs this offseason, so get some eyes on him this weekend when he takes on his old boss Kalani Sitake and BYU’s stout defense. 

DID YOU KNOW?

That Matt Campbell is still looking for his first-career Cy-Hawk Trophy?

Despite turning around Iowa State’s football program, the Cyclones’ head coach is 0-5 against Iowa and Kirk Ferentz since taking over the program in Ames in 2016. 

Although Iowa looks to still have a sputtering offense in 2022, the Hawkeyes are early 3.5-point favorites against Campbell’s Cyclones this weekend. 

QUOTABLE

“They said, ‘Coach, you’ve got $17.1 million on your contract. We’re going to give it to you.’

“I said, ‘What time do you want me to leave and what door do you want me out of, brother?”

— Former LSU coach Ed Orgeron 

Coach O on his time and exit from LSU . He was at the Little Rock Touchdown Club today. pic.twitter.com/n87SmTnXqW

— Steve Sullivan (@sully7777) September 6, 2022

In an appearance at the Little Rock Touchdown Club earlier this week, MR. GEAUX TIGERS himself was the guest speaker, and the former LSU coach candidly detailed his final hours in Baton Rouge last fall. 

Ed Orgeron, who won a title at LSU in 2019 before the train completely went off the tracks in 2021, recounted a meeting with Tigers athletics director Scott Woodward just a day after the Tigers upset Florida. 

“I gotta tell you, we had a meeting, (Woodward) said, ‘Coach, things are not going well,’” Orgeron recounted.

“‘No, shit. Ray Charles could see that brother.’

“And Scott Woodward is a friend of mine today, really. A lot of respect for the way that they handled me. He said, ‘Coach, you got $17.1 million on your contract. We’re going to give it to you.

“I said, ‘What time you want me to leave and what do you want me out of brother?’”

The room erupted in laughter, and it was damn good punchline to a story. 

But the reality of the joke is that Ed Orgeron was the real-life version of the Joker walking away from a smoldering building. 

He got his money, but his indifference to everything else left a residue of ashes that’s going to take a long time to clean up in Baton Rouge. Just ask Brian Kelly. 

All the internal drama and locker room issues haven’t gone away in one off-season with the Tigers. The cultural rot and team’s recent fatal flaws sure looked on brand Sunday night in Kelly’s inauspicious debut loss to Florida State. 

Orgeron said he was “grateful for my time at LSU. That was my opportunity. Coaches got a shelf life. Some coaches got 50 years. Some coaches got 12. Mine was six. Good.”

Honest? Sure. Completely lacking self-awareness? Absolutely.