Nick Saban praises Steve Sarkisian ahead of Texas' trip to Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Former Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will be coaching against the Crimson Tide for the second year in a row as the coach at Texas.

The Longhorns will visit Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 9, for a primetime matchup with No. 3 Alabama, and head coach Nick Saban, in his 17th year at the helm of the UA program, spoke highly of his former assistant coach prior to the Week 2 meeting.

“I think Sark is one of the best coaches we’ve ever been around when it comes to offense,” Saban said. “He’s got a great disposition with players. He’s a great teacher. He’s got a great understanding of the game, really understands defense and how to attack defenses but has some really good concepts on offense that are hard to defend, understands how to present them in different ways so that maybe whatever you practiced, it doesn’t really come up that way in a game, which makes it more difficult for defensive players. 

“But Sark did a great job here for us. He’s doing a great job in Texas and it’s gonna be a very challenging game. They recruit well. They coach well. They’ve got good players and they’re well-coached.”

Sarkisian was the Tide’s offensive coordinator from 2019-20 and helped lead Alabama to the school’s 18th national championship during the pandemic-affected 2020 campaign before taking the job at Texas. However, he first joined the program as an analyst in 2016, which was his first job after being fired as the head coach at USC for alcohol abuse.

Saban touched on giving Sarkisian a second chance at Alabama.

“I like giving people second chances,” Saban said. “I think that their willingness to do the right things and whatever their mistakes were, they’re trying to fix it and look for an opportunity. Geez, when Sark was here the first time he did such a good job, there was no question about the fact that we’d love to have him back a second time. 

“He represented the program well, he’s first class in every way, so I was glad I gave him a second chance. I’m glad that he came here, whether it was an analyst or whatever, proved that he could do a good job and went on to Atlanta to be the coordinator and came back here to be the coordinator so it’s great.”

Saban is 28-2 all-time against his former staffers during his tenure at Alabama. In addition to Sarkisian, who is 0-1 against the Tide, UA and Saban are also scheduled to meet former coordinators Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M) and Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) this season.

Saban was asked if coaches who have been in the program have an advantage.

“What the question would be is, does somebody else know more about what we know than what they know?” Saban said. “Yeah, is it an advantage to the other guy that he knows what we do? But we also know what they do, so I don’t know how you put that on a scale and say that it’s more advantageous to one person than the other. We always try to focus on what we gotta do with our players to try and get them to play good and not really worry too much about the other guys. 

“But there could be some terminology things that if you don’t change it up, they might be able to take advantage and I think we’re aware of those things, trying to make sure that we don’t give them any advantages, but I think it kind of goes both ways.”

Not a member, Alabama fans? Join BOL today!

Have you subscribed to BamaOnLine.com yet? You can sign up now for a year’s worth of premium access for $74.99! Or you can also gain monthly access for just $1! Get access to premium articles and nuggets covering Alabama sports and recruiting content and also join thousands of Crimson Tide fans on the BOL Round Table message board! CLICK HERE!