For Steve Sarkisian and Nick Saban, familiar faces are on opposite sidelines

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spent two years as the Alabama Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator prior to taking the Longhorn head coaching job. Sarkisian has spoken time after time about his affinity and respect for Alabama head coach Nick Saban, and took another opportunity to do so on Monday during his weekly press conference. Once again, Sarkisian expressed his gratitude for everything he learned during his time under the coach thought to be the sport’s best ever.

[Get a FREE 7-day trial of Inside Texas Plus]

The respect goes both ways. In Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Monday, Saban spoke about how he not only respects Sarkisian’s work, but also the product put on the field by several current UT players.

“(Sarkisian) has done a really good job,” Saban said. “They have a very good offensive coach. They’ve been in a great system and have a great scheme on offense. They’ve got some really good players on offense. (Bijan) Robinson is an outstanding running back. (Xavier) Worthy is a great receiver. (Quinn) Ewers is a very good quarterback. Great arm and is a very talented guy.”

Saban, who rose through the coaching ranks as a defensive backs coach, doesn’t call the defense. Play-calling responsibilities belong to defensive coordinator Pete Golding, though Saban’s influence is all over that side of the ball.

Golding joined the Alabama coaching staff at the same time as Sarkisian, arriving at Bama after spending time as UTSA’s defensive coordinator. For a couple of years, the two went at each other every day in practice with some of the best players in the nation executing their calls.

Sarkisian said Golding is one of his dear friends, and he can’t wait to go against his former colleague once again.

“It’s always fun to compete against friends,” Sarkisian said. “It’s like going into the backyard and playing horse, or playing one-on-one, or shooting pool, whatever it is. And Petey is a great competitor. Couple that with Coach Saban, and they’ve got some really good minds on the defensive side of the ball.”

Like most matchups between Saban and his former assistants, there is a lot of familiarity with how both sides operate. Texas has former Alabama staffers in Sarkisian, Bo Davis, Jeff Banks, Kyle Flood, and AJ Milwee on the assistant coaching staff. For the Crimson Tide, two coaches who worked under previous head coach Tom Herman, Coleman Hutzler and Dave Huxtable, are in Saban’s organization.

Typically, former Saban assistants try to beat their old boss using lessons learned from their time at Alabama while adding their own spin on how to run a program and coach a team.

Those strategies rarely work against the Crimson Tide. Saban is 25-2 all-time against former assistants and 13-1 against former assistants who specialize on offense.

Alabama having the best roster in the country for most of the past decade is one main reason why Saban defeats his former proteges. Familiarity is a contributing factor, but according to both head coaches, it’s often overblown.

“I think one thing we have to be careful not doing is overanalyzing and overthinking it too much,” Sarkisian said. “It’s kind of like being a pitcher, sometimes you’ve got to throw your best pitch and not throw your fourth or fifth pitch just because you think the guy is going to hit your best pitch.”

Saban said it in a different way, but overall had the same message: “We’ve seem to play several teams now that kind of know us, but you act like we don’t know them. Just because somebody knows you when they play you, doesn’t mean they’re going to beat you. And just because you know them when you play them, doesn’t mean you’re gonna beat ‘em either. It’s gonna come down to how you execute.”

Of course, Sarkisian is going to rely somewhat on his knowledge of Alabama defensive tendencies and individual players. Not much will be gleaned from Bama’s 55-0 season-opening win over Utah State, especially considering Sarkisian said he believes both teams likely completed their gameplans for this game in June.

In a similar vein, Saban will utilize the hundreds of practices spent watching Sarkisian and Golding operate against each other when it comes time to finalize what he wants to run Saturday, not so much what Sarkisian showed in a 52-10 win over Louisiana-Monroe.

While doing so, he’ll keep respect for Sarkisian’s offensive mind at the center of his attention.

“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,” Saban said. “Whether it’s formationally, using motions, adjustments, eye candy, whatever you want to call it to, to sort of get the look that he’d like to have and run that particular play against it.”

Despite the shared knowledge, Sarkisian and Saban both admitted the game will be determined by who is more successful in what they set out to do. That doesn’t solely apply to game day, but every practice this week.

“I can’t worry about what he’s doing in their locker room and in their team room,” Sarkisian said. “I’ve got to shift my focus on making sure that we’re gameplanning really well, that we’re scheming really well, that our guys are motivated to play, and have the right mental intensity. Not just on Saturday, but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so that we’ve got good focus and that we can go perform.”

There will be several reunions on Saturday, not just between the two head coaches. The plethora of familiar faces is a storyline, and one that will have an effect on the game. But the focus for the Longhorns isn’t on the team, coaches, or other people in crimson. It’s on everyone in burnt orange.

“I think the biggest thing for us is to be enamored with us,” Sarkisian said.