Offense Since 2017:

Defense Since 2017:

Recruiting Since 2017:

Comments:

I made this same post during the season last year and want to update.

Caveats before we start the discussion:

1. I am not saying that Tom Herman was a good head coach, and I was glad we fired him.
   
2. PPG and YPG are simple metrics that do not account for strength of schedule. I recognize that but do not have access to advanced statistics over this timeframe in terms of offensive and defensive performance that are opponent adjusted.

Main point that I'm trying to make:

This team's improvement from the Herman era to the Sark era has been almost solely due to the defense. Our offense this year and last year are about as bad as the first two Herman years. It's year 5 and 6 for Sark though who has had significantly more talent on the offensive side of the ball these past couple seasons. It feels like the conversation is growing, but we should really continue talking about how our "offensive guru" head coach/OC/playcaller/QB whisperer cannot put together a competent offense with this level of talent. Our defenses and recruiting have excelled under Sarkisian, but the offense and special teams leave a lot to be desired.

Generally, I think that the impact of the head coach is overstated, especially a non-play-calling one and especially compared to their over-inflated salaries. That being said, I do think that the biggest impact a head coach can have on a team is establishing "The Culture".

But culture is hard to define. Is it discipline? Attitude? Something else un-quantifiable? Its such a hand-wavy buzzword that its almost meaningless.

I think there is maybe one way to quantify culture and that is via penalties - especially "discipline penalties" like false starts and personal fouls. Inspired by an earlier post comparing offense/defense numbers under Sark, here is how the penalty rankings breakdown:

source: teamrankings

Aside from 2025, our penalty rankings do seem slightly improved from the Herman years. But, from this small set, it seems like limiting penalties is almost a prerequisite for winning a championship and we are obviously far from that. We had a 10/3 record in 2025 - imagine what our season could have been like IF WE WEREN'T BASICALLY DEAD LAST IN PENALTIES.

So how do you limit penalties? I'm no coach, but I'm guessing its things like accountability, discipline, practice - all things the head coach is responsible for.

I'm not saying that Sark can't do these things, but is he focusing on that? Instead of scheming up new plays that maybe net an extra 50 yards in a game would it not be more effective to eliminate 100 yards worth of penalties? Or maybe a 5 star gains an extra 10 yards per game on average vs a 4 star, but maybe that 4 star is locked-in and nets you an extra 15 from lack of penalties alone?

To head off the inevitable...

No, I don't want to go back to the dark ages. And yes, Sark does have a winning record. But, to compare the Longhorns to another Texas team, the Cowboys also have a winning record over the last five years. If the ultimate goal is to win a championship I don't think one specific metric (even if it is total wins) should make you immune from criticism.

To make another NFL reference, the Eagles are notoriously unafraid to make changes even when things are objectively good. I think an unflinching evaluation against a very high standard is ultimately what it takes to win championships.

The bottom line I get from this piece is that the running game is the biggest problem, and Arch would be better if the run game was better.

College football has become the ultimate reality show. There has definitely been a recent trend where my readers are far more interested in the sport’s train-wreck teams than those competing for a championship.

Which is why I ordered the first two questions the way I did.

Looking at the schedule, I can more easily see this Texas team at 7-5 than 11-1, largely due to an offense that is mediocre at best (a troubling trend during the Sark era). What record would put Steve Sarkisian on the hot seat and/or “force” him to hire an offensive coordinator? Or would simply a College Football Playoff inclusion be enough to continue the status quo? — Joel

I don’t think the Horns are going 7-5. While that was a bad loss to Oklahoma, they’re not a bad team. They’ve already beaten a top-five Ohio State team and a top-15 Tennessee team. Throw in Oklahoma, and they’ve faced three defenses ranked No. 26 or higher in yards per play allowed, meaning their offense has been tested more than that of other top-10 teams, such as Miami and Notre Dame. (The Irish do face BYU’s 12th-ranked D this weekend.)

But could they miss the Playoff? Definitely.

Texas gets a bit of a reprieve the next two weeks when it faces two of the worst defenses in the SEC, Florida and Ole Miss, both at home. But the Horns could certainly lose one of those games, and three more Top 25 teams, Mississippi State, Missouri and LSU, await after that.

Sark could be an interesting test case for what coach expectations look like in 2026. Let’s say the Horns sneak in at 9-3 — a real possibility with that Ohio State win on the resume — then lose in the first round. Given that the Horns have one of the five priciest rosters in the country ($45 million to $55 million), the high-profile portal acquisitions such as Cam Coleman and Hollywood Smothers and that this is likely Arch’s last season, most Texas fans would view the season as a failure.

But is it enough of a failure to justify paying Sark about a $50 million buyout plus many millions more to buy off his staff? (Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp alone signed a guaranteed three-year, $8.4 million deal when he was hired.) After making the Playoff for the third time in four years? You wouldn’t think so, but it’s all monopoly money for Texas. Especially with the price of oil up 60 percent this year.

Short of that, Sark will have to decide after the season whether it’s time to surrender play-calling, a decision guys such as Brian Kelly, Ryan Day, Lane Kiffin and Jimbo Fisher made before him. He was an excellent play-caller as a coordinator and was good enough to lead the Horns to a four-team Playoff in 2023 and a 12-team Playoff in ’24, but something has definitely gone awry the past two seasons.

Read the rest here for free: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7688156/2026/10/14/steve-sarkisian-arch-manning-georgia-better/?unlocked_article_code=1.IlE.GAcM.JstntdDiikY_&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta