Energized Sarkisian ready to call plays
TAMPA - Steve Sarkisian called himself “a bottled-up ball of energy,” a coach itching to get back on the sidelines, when he spoke Saturday morning for the first time since being named Alabama’s offensive coordinator.
He’ll call plays for the Crimson Tide in Monday’s national championship game against Clemson, an abrupt personnel change that’s unprecedented in a game of this magnitude in college football. He was supposed to take over the role after the end of the postseason; Lane Kiffin was supposed to finish out the postseason with Alabama before moving on to be the head coach at Florida Atlantic. Sarkisian was set to remain an offensive analyst until Kiffin departed.
But after a week of distracting media sessions and an underwhelmingat-times offensive performance in a 24-7 win against Washington in the national semifinal last Saturday, head coach Nick Saban decided to boot Kiffin early, and call Sarkisian up with a week’s notice.
“It was challenging, before this, in the analyst role,” Sarkisian said Saturday at a news conference. “You still got to work on the game plan, you still got to work with the coaches and give suggestions and tips when you watch the tape, but it was frustrating as analyst to go out to practice and not coach. You’re not doing what you love to do.
“It’s a lot of note-taking, a lot of watching other coaches coach. To get this opportunity to be back on the field, I feel almost like I was a bottled-up ball of energy. Now, I can get back on the field and do what I love to do.”
Monday will be the first time Sarkisian has called plays in a game since December 2010. It’s also the first time the former USC head coach will be coaching since he stepped away from the sport for about 11 months because of substance abuse problems. Sarkisian said he’s doing “great,” and appreciates everyone’s concerns but didn’t want to elaborate on personal issues when the focus should be on this Alabama team two days before its championship game.
Sarkisian said he’s spent the past week developing relationships with players, most importantly true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts, but that not much is that different from a regular game week. He’d worked alongside and sat in meetings with Kiffin to prepare game plans for the past four months, and he’d done the same years ago when they worked together at USC.
“I haven’t made those final decisions you make as a coordinator,” Sarkisian said. “What, ultimately, are you going to run in those third-and-short situations? What are you going to call when you’re on the goal line? What’s that first call? You make suggestions when you’re in my situation (as an analyst) throughout the week, but when you’re calling those plays, you’ve got to make those calls.”
He will call plays from the field and be able to talk to his quarterback faceto-face between drives, which is the setup he prefers. He’ll call plays the way he’s comfortable, but his familiarity with what Kiffin was doing all season long will come into play, too.
“We’re not going to re-create the wheel here,” Sarkisian said.
By Alabama’s offense going no-huddle so frequently, Sarkisian believes that actually makes it easier for him to step into his new role. There’s no time for him to second-guess himself on play calling, and the tempo might very well help him get into the rhythm he needs to be in in terms of between-snap substitutions.
“The biggest thing was that this was a new system for me,” Sarkisian said. “There’s some carryover that Lane had brought with him that we had years ago — Lane and I hadn’t coached together in over 10 years — but what I learned was the system (these last four months). I wanted to dive into it because I really wanted to speak the language. I always liken it to, if you live in the States and somebody puts you on a plane to go live in France, sooner or later you’ve got to start speaking French.
“I really tried to learn the system, speak the language, whatever I could to be the most help I could be in whatever role I was in.”
Saban brought him in at first as an offensive analyst after Sarkisian had visited Tuscaloosa during fall camp. Sarkisian had made visits to other college and NFL programs as well, seeing up close the sport he had missed, and how important it was for him to get back around it. Sarkisian said he knew he’d coach again someday, just didn’t know when and where.
“He was supposed to do some TV work, but he said he would really like to get involved in a program someplace, and if there was any opportunity for him to do it here and I liked him in the week that he spent with us,” Saban said.