Very few coaches have the opportunity to walk into a situation as well as the one Steve Sarkisian is embarking upon his first season as full-time offensive coordinator at Alabama. While he had a very brief opportunity to call the shots in the Crimson Tide’s loss to Clemson in the National Championship Game following the 2016 season, Sarkisian now gets a chance to really put his imprint on the Alabama offense.

During his appearance at the 25th annual L’Arche USA banquet from Mobile, Sarkisian offered up this response when asked about his much-discussed return to Alabama after two seasons serving as the offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL.

“I think Coach Saban is a tremendous football coach, obviously that goes without saying. He doesn’t need my endorsement for that,” Sarkisian said in a clip shared by Bri MacNaught of FOX 10 News. “He’s very detail-oriented, he’s very organized. There’s a reason behind everything that we do and I appreciate that. I operate that way. I like having structure, I like knowing what the plan is for the day. We’re extremely efficient when we work. But more importantly, he’s a really good man. I think sometimes that gets missed in this — the compassion that he has for his players and his coaches, the desire he has for all of them have success.

“I appreciated the year I was with him in 2016, and it was really a pretty easy decision to come back and work for him again. I feel like I grew a lot in that season of being with him. I still feel I have a lot of room to grow as a coach, and when you can get around somebody like coach Saban to work under, to learn from, it’s a hard opportunity to pass up.”

Interestingly enough, Sarkisian’s return to Tuscaloosa finally provides the former USC head coach with the opportunity to work with Tua Tagovailoa. USC was believed to be Tagovailoa’s school of choice at one point during his high school recruitment but following his first visit to Tuscaloosa, the Hawaiian native was sold on playing for the Crimson Tide. The rest is history, as they say, but while Sarkisian missed out on the chance to coach Tua once before, now he will be the coach that helps Alabama’s signal caller develop into an NFL QB.

“I offered Tua a scholarship after I went and watched him work out over at St. Louis High School in Honolulu,” Sarkisian recalled according to Creg Stephenson of AL.com. “From then on, we re-connected through recruiting. I was there at Alabama right when he first showed up, but then obviously moved on to the Falcons and now back. Tua’s a very instinctual player. He’s got great instincts for the game, he’s got a very quick release.

“But I think the biggest thing about him is he’s had to deal with a lot of success and then the hardship at the end of last year. To see him put in the work this offseason — I know coach Saban been pushing him to do a lot of the little things to become the best player he can be. He’s done that. Today was our first day back for the summer, and he looked in great shape. I know he’s chomping at the bit to have another great season this fall.”