Nick Saban explains why he rehired Steve Sarkisian at Alabama
By SDS Staff
Published:
Alabama’s new-look coaching staff features a familiar face: Steve Sarkisian.
The one-time (and one-game) OC for the Tide makes his return from the NFL where he coordinated the Falcons’ offense.
Once former OC Mike Locksley took the Maryland head coaching job, Saban had a list of qualified candidates to take over his offense. He ultimately decided upon Sarkisian, who bypassed another NFL opportunity to return to college.
Saban was asked about Sark’s return to Alabama Friday evening during his press conference.
“My experience is the guy did a really, really good job when he was here,” Saban explained. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for him for what he did before he came here as an offensive coach. I don’t think it’s fair to criticize when a guy takes over a job one week before a game and has to go try and implement something because of the circumstance we were in.
“If you look at the body of work with the Falcons, they were like sixth in the NFL in offense or whatever,” Saban continued. “So, there’s got to be some level of expertise to allow them to do that. The players that I talked to there really thought he did a good job and was a good coach. I think he’s a tremendous asset on our staff. We’re very pleased and happy to have him. We had a whole list of people that we went through to hire and I feel like we were really, really fortunate to get a guy who was offered the Arizona Cardinals OC job and chose to come to Alabama.”
Saban originally hired Sarkisian as an analyst in 2016, but things obviously changed when then-OC Lane Kiffin departed before the national championship game. Sarkisian had only a week to prepare the Tide’s offense, a game Alabama narrowly lost.
Shortly thereafter, Sarkisian was hired to become the Falcons’ OC, a position he held for the last two seasons.
You can watch Saban’s full press conference below:
Watch Coach Saban’s First Press Conference of Spring Practice LIVE https://t.co/sAqWmycoRc
— Alabama Athletics (@UA_Athletics) March 9, 2019
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
