On Thursday night, the honeymoon period of new Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian came to an abrupt end when news came from Tuscaloosa that Alabama analyst Crimson Tide Mike Stoops, a former Oklahoma defensive coordinator Sooners, was set to become the new linebacker coach for the Longhorns.
Hours later, Sarkisian reversed the course, telling Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman that he hoped to hire another linebacker on Friday.
A press release on Friday announcing the other nine assistant coaches, as well as football performance director Torre Becton, only increased speculation that Sarkisian’s team was finished until it was not. Sarkisian also held a Zoom conference call with the media on Friday afternoon to discuss his new assistants.
Superficially, adding a former Power Five head coach with significant coordination experience to Sarkisian’s team as a position coach would seem like a home run sign. But the rivalry with Oklahoma and Stoops’ poor performance against Texas, including the 2018 Cotton Bowl game that resulted in the Sooners coach Lincoln Riley firing Stoops all contributed to the social media storm that broke out.
But the reaction was more than that story and the fact that Stoops hadn’t been training linebackers since he was an assistant in Iowa in 1991 – Stoops’ previous behavior towards the Texas program quickly took center stage on Thursday night .
I heard Mike Stoops speak ill of Texas to an assistant director at Williams Stadium a few years ago, when he was assistant to the OU (unsuccessfully) trying to recruit one of our children.
I’ve hated you ever since.
I love Sark’s previous hires, but don’t buy this one. Please do not.
– Jim Thrasher (@ thrashman10) January 22, 2021
So what happened?
The same reporter who initially broke the news from Stoops-to-Texas, Matt Zentiz of AL.com, helped fill in the blanks on Friday night:
Stoops to Texas was enough for a closed deal that Stoops informed Alabama and coach Nick Saban of his plans, said goodbye to people around the Crimson Tide program and is due to fly to Texas on Friday to start the process of finding a new place to live with your wife.
A call from Sarkisian on Friday morning changed those plans.
Sarkisian, the former offensive coordinator from Alabama, shared during that call that he could no longer make the hiring.
Stoops’ hiring was far enough away that public-facing social media interactions by the former Oklahoma defensive coordinator would also indicate his future plans:
Even with the information on the Alabama side, it is still unclear on the Texas side who banned the hiring of Stoops. Was it just the public reaction on social media? Or did it come from other places, such as the Council of Regents level, after President Kevin Eltife played a key role in hiring Sarkisian? Did it come from donors with a lot of money?
This question remains unanswered.
Whatever the case, Sarkisian now has a deeper understanding of how things work on the Forty Acres. Let it be a learning experience, because Texas goes Texas.