Culture is the ultimate buzzword in football, and alignment might be right behind it. You're never hear a head coach say, "It's irrelevant to me that the university president, the head football coach, and the third-string janitor are on the same page in regards to helping this program achieve its goals." But while you regularly hear head coaches pay lip service to how important culture and alignment are, you don't often hear them explain how each particular flavor of sausage is made.
In a recent interview with Josh Pate, Steve Sarkisian explained his recipe.
Culture and alignment at Texas start in the first preseason meeting. Before Sark holds his big, first-day-of-school tone-setting meeting with the players, he holds the exact same meeting with the entire staff. He does this for two reasons.
"I'm talking everybody in the recruiting department, everybody in academics, anybody that's touching our players. I want everybody speaking the same language. And then I ask, 'What'd you think of this slide? What'd you think of the way I said this?' And I'll go around with the guys that will give me honest feedback and I'll tweak some things, then I'll go present it to the the team."
The first benefit is a dress rehearsal for himself. The second benefit is more subtle.
"I think it's important the staff's going to hear it twice, because I want our players, anybody that's touching them, to be speaking the same language. I think that's one of the issues a lot of organizations have. The person at the top has an idea, a philosophy and a goal. But if those goals aren't resonating with everybody in the building, if they're not reciprocated in the various departments within the organization, somewhere that's going to break down and at some point the players are going to start hearing conflicting messaging."
That, too, has a tangential benefit: if every staff member is on the same page, it gives players nowhere to hide in terms of meeting the head coach's expectations.
"That's all we as humans want, because it gives us an excuse. When it remains consistent, I think that that's healthy. Time and time again, they're getting a consistent message -- whether that's broad based for the year or the weekly message from game to game. I think that's really important."
Getting all the gears of the machine turning in sync pays benefits at the end of the season, when it's time for Sarkisian to hold heart-to-hearts with players on where they fit in the coaching staff's plans.
"We have a really simple form that gets filled out by our academic department on every player. Our strength and conditioning coach Torre Becton's going to fill out how he's doing in the weight room. Here's his position coach -- his strengths, weaknesses, things to work on. Here's the training room, how he's taking care of his body. Here's Coach Sark's comments about any issues that he may have had off the field. That's a snapshot of where you're at. I sit down with these players and say, 'Here's where you're at, here's where you can improve.' Even a guy who's, he's straight As, he's all-conference, how are we going to get better, how are we going to improve? You can be honest with them and show it to them. Now there's not, 'But this, but that.' No, no, no. This is exactly where you stand."
The other culture-reinforcer, so to speak, is Texas's own success on the field and in the draft. Twenty-eight Longhorns have been taken in the last three drafts, and 23 in the last two, the most in college football. The coaches don't have to convince players that submitting to the culture will get them drafted, the players see it for themselves. "The fact that (players) can look to their peers, who they've watched develop, and say, 'This is kind of the blueprint. I may not be where I'm supposed to be right now, but if I keep working, keep doing things the right way, that can become a reality for me down the road.'"
The third factor that Sarkisian did not mention in the Pate interview but that he's said before: There is no soft-launching into the portal at Texas. Once you're in it, you're no longer welcomed back to the locker room.
The first thing most people mention about Sarkisian is his ability as a play-caller, particularly early in games. And that's definitely part of the reason he's silenced the doubters in his four seasons in Austin. Despite ranking 34th in yards per play last season, Texas lead the nation with 108 plays of 20-plus yards, the most by any FBS team since 2019 LSU (albeit in 16 games).
Play-calling got Sarkisian the job, but his growth as a team builder has allowed him to thrive.