Steve Sarkisian, a former head coach at Washington and USC who is coordinating the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense this season at Alabama, is expected to be named the new head coach at Texas, replacing Tom Herman, multiple sources told Horns247.
Herman, who has a $15 million buyout for the final three years on his Texas contract, was notified by Texas on Saturday that he wouldn’t be retained as coach, sources told Horns247. Herman went 32-18 in four seasons at Texas, including a 7-3 record this year in which the Longhorns got off to a 1-2 start in Big 12 play, causing the school’s top donors to put pressure on UT administrators to pursue three-time national championship coach Urban Meyer beginning in October.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte issued a vague statement reiterating Herman as coach just before signing day in December. On Saturday, Texas released a statement on the decision to fire Herman:
“With our football season coming to a close, our vice president and athletics director, Chris Del Conte, has evaluated the UT program’s strengths and weaknesses and where the program is relative to our goals. While we have made measured progress during the past several years under Tom Herman’s leadership, Chris has recommended to the university president, Jay Hartzell, that UT make a coaching change to get us on track to achieving our ambitious goals. President Hartzell and the chair of our Board of Regents, Kevin Eltife, concur with this recommendation and have approved the change. We thank Coach Herman for his service and dedication to our student-athletes, our program and our university.”
In addition to Herman’s $15 million buyout, it will cost Texas roughly $9.6 million to buy out Herman’s staff. Herman hired seven new assistant coaches prior to last season, including offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and defensive coordinator Chris Ash. After Herman was notified of his firing, Texas assistant coaches and players were notified in separate Zoom calls Saturday with Del Conte about Herman’s dismissal.
While UT administrators were gauging the interest of Meyer, they were also researching other possible head-coaching candidates, including Sarkisian, 46, who went 34-29 (.540) in five seasons as head coach at Washington (2009-13) and 12-6 at USC before getting fired for disorderly conduct on Oct. 12, 2015.
In the fall of 2016, Sarkisian was hired by Alabama coach Nick Saban as an analyst and was promoted to interim offensive coordinator by Saban for the 2016 national championship game against Clemson after Lane Kiffin was hired as head coach at Florida Atlantic. Alabama lost that national championship game, 35-31, on a last-second touchdown pass from DeShaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow.
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