Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian pulled out all the stops to beat the coach he used to call plays under Nick Saban, as his Longhorns handed Alabama a triumphant 34-24 loss in Tuscaloosa on Saturday.
From reverses to double passes, Sarkisian threw the kitchen sink at Alabama’s defense in one of the biggest marquee matchups of the season. And heading into Week 3, Sarkisian revealed where some of his inspiration came in his offensive playcalling.
“A guy that I study a lot is Andy Reid and I think he’s arguably the best playcaller in football if not one of,” Sarkisian said. “And I don’t know if y’all watched that show the ‘Quarterback’ with Pat Mahomes on there, and there was a moment there they’re talking about some of the plays they run in the low red zone and how they come up with those plays and who names the plays.”
Netflix’s ‘Quarterback’ documentary series gained massive popularity this year as it followed Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariotta throughout the entire 2022 NFL season. And while watching Mahomes operate during practice, Sarkisian gained more perspective on the relationship between playcalling and morale.
“And then Pat is kind of off to the side working on those plays and you can just see kind of the joy and the excitement. Football is a grind, and when we go out every day it’s like Groundhog Day,” Sarkisian admitted. “And sometimes you got to give them some things to kind of pick up the spirits and so when you practice them and they look pretty good I kind of owe it to them to call it.”
There’s no question that the football season can be a grind, as week after week players cycle through practices, academics, film study, and games.
But if a trick play can add some energy to his players on offense and be effective when facing one of the most dominant forces in college football, why not call them?
“So we called three of them in the first half, and I was joking with the guys today, I thought both reverses we got about as bare minimum as we could get on those plays. I thought Xavier‘s reverse probably should’ve been a touchdown, AD the ball comes out, but the pass probably would have been a touchdown if it’s not for the pass interference,” Sarkisian said. “So they’re instilling confidence back in me that I can trust them too.”
Sarkisian’s crafty playcalling ended up paying off in the long run on Saturday, and it will definitely be interesting to see if he reaches into his bag of tricks more throughout the season.
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