Steve Sarkisian picking Texas over Alabama keeps the Longhorns a CFP contender | Bohls

Sark’s staying.

And all of Longhorn Nation can breathe an immense sigh of relief.

So Texas won't have to start over and begin its own coaching search with the same names that Alabama pursued. It can go about the business of rewarding Steve Sarkisian with a new contract that could approach $9 million to $10 million a year with at least two more years tacked on to his current deal, which has three years left on it.

If you think he doesn't deserve that much, just look at how hard it was for Alabama to persuade established coaches to leave before luring Washington's Kalen DeBoer to take the job. I think DeBoer's a slam dunk hire for the Tide because he's lost only 12 games in nine seasons as a head coach. He's got a great offensive mind and is totally unflappable. He also beat Sarkisian twice and Oregon's Dan Lanning three times.

Besides, the timing is right because he just took the Huskies to the national championship game, he'd no longer have elite quarterback Michael Penix Jr., and it's harder to recruit to the Pacific Northwest than it is to Tuscaloosa. DeBoer's 2024 and 2023 Washington recruiting classes are ranked only 36th and 26th nationally.

When I asked DeBoer about his interest in the Texas A&M vacancy before the Aggies hired Mike Elko, he told me that "wasn't even a thing." Two weeks later, he accepts the impossible task of filling Saban's shoes, and I wish him luck. He's as confident and grounded a coach as I've met, with very little ego but tons of self-assurance.

Texas, meanwhile, is sitting pretty.

UT athletic director Chris Del Conte told me two weeks ago that he would sit down with Sarkisian and "hammer out" new terms of his deal. The price certainly went up in the past few days. It was absurd that Sarkisian's salary ranked only 30th among FBS schools and would rank 14th in the reconfigured 16-team SEC. A highly ranked school official said Friday that the terms have not yet been settled.

There’s no doubt Sarkisian was a top candidate of Alabama's, if not THE top candidate, because he checked every box that Crimson Tide athletic director Greg Byrne had for Nick Saban’s successor and had Saban’s blessing. But Alabama's search ended up with DeBoer, who has lost only three games in two seasons with the Huskies.

Steve Sarkisian choosing Texas over Alabama sends a message

Sarkisian chose Texas over Alabama.

Think about that for a minute. It’s a huge feather in the Longhorns’ cap that their head coach decided to remain in Austin and continue the program’s climb to prominence rather than follow in the shadow of the best college coach who ever graced a sideline. The UT football program released a video on social media Friday ending the speculation that Sarkisian might leave.

“I came here to win championships. That’s the goal,” Sarkisian said in the video. “We’re here to chase greatness, to win championships. This is the University of Texas, and people are going to want to be part of it.”

So there you have it.

Bohls: Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers should make the right decision and return to school

There was little upside to replacing Saban, aside from inheriting the warmest bed in college football and the best program over the past 15 years. No program is more stable and successful than Alabama's. Ego would be the primary factor in leaving. But Sarkisian is comfortable in his own skin.

Just think of the potential backlash if Sarkisian were to go to Alabama and go 10-2 in his first season. Two losses and the Crimson Tide faithful would be asking out loud and very loudly if Sark was the right guy for the job. But go 10-2 in Austin one year after Texas’ first College Football Playoff appearance, and he’d still be celebrated.

Do that on the heels of a 12-2 record and a spot in the semifinals, and Texas might really be back because he’d be sustaining the success he started.

He’d be a hero.

Lose two games in Tuscaloosa, and he’d be a goat. Not the GOAT.

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Sarkisian could have handled the pressure at Alabama

Most Crimson Tide fans probably consider the 2023 season something of a disappointment, even though Alabama won the SEC by knocking off two-time defending national champion Georgia and came within an overtime of beating Michigan and playing for Saban’s eighth crown. How does an ordinary coach deal with those types of expectations?

Personally, I believe Sarkisian could probably handle the pressure at Alabama better than almost any other candidate as Saban’s successor. He’s been in the public arena for a long time and performed on the game’s biggest stages, and he has the confidence and polish to deal with the suffocating attention on the Alabama program.

Former Tide coach Dennis Franchione once told me he couldn’t leave his house for a mundane errand without being swamped by Alabama fans eager to press him and ask about anything from the season opener to the backup left tackle. It’s not for everyone.

I think the 49-year-old Sarkisian made his decision because he has everything he needs here to be the next Alabama. Heck, he almost beat Saban twice. Who knows? Sark could always be the guy who follows the guy Alabama picked, but I think he'd only leave for the NFL.

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The impact on recruiting and the future for Texas football

He’s in a football recruiting hotbed like no other. According to 247Sports' composite rankings, the state of Alabama has two five-star players and 15 four-stars in the upcoming 2025 recruiting cycle. The state of Texas? It has six five-star blue-chippers and a whopping 49 four-star prospects. Sarkisian can produce a national champion out of Lone Star State players alone.

In his first two full recruiting classes — excepting 2021, since he was hired that January — the Longhorns signed the nation's No. 5 and No. 3 classes, and his 2024 group is No. 3 heading into national signing day Feb. 7. Sarkisian has signed 10 five-star players at Texas, including the celebrated Arch Manning, and more than 60 four-star recruits. That’s pretty impressive.

Sarkisian’s staying because he and his wife prefer cosmopolitan Austin over Tuscaloosa. His wife, Loreal, has a growing brand that is crushing it in this state.

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He’s here because he has incredible momentum and added to it when starting quarterback Quinn Ewers announced he was returning to school. He’ll be a legitimate Heisman contender and is the linchpin for a team that could lose up to 13 starters — eight of them on defense — to graduation or the NFL draft.

It says here that Ewers will rank as one of the premier college football quarterbacks alongside Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, Utah’s Cam Rising, Arizona’s Noah Fifita, Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart, Texas A&M’s Conner Weigman and perhaps Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy if he comes back. Ewers could be a top-five player in the 2025 draft.

Ewers will be the cornerstone of Sarkisian’s fourth team at Texas and a stabilizing factor for an offense built around four returning linemen, two dynamic running backs and new but high-profile wide receivers. Texas is already being forecast as a top-five team next season and a bona fide CFP contender in the new 12-team format. Coming off last season, it’s in a lot better place than chief rival Oklahoma.

The Longhorns are as well-positioned to make the leap to the SEC as any fan could hope for, and Sarkisian is the man to lead them there with a great deal of confidence and assurance.

OK to exhale now, Longhorn Nation.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Steve Sarkisian to stay with Texas football rather than coach Alabama