Alabama's Steve Sarkisian Hired to Replace Tom Herman as Texas Head Coach

The Texas Longhorns have officially announced Steve Sarkisian will take over as their next head football coach. 

The school welcomed Sarkisian on Twitter:

"This is a unique and compelling opportunity to lead this storied program to the next level, competing once again amongst the best in college football," Sarkisian said in a statement, via Brian Davis of the Austin-American Statesman. 

Chip Brown of 247Sports first reported the Longhorns were going to hire Sarkisian. 

Texas' head coaching job became a surprise opening Saturday when Tom Herman was fired. The move came after athletic director Chris Del Conte said in a statement Dec. 12 that he wouldn't make a coaching change:

"There has been a lot of speculation about the future of our football coach. My policy is to wait until the end of the season before evaluating and commenting on our program and coaches.

"With the close of the regular season, I want to reiterate that Tom Herman is our coach." 

Per Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Texas will have to pay Herman $15 million remaining on his contract. 

Herman's dismissal came after the Longhorns wrapped up another solid, albeit underwhelming, season. They finished 7-3 in 2020 but were ranked outside of the Associated Press Top 25 at the end of the year after climbing as high as No. 8. 

Texas only finished inside the AP top 10 once in four seasons under Herman. Its only appearance in the Big 12 Championship Game during that span was a 39-27 loss to Oklahoma in 2018. 

Sarkisian will be tasked with bringing Texas back among the nation's elite programs. The 46-year-old has a resume that suggests he's up to the task. He spent the past two seasons as Alabama's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and has previously been head coach at Washington and USC. 

The Crimson Tide have finished second in the nation in points per game in each of the past two seasons. They had a streak of 10 straight games with at least 40 points in 2020. 

Despite the Longhorns' recent struggles, the program is still capable of landing premier talent. They have had top-10 recruiting classes in each of the previous three years, per 247Sports composite rankings.

If Sarkisian is able to continue recruiting well and do a better job of developing the talent than Herman and his staff did, it won't take long before Texas is challenging Oklahoma for the top spot in the Big 12 on a yearly basis.