Sad News, Why are they leaving: Longhorns two star player’s announce their resignation due to…….

Steve Sarkisian’s patience as an offensive playcaller was surpassed only by his patience over the past year when other schools would come calling.

After being hired at Texas to replace Tom Herman, who was fired on Saturday, Sarkisian’s patience will be tested by a job that’s often defined as much by its off-the-field challenges as the ones it faces on Saturdays.

“The X’s and O’s part is a minor thing at that place,” a former Texas assistant coach said Saturday. “Most everybody that walks in there are good football coaches. It’s the rest of the stuff that makes it hard.”

Sarkisian has taken an already explosive Alabama offense to another level. The Crimson Tide averaged a school-record 47.2 points per game in 2019 in Sarkisian’s first full season back as Alabama’s offensive coordinator. This season, Alabama topped that mark with an average of 48.2 points per game to rank second nationally.

As Alabama coach Nick Saban told ESPN recently, good defense doesn’t beat good offense anymore, and Sarkisian’s offenses the past two seasons have been a stark reminder of that — making him one of the hottest commodities in college football and ultimately the coach Texas zeroed in on to steer the Longhorns back to an elite level.

“There’s a lot of talent on this team,” Sarkisian told reporters Saturday night. “I think there’s championship talent on this team. Clearly, there’s work to be done or a change wouldn’t be made.”

Herman went 32-18 in four years at Texas, including a 10-4 record in 2018. Overall, he is 54-22 as a head coach, including two seasons at Houston. Sarkisian is 46-35 as a head coach in five seasons at Washington and part of two seasons at USC. His best season as a head coach was going 9-4 at USC in 2014 before his career was derailed by off-field issues. In August 2015, Sarkisian sought treatment after he said he mixed alcohol and medicine before a school event. In October of that year, he took a leave of absence after sources said he arrived at the team facilities appearing to be intoxicated. He was fired later that week.