Sark Disrespected in Coach Rankings | The Reheat

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It's spring break, practice starts back up next week, recruits making the rounds. March madness this week, long horns are in the first four, and of course SEC play continues for Texas baseball school.

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And with it being spring break, kind of the middle of the off season, long way to go before toe meets leather.

But this is a good time for power rankings, things of that nature. And two guys who I think if you aggregate them together, do a good job of covering college football over at the athletic and Bruce Feldman in Stuart Mandel, put together their college football top coaches lists.

And this has kind of been touchy for Texas over the past few years because, you know, there were sometimes when Steve Sarkiesian was judged based off of the seven wins start morning at the curb at Washington and USC failing to reach out at Texas in his first year.

But there's been a turnaround of course with college football playoff appearances winning the big 12 competing for the SEC at least in most rankings.

And that's what we're going to talk about a little bit, RT, all these both these guys have the same top three and kind of an unquestionable top three at this point.

Number one, Kurt Signetti, number two, Kirby Smart, number three, Ryan Day.

You can put any of those guys in any order, but as long as they're in the top three, I don't think anybody's really having much of an issue with that.

Maybe say for some bulldog fans who are like, well, two is more than one when it comes to national championships.

Yeah, I think the top three is unquestionable, like you said, and I think you have to put Kurt, say Kurt Signetti, number one now after going undefeated in a 12 team playoff era with the Indiana freaking Hoosier said still is wild to say.

And though the regular season might not have been much, he still went through a gauntlet in the playoffs and he bludgeoned everyone he faced for the most part.

So besides a little bit of a hairy win against Penn State earlier in the season, who is still a talented team in their own right.

So I think you have to give it to Kurt Signetti, even though Kirby Smart obviously has time or a greater body of work on his side.

So does Ryan Day for that matter, but he's now tied with Ryan Day as far as national championships goes.

Every smart has a one one in a few years and he's knocked on the door several times, but the loss to Ole Miss obviously wasn't great.

He owns Steve Sarkisian. So the last thing Longhorn fans really can do is poke holes in Kirby Smart's resume.

He's one of the all time greats. And I think you have to understand with a power rankings, you know, as someone who's read them almost weekly for the past 25 years on ESPN or NBA.

They are by nature a what have you done for me lately, type of lists. So I think that's why Signetti has to be number one, still put Kirby in day in it two and three.

So no issues there. It's after that where the list got a little wonky for me.

Yeah, and to bring it to a Texas perspective, you know, they have not played Kurt Signetti, but have not been able to get past Ryan Day or Kirby Smart.

If you can, that's why they're in the top three for this ranking. And we'll go with Mandel's ranking because I'm very, very lenient when it comes to rankings.

Like, you know, five has to be a six and seven has to be ahead of eight. I like putting things in tears, but that's not what this is. This is a straight up ranking.

So Stuart Mandel, he went from one Signetti to Smart three, Ryan Day, and he goes four Dan landing, five, Kaelin the Boer, and then six Steve Sarkeesian.

And Mandel had Sarkeesian as his number three coach entering last year, and speaking to what you were talking about with this being a what have you done for me lately, you know, Sart stumbled this past year, but over the past five years at Texas has done really great things.

Still the number six coach in the sport in his eye ahead of number seven Marcus Freeman, number eight Lane Kiffin, number nine Kyle Winningham, and number 10 Mario Christable.

Yeah, I think with Mandel's ranking, I could at least understand his process a little bit more, which is funny because I typically have found myself over the years agreeing with Bruce Feldman a little bit more and most of the time really disagree with Stuart Mandel.

I remember going into the 2022 season Steve Sarkeesian second year in Austin, him famously predicting the long horns to go four and eight after a five and seven season, which obviously got Texas fans very up and arms.

We won't talk about a short Mandel during the 2020 season. That's for another topic or maybe an after dark podcast, but I can at least see his his process.

Obviously, Dan landing won the big 10 last year had a undefeated season fell short in the playoffs to Ohio State who eventually beat Texas, but Oregon's been right there knocking on the door.

They made the semifinal this year and then Kaelin DeBoer obviously made the SEC title game was ranked number one for a couple of weeks each of the last two seasons has beaten Georgia twice.

Obviously got into the playoffs before getting waxed by Indiana, but I think with Kaelin DeBoer putting him over Steve Sarkeesian, you're looking at the fact that he beat him twice in while they while he was in purple and gold rather than when he was in crimson and white, and I think that it's just ignoring the fact that even though they made the playoffs this year.

I've been pretty shaky for DeBoer in Alabama, and I don't know if I feel not only comfortable with him being ahead of Steve Sarkeesian, if you're just comparing what he's done in Tuscaloosa versus what Sark has done in Austin, but I also just I haven't been all that impressed with what he's done in Tuscaloosa, even though I'm still high on him as a coach.

I've just gotten to the point where I think in DeBoer is going to be a really good coach in college football, maybe in the NFL, I just am not convinced anymore it's going to be at Alabama.

I think that relationship might be one where you eventually realize both parties are better off with a divorce, and I just don't I don't know what you can look at over the last couple years in Tuscaloosa and say, oh that's definitely markedly better than what Sark has done in Austin.

But over the fact that he's beaten Kirby smart twice, but he's also lost some boneheaded games and besides one blimish in Gainesville, that's one thing that Steve Sarkeesian has mostly wiped from his time in Austin.

He wins the games that he normally should win, even if there's some shaky matchups at times like Lexington or Starkville.

Besides the loss to Billy Napier and Flora, the past three years, Steve Sarkeesian has won the games that he's supposed to win.

It's just against those Ryan days and Kirby smarts that he struggled.

So I can at least get where Mandel was coming from with his rankings.

Let's see where did he have Mike Elko, because that's something that I want to talk with.

He had Mike Elko at 18th in Mandel's rankings, because it's obviously something we're going to mention once we get to our friend Bruce Feldman.

One one thing when you look at everybody in the Sarkesian tier is that they may have their specialties on either side of the ball.

I mean, I'll even include Marcus Freeman in this at seven.

And you know what, I'll go to Lane Kiffin at eight, because I think he fits this more than maybe waiting hammer or crystal ball.

And that crystal ball probably does what, but at least here we go.

At least in the top 10, crystal ball, winning ham, Kiffin, Freeman, Sark, DeBoer, landing day, smart, signety.

All those guys have their specialties.

I mean, signety was an offensive coordinator before he was a head coach.

We know smarts of defensive guy Ryan Day probably still calling plays.

Dan landing defense, DeBoer offense, Sark offense, Freeman defense, Kiffin offense, winning ham.

He's an overall coach at this point and crystal ball offense.

All those guys still have really good complimentary sides of the football.

Marcus Freeman's had good offenses. Ryan Day probably had the best defense in the cut.

It's probably had the best defenses in the country over the past couple of years.

Signety, that defense was stellar as well with what they were able to do zone in zone.

So all 10 of Mandel's top 10 are really good at building a complete football program.

Not really relying too much on one side of the ball to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

I know there may be some Texas fans wanting to make a comment, but like the offense has been good.

And the expectations are understandably great.

So I think that fits in with with all these guys.

As far as Elko goes, I mean, I'll give him, I think that's a good spot for him being in the top 20 after not being ranked.

That's pretty fair.

And they had an unquestionably good season last year until, you know, they had to play Texas.

And then they had to play Miami.

So had had some struggles there at the end.

Noticeably absent Brent Venables, even after a playoff run.

That saw the tuners loose for the Crimson tide.

He's not in yet there yet.

Someone like Davos still is his old boss.

And someone like John Sumrell at Florida is in there as well.

So a little bit of an intriguing look at where the rivalry lines have been drawn.

And that, according at least to Stuart Mandel, Texas has the best coach among the main rivals.

But then we get over the Bruce Feldman.

And I'm with you.

And the silly is someone who I think his voice on the sport is extremely valuable.

And probably one of the more connected ones.

Again, Signeti one smart to Ryan day three, the bore four.

That's fine.

Crystal ball five, which you knew he was going to make a jump.

But what, how big would that jump be after making it to the national championship game?

Right.

Six Dan landing, seven Marcus Freeman, eight Davos still nine Kyle Wittingham, ten Mike Elko.

And there was not a mention of Steve Sarkeesian in there quite yet.

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And then they both had one commonality that they both shared as they both had Matt Campbell at number 11.

So before I comment on where he had Steve Sarkeesian, it's interesting with Matt Campbell.

I mean, I don't know about you Joe, but kind of underwhelmed by his last couple years in the big 12.

Obviously, yes, it's in Ames, Iowa.

He took a perennially challenged team and made them a contender in the big 12.

But their last time in the big 12 championship, they got destroyed by Arizona State at a disappointing this year, year this year.

And then he takes a lot of that talent from Ames with him to Penn State.

And I think he's almost, is he getting a little bit of a benefit of the doubt with rankings because of the logo that he ended up with?

In Happy Valley, where I think it's an ignoring a little bit of the fact that I believe he was Penn State's 12th choice.

I mean, what number did they get to on the list?

It was truly, and obviously for them to go through as many candidates as they did, be it Lane Kiffin, be it Kalani Sataki at the end,

to end up with Matt Campbell as your 12th or 13th choice is definitely a win considering how poor the process played out there in Pennsylvania.

But I still think he's getting a little bit of a logo bump that you're associating this name with this lunchpale coach who overachieved in a place that had typically not been thought of as a team to note in the big 12.

And then all of a sudden, you're putting him with a historic logo and a blue blood in Penn State, and you're just expecting, oh yeah, this guy's going to be, he's going to be good here where I'm not so sure.

I don't know if somebody like Matt Campbell, being a lunchpale guy, toad vine on our sites, not going to like this, but I don't know if it translates into being a blue blood.

I don't know if it translates frankly into the NIL and portal era, and it's going to be interesting to see how well him taking so much of his players from Iowa State, how that goes in his first year in Penn State.

Obviously, you can't really judge coaches by first years anymore, but that's just something I noted. What did you think about Matt Campbell?

Yeah, I'm always going to look at Iowa State and know that it is just a program that even compared to the other one in its own state and just compared to the rest of the big 12 lacks comparative resources.

Like I remember they tried, I think at the outset of the NIL era, they tried to be like everybody's getting to pay the same thing.

And maybe that was a Matt Campbell thing, which I can respect that genuine attempt at.

But even on that roster, there are some guys who probably deserve a little bit more than others, and I think he pivoted to that.

I view just him contending for big 12 titles at Iowa State as something that's very laudable.

He influenced and it was very big and having a say in how defense in college football has changed with the flyover.

I think he's going to have access to more.

Oh, I bet as like he got a pay raise.

I bet a bunch of those Penn State or Iowa State players that he took with him got a pretty nice pay raise as well.

So I never am going to mind Matt Campbell being in one of those good spots, but it's still like ahead of Sark.

That's still a little bit curious to me.

Same with Jeff Braum, like I've mentioned, I think on here before, like if Oklahoma has to pull the plug on Brent Venables, I don't want Jeff Braum going to OU.

I think he's a really great coach. I think he can do a lot with what's available.

But I am just not sure he's got the bonafide bonafides to be better than a Sark who his down year was a 10 and three season.

You know, that's the type of thing.

And I don't know, maybe Mandel looks at Texas or excuse me, maybe Feldman looks at Texas as offense and it's like, aren't you the wonder kid and don't you have, you know, perfect quarterback and perfect quarterback and it hasn't worked quite there.

I don't know, but that's not what he that's not what he says in his paragraph on Steve Sarkisian, which is part of my issue with his rankings.

If you look at Feldman, you take his four through seven, okay, fine.

Those guys had better years in 2025 and Steve Sarkisian did because they made the playoffs.

The Boer, Christopher Walt Miami, landing at Oregon, Marcus Freeman, probably about even with Sark.

But obviously he's made a national championship when Sark hasn't both to an extent woke up a sleeping giant Sark much more so than Marcus Freeman taking over for Brian Kelly.

But it's then at number eight where I have huge issues with what Feldman is doing because Davos Winnie in no way is a number eight coach and a power rankings of the coaches today.

If you put, if you took Davos Winnie off of Clemson and you put him on any other roster at any other school in the country in 2026, he would fail because he has not adapted to modernity.

He had a stacked roster this year and Clemson fell comically short of their goals and didn't even make the ACC title game.

But obviously you fell much short of that with a roster with loaded wide receivers with a guy that people were thinking was going to be a first round pick and Kate Clubnik with great talent and the defensive line and the trenches.

And he is just not adapted to anything close to this era and his best years are now behind him by seven or eight years and I just don't know how you could put Davos Winnie in a power rankings.

If this is just a ranking as a resume is sure you probably maybe put him number one or number two next to Kirby smart in today's rankings.

But within on number nine Kyle Wittingham, again, never good coach, almost a supercharged version of Matt Campbell, what he's done at Utah, but never made the college football playoff.

To my not, yeah, no, he didn't make the four team area either. And then you get to number 10 with Mike Elko.

And Mike Elko is 0 and 2 against Steve Sarkiesian. He has not played for a conference championship. He's his team made the college football playoff this year, which great, good for them, but they didn't score a touchdown.

And what he's done into it's with two years at Texas A&M has been impressive, I guess, and he's taken them to places they haven't been before, but that was because of incompetence in the jimbo Fisher and previous in previous areas.

That wasn't necessarily something to be proud of that A&M had never achieved just making the college football playoff. They should have made it by now.

And you could have said the same thing for Steve Sarkiesian when he went to the playoff with Texas that they had underachieved up to that point.

So I just don't understand this mix of guys who you're kind of weighing resume like Wittingham and Davos Swinney, but then it's just a ultimate head scratcher, which you can't say that anything Mike Elko has done at Duke or Texas A&M as a head coach is better than what Steve Sarkiesian has done.

And then you look at head to head and Steve Sarkiesian is 2-0 against Elko on a home site and in a way site with 10 point victories in both places.

So it's just, it's baffling to me what his process was in making this list.

So I guess to sum it all up, if you're making this list and your power ranking, you know, your head coaches, there's the top three, the national, the recent national title holders with dignity, with smart and with day.

I don't really have a problem with Dan landing being ahead of Sark. I think because what he's done in the big 10, what he's done over the past couple of years, I'm fine with it.

You know, I think it's, it's a good process, good choice.

De Boer, I'm a coin flip on because that time at Washington was so, was pretty recent, you know, three years ago.

We're going to give Sark credit for three years ago or, you know, the 2023 season.

It's hard not to give the same to Kaelin De Boer and in that 2022 season prior where they beat Texas the first time, he had about what, 10 win, it was a 10 and 2 year.

Like De Boer has been having really good seasons with the one nine win blemish last year or 2025 see 2024 season for the past few years.

I get De Boer in Sark being right there.

I think that's where Sark fits in like top five.

I could see an argument for Marcus Freeman, but I'm not putting them there.

And then similar applies with Davo. I'm not putting Davo above him.

Kyle Wittingham. I'm not, I think he's great. I'm not putting him above Sark at this point.

I'm definitely not putting Elko above him as well.

I think in that five to seven range is where Sark belongs.

I don't think he's worse than seven though. I think if you talk signety day smart De Boer landing.

I think you have to go Sark right after that.

Yeah, and a couple other things of note Joe Brent Vinnables.

Nowhere to be found in either list, which again, if you're using Bruce Felman's criteria.

I'm not really sure how he weighs Mike Elko being number 10, but then also doesn't put.

Brent Vinnables in because I would think that even though Brent Vinnables, they've comically stubbed their toe and he can't score touchdown against Texas.

They have, they have some more, they have more signature wins in the past couple of years than Texas A&M does.

They've beaten Alabama multiple times despite losing to them in the playoffs.

And so I just don't really get the process there, but he didn't show up on Stuart Mandel's list either.

And then Lincoln Riley, another OU connection number 19 on Bruce Felman's list.

No surprise West Coast guy there.

But then he did not, he did not show up anywhere on Mandel's list, which is, which is interesting.

And I don't know how many times over the past 10 or 12 years, you would have not seen or I guess 10 years exactly.

You would not have seen Lincoln Riley in the top 10 in one of these lists.

Pretty big ball from Grace, if I have to say.

We're going to get an opportunity to see Sark go against a lot of these guys in the upcoming season.

Just from Feldman's list, trying to go right off the top, you got Ryan Day, you have going to keep going.

So Ryan Day, Mike Elko, Lane Kiffin, Lane Kiffin and that.

Oh, John some role.

And that looks to be about it.

Oh, Josh Hyple.

And then on the other one, if there's anyone's missing.

Can't remember, but still Texas is going to do no Vanderbilt this year.

So no Clark Lee, but he slotted in at 25 on Feldman's list, which is even if you're using the program builder criteria, like he used with a couple of the other guys.

It's like, why not you, you could almost be looking with him.

That could be the next Kyle Whittingham or the next Matt Campbell right there, what he's done in Nashville so far.

So interesting criteria, but hey, you got to thank these lists for giving us good offseason content to react to when things are slow and spring break.

Yep, and I'm sure we'll get a lot more coaching lists like this over the course of the spring.

But throughout the spring, you got to head over to inside Texas.

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