Students of American history know John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, our second and third presidents, died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826.
Steve Sarkisian's version of July 4, 1826 was Jan. 10, 2024, when the Founding Fathers of his career -- Pete Carroll and Nick Saban -- retired hours apart. Carroll birthed Sarkisian's coaching career for all intents and purposes, as his quarterbacks coach from 2001-03 and 2005-06, and then as his offensive coordinator and assistant head coach from 2007-08. Saban resurrected it as an offensive analyst in 2016 and then as offensive coordinator from 2019-20.
The 2 GOAT’s! Would not be where I am today without these two men as mentors! Thank you for everything! pic.twitter.com/JTJCgOdYbN
— Steve Sarkisian (@CoachSark) January 10, 2024
In an interview with Joel Klatt on Big Noon Conversations, Sarkisian explained how the key to both men, diametrically opposed in personalities, achieved the success they did through identical means.
"What I came to find out in my time, if you look at their careers, the second half is when they really took off. Both of them right around 50, and then the last 20, 22 years have been the greatest years of their careers," Sarkisian said.
"Well, why is that? What happened? I asked them both the exact same question and really got the exact same answer: they figured out who they were. And then they coached who they were, rather than trying to be something that they're not. When you try to be something you're not, when adversity strikes, the real you comes out and everyone around you is like, 'Who the hell is that guy?'
"I was 34 years old when I was the head coach at the University of Washington. I was, in that time, a thermometer. I was walking into whatever the situation was, whatever the temperature was, that's how I responded. And I've gotten to now, I'm a thermostat. I set that temperature for how I wanted to be that day, and then others can buy into that or not."
There's a lot to unpack there.
I'm not a trained psychologist, but if I was I might explore the link between Sarkisian's sense of self when he took the Washington job and the bout with alcoholism that cost him his job, and nearly his career, at USC in 2015.
But the most interesting part to me is the link Sarkisian sees in the periods when Carroll and Saban entered their primes and the pace Sark is in within his own career. Watch as his face lights up when he mentions that Carroll and Saban started winning titles around age 50.
As it just so happens, Sarkisian turned 50 in March.
When Saban won the first of his seven national championships, he was 52 years old and 31 years into his coaching career, in his fourth season at LSU.
When Carroll won his first national championship at USC, he was 52 years old, 31 years into his coaching career, and in his third season with the Trojans.
This fall, Sarkisian will be 50, in his 25th season of coaching, and Year 4 at Texas.
Based on his own experiences, Sarkisian believes the formula for college football domination is a profound sense of self, earned through some hard-won wisdom and marinated over two to three decades, then combined with the best players in the country. It goes unmentioned in the interview, but Carroll and Saban were two of the best recruiting head coaches since the invention of recruiting, Sark is well, no one is Pete Carroll or Nick Saban on the recruiting trail, but his results speak for themselves. Texas will be, at worst, the fifth most-talented team in the nation this fall.
Sarkisian's coaching upbringing tells him he's on the cusp of running off a string of national championships. Whether or not that proves correct will be one of the primary story lines of the upcoming period of college football.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.