| FTBL College football first-year coach grades: Steve Sarkisian fails at Texas, Josh Heupel impresses at Tennessee

The 2021 college football season is almost in the books, which means it's time to hand out grades for all of the first-year head coaches. Last offseason's coaching carousel provided us plenty of intrigue heading into this season, including Steve Sarkisian's move to Texas, Bryan Harsin's decision to leave Boise State for Auburn and Josh Heupel's jump up from UCF to Tennessee.

The Group of Five level had plenty of turnover as well, including the return of Butch Jones to the head coaching ranks at Arkansas State and Blake Anderson's journey from Arkansas State to Utah State.

There were 18 coaching changes overall that took place from mid-October all the way through the end of spring. Let's break all of them down and hand out some grades.

POWER FIVE


TEAMCOACHRECORDANALYSISGRADE

Arizona
Jedd Fisch1-11Six of Arizona's 11 losses were by double-digits, and for the most part, the Wildcats were the punchline to a very bad joke. Fisch was a disaster in his first year in Tucson, but it's not like we expected much.D-

Auburn
Bryan Harsin6-6The four-game losing streak, which included a loss to South Carolina and meltdown against Mississippi State, was unacceptable. Other than the first 58 minutes vs. Alabama -- and even that didn't end well -- Auburn's season was as pedestrian as they come.D+

Illinois
Bret Bielema5-7Wins over Penn State and Minnesota, the former of which was of the nine-overtime variety, were nice and the losses to Virginia and Wisconsin were the only real blowouts. The bottom line is that Illinois looked competitive most of the time, which is a decent foundation on which to build. B

Kansas
Lance Leipold2-10Leipold's 2-10 record was par for the course at Kansas, but the Jayhawks did top Texas for their first road conference win since 2008. A glimmer of hope is something that Kansas fans haven't had in a long time.B-

South Carolina
Shane Beamer6-6The Gamecocks destroyed Florida, handled Auburn and made a bowl game in a season that began with Beamer bringing graduate assistant coach Zeb Noland back onto the roster to start at quarterback. It was a tremendous debut for the first-time head coach.A

Tennessee
Josh Heupel7-5It's been a long time since hope was felt on Rocky Top, but that's exactly what Heupel provided in Year 1. The offense was dynamic with quarterback Hendon Hooker. The Vols played rival Alabama close and a bowl berth is an unexpected reward for a championship-starved fanbase.A-

Texas
Steve Sarkisian5-7Texas is back ... to being below .500 for the first time since the Charlie Strong era. What's more, Sarkisian's Longhorns lost to Kansas at home in the middle of a historic six-game losing streak. What an abject disaster in Austin.F

Vanderbilt
Clark Lea2-10Lea went winless in conference play in his first season with the Commodores, and one of his two wins came over lowly UConn. The bar isn't very high in Nashville, but he was nowhere close to reaching it. The road win at Colorado State was fun, though.D+
 
The 2021 college football season is almost in the books, which means it's time to hand out grades for all of the first-year head coaches. Last offseason's coaching carousel provided us plenty of intrigue heading into this season, including Steve Sarkisian's move to Texas, Bryan Harsin's decision to leave Boise State for Auburn and Josh Heupel's jump up from UCF to Tennessee.

The Group of Five level had plenty of turnover as well, including the return of Butch Jones to the head coaching ranks at Arkansas State and Blake Anderson's journey from Arkansas State to Utah State.

There were 18 coaching changes overall that took place from mid-October all the way through the end of spring. Let's break all of them down and hand out some grades.

POWER FIVE


TEAMCOACHRECORDANALYSISGRADE

Arizona
Jedd Fisch1-11Six of Arizona's 11 losses were by double-digits, and for the most part, the Wildcats were the punchline to a very bad joke. Fisch was a disaster in his first year in Tucson, but it's not like we expected much.D-

Auburn
Bryan Harsin6-6The four-game losing streak, which included a loss to South Carolina and meltdown against Mississippi State, was unacceptable. Other than the first 58 minutes vs. Alabama -- and even that didn't end well -- Auburn's season was as pedestrian as they come.D+

Illinois
Bret Bielema5-7Wins over Penn State and Minnesota, the former of which was of the nine-overtime variety, were nice and the losses to Virginia and Wisconsin were the only real blowouts. The bottom line is that Illinois looked competitive most of the time, which is a decent foundation on which to build. B

Kansas
Lance Leipold2-10Leipold's 2-10 record was par for the course at Kansas, but the Jayhawks did top Texas for their first road conference win since 2008. A glimmer of hope is something that Kansas fans haven't had in a long time.B-

South Carolina
Shane Beamer6-6The Gamecocks destroyed Florida, handled Auburn and made a bowl game in a season that began with Beamer bringing graduate assistant coach Zeb Noland back onto the roster to start at quarterback. It was a tremendous debut for the first-time head coach.A

Tennessee
Josh Heupel7-5It's been a long time since hope was felt on Rocky Top, but that's exactly what Heupel provided in Year 1. The offense was dynamic with quarterback Hendon Hooker. The Vols played rival Alabama close and a bowl berth is an unexpected reward for a championship-starved fanbase.A-

Texas
Steve Sarkisian5-7Texas is back ... to being below .500 for the first time since the Charlie Strong era. What's more, Sarkisian's Longhorns lost to Kansas at home in the middle of a historic six-game losing streak. What an abject disaster in Austin.F

Vanderbilt
Clark Lea2-10Lea went winless in conference play in his first season with the Commodores, and one of his two wins came over lowly UConn. The bar isn't very high in Nashville, but he was nowhere close to reaching it. The road win at Colorado State was fun, though.D+
I have a friend who’s a huge Texas fan … buyer’s remorse only begins to describe his disappointment. I had asked him after the hire what in Sark’s past head coaching assignments makes anyone think he’s going to be a great hire for the horns? He said … Sark’s time with Saban. Well, he might not have spent enough time with Saban. Texas looked lost in most of their games and he didn’t learn that from the GOAT.
 
I'm still not understanding the hate Sarkesian is receiving. It was his first year in a program that has grown accustomed to being mediocre. He showed he can call a game and play with the likes of Oklahoma. He will need time to recruit and get his guys in there. Now I'm not saying he will win a National Championship, but he can become a ten/eleven game winner at Texas. Will have to see what Ewers can do, but with Bijon back one more year, Worthy outside, and a good armed quarterback, I think he can have them on the right side of the Win/Loss column next year. Not saying he's Saban, but even Saban needed a year to get Alabama prepped.

Heupel did a great job considering the hand and talent he was left with. He's gonna get some recruits and I think Tennessee will be even more competitive in the next couple of years.
 
I'm still not understanding the hate Sarkesian is receiving. It was his first year in a program that has grown accustomed to being mediocre. He showed he can call a game and play with the likes of Oklahoma. He will need time to recruit and get his guys in there. Now I'm not saying he will win a National Championship, but he can become a ten/eleven game winner at Texas. Will have to see what Ewers can do, but with Bijon back one more year, Worthy outside, and a good armed quarterback, I think he can have them on the right side of the Win/Loss column next year. Not saying he's Saban, but even Saban needed a year to get Alabama prepped.

Heupel did a great job considering the hand and talent he was left with. He's gonna get some recruits and I think Tennessee will be even more competitive in the next couple of years.
You could end up being right but the difference in talent level between what Sark inherited and Saban inherited aren’t anywhere close to one another. Plus all of Bama’s losses that first year were within one TD … again not even close with Sark. Then I go back to the question I asked my friend … what in Sark’s previous head coaching jobs leads you to think he will become a 10-11 game winner … in the SEC? And even if he does that won’t satisfy the Texas fans long if he doesn’t occasionally win 14 or 15 and a NC. Personally, I like Sark and I don’t hope that he fails. I’m just not sold on him as a head coach yet based on previous history … and how bad Texas looked during some of their games didn’t help him in my eyes.
 
You could end up being right but the difference in talent level between what Sark inherited and Saban inherited aren’t anywhere close to one another. Plus all of Bama’s losses that first year were within one TD … again not even close with Sark. Then I go back to the question I asked my friend … what in Sark’s previous head coaching jobs leads you to think he will become a 10-11 game winner … in the SEC? And even if he does that won’t satisfy the Texas fans long if he doesn’t occasionally win 14 or 15 and a NC. Personally, I like Sark and I don’t hope that he fails. I’m just not sold on him as a head coach yet based on previous history … and how bad Texas looked during some of their games didn’t help him in my eyes.

Saban's first year Vs most teams... reduced penalties & sound fundaments. Anyone paying attention to Bama under Shula could see a totally different mindset with Saban.

I've watched Sark's Texas... they are sloppy & they have such bad lines of scrimmage. It has been almost 15 years since CNS landed in Tuscaloosa & those players were hungry for leadership so they were very coachable. Not sure Sark has that there & he has NOT recruited even remotely close to CNS first full year. I mean UT should have had at least 2 or 3 great 5 star OL or DL. They have 1 OT... he's good but they need a lot more. Instead they went to A&M.

I just think 'Bama & CNS was the perfect partnership at the time it happened.
 
You could end up being right but the difference in talent level between what Sark inherited and Saban inherited aren’t anywhere close to one another. Plus all of Bama’s losses that first year were within one TD … again not even close with Sark. Then I go back to the question I asked my friend … what in Sark’s previous head coaching jobs leads you to think he will become a 10-11 game winner … in the SEC? And even if he does that won’t satisfy the Texas fans long if he doesn’t occasionally win 14 or 15 and a NC. Personally, I like Sark and I don’t hope that he fails. I’m just not sold on him as a head coach yet based on previous history … and how bad Texas looked during some of their games didn’t help him in my eyes.

Getting rid of the poisonous pills within the program is #1. He's gotta get away from the old recruits brought in that don't want to do it his way. #2, he's gotta get his guys in there. One of us as head coach at Texas could still recruit lights out. In the Big 12 he can win 10-11, but in the SEC I'd feel comfortable with him winning 9-10. #3 would be to put a barrier around his players from all of the booster voices. Probably impossible, but he's gotta try. #4, work on NIL. That will work on getting the top recruits with the money they have there. #5, work on building a defense for when the offense isn't humming.

He's got the intelligence and experience running a program. He can call an offense. He just needs three years to get it together.
 
He will need time to recruit and get his guys in there.
We don't see eye to eye here. It's not about recruiting "his guys." Texas has that already. Hell, we'd love to have a guy like Xavier Worthy, or Robinson on the Tide squad.

The issue Sark is dealing with happens to be "his guys." As mentioned a few times there's A LOT of staff dysfunction from his guys...coaches and support personnel he hired.
 
We don't see eye to eye here. It's not about recruiting "his guys." Texas has that already. Hell, we'd love to have a guy like Xavier Worthy, or Robinson on the Tide squad.

The issue Sark is dealing with happens to be "his guys." As mentioned a few times there's A LOT of staff dysfunction from his guys...coaches and support personnel he hired.
I agree. He has some guys, but I just mean an entire team that he wants and goes after. His type of guys. He would have no excuses if he gets his team in there. As far as hires, yes, that is on him, but I also think he can grow in this area as coordinators continue to prove themselves and he gets a better idea of what will work in Austin. Are you thinking he is at best a coordinator?
 
I agree. He has some guys, but I just mean an entire team that he wants and goes after. His type of guys. He would have no excuses if he gets his team in there. As far as hires, yes, that is on him, but I also think he can grow in this area as coordinators continue to prove themselves and he gets a better idea of what will work in Austin. Are you thinking he is at best a coordinator?
I’ll give my two cents on your last question to TerryP … based upon everything he’s shown to date, I firmly believe he’s a far better OC than HC. Maybe, a switch will eventually flip and he’ll become a great HC. Though many more times than not, we see truly great coordinators should have remained coordinators. Being a HC at a blue blood program has to be one of the most demanding jobs out there. Now, Saban has shown exactly what it takes to do it well but that doesn’t mean others he’s allowed to see him doing daily it can do it too.
 
I'm with @BamaFan334 in terms of not judging too harshly on year 1. And I think the point of not having "his guys" is valid. I've been around college programs on a few levels and can tell you with 100% certainty that the impact of a coaching change doesn't just clear up when the new #1 moves into his office. A lot of marginal conflicts and issues can be superficially overlooked until the losing comes out... Might actually be a blessing in terms of finding out which holdovers really WANT to play for him and which ones don't.

If the coaches he hired are a problem, then he needs to cut bait any move on from them. There won't be any free passes after next season. But in his defense, experience is the best teacher. After a year with some of those dudes he should and needs to have a feel for who can execute his plans... On and off the field.

I expect them to be significantly improved next season. I've mentioned a few times on here that because my brother lives in Texas, I've been jousting with some Longhorn super fans for a few years. The feel I got is they are still excited about Sark, especially after the Ewers thing. If they suck after next year, then I'm on board with the feeling he may not be cut out as the CEO. But grace for a year is to be expected IMO... And he's more than capable X's and O's wise... So I see real improvement next season.
 
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