Sark’s QB rep built on Carroll and Saban’s rosters?

[Steamboat Willie]

Been thinking about this for a while. I think Sark’s a great head coach and fits like a glove at UT. But he gets talked about like he’s one of the best QB developers in the country, and when you go stop by stop I’m not sure the results back it up.

At USC he worked with Palmer, Leinart and Sanchez, but that was Carroll’s program and Norm Chow deserves a lot of the credit for the early years. At Alabama he had Tua and Mac Jones, both first-rounders. But Bama kept producing QBs after he left. Bryce Young went No. 1, Milroe got drafted, and Ty Simpson just went 13th overall.

His head coaching stops are a different story. At Washington he had Jake Locker, who went in the first round mostly on physical ability and never turned into much of a passer. At Texas he’s had five-plus years, his own staff, his own recruits and total control of the offense. Ewers came in a five-star and left a seventh-round pick. Arch is still a work in progress.

Five-star QBs disappoint everywhere, I get that. Rattler at Oklahoma, Uiagalelei at Clemson, Malachi Nelson at USC. Nobody hits on all of them. But if you’re supposed to be an elite QB developer, shouldn’t you be getting more out of those guys than the average coach does?

Kirby’s an interesting comparison. Five stars: Eason, Fields, Daniels and Vandagriff all came through Georgia and transferred, and he still won two titles with Stetson Bennett. Nobody calls Kirby a QB guru, and he’s got an OC running the offense anyway. Sark calls the plays, so whatever happens at QB is on him.

Sark can coach quarterbacks, I’m not arguing that. Being a good QB coach and being the QB whisperer he gets sold as are two different things though. At Texas he’s had the time, the money and the control to build exactly what he wants, and the QB play hasn’t lived up to the reputation.

At what point do we start judging Sark’s QB development on what he’s done at Texas instead of what he did at USC and Alabama?

[Oldest Horn]

I didn’t know we weren’t.
 

Sark did a great job his first four years. Things regressed last year while replacing several multi year starters. Sadly, things have stalled this year. I think he’s getting judged in real time, not on what he did or didn’t do under Carroll and Saban. 

[dentonhorn]

I do think his reputation is largely built on someone providing him with overwhelming talent that makes up for other shortcomings. Way way overblown his X and O abilities.  Wish we had one of those OCs that can make great offense out of average talent just by system and play calling within it. 

Edited 56 minutes ago by dentonhorn

[Bunk Moreland]

I actually think I’m coming around to the view that this is much more of a Kyle Flood issue. Arch was pretty much on track at the beginning of the season until that hit to the head against UTSA. Ever since then, the line cannot keep interior pressure off of him. He’s clearly spooked and seeing ghosts. 

The same thing happened with Quinn. I think we all recognize that Quinn was never an elite QB, but part of that was because he was hurt so often and part of it was because he was under pressure constantly. When he had a clean pocket, he could execute the offense flawlessly outside of the deep ball. 

I think there’s definitely some truth to the idea that Sark isn’t quite the QB whisperer that his reputation would suggest, but I would like to see his offense perform with a competent offensive line. I don’t know how much of the OL scheme problems is on Sark vs Flood, but he needs to completely overhaul. 

[HookedOnTF]

15 minutes ago, Bunk Moreland said:

I actually think I’m coming around to the view that this is much more of a Kyle Flood issue. Arch was pretty much on track at the beginning of the season until that hit to the head against UTSA. Ever since then, the line cannot keep interior pressure off of him. He’s clearly spooked and seeing ghosts. 

The same thing happened with Quinn. I think we all recognize that Quinn was never an elite QB, but part of that was because he was hurt so often and part of it was because he was under pressure constantly. When he had a clean pocket, he could execute the offense flawlessly outside of the deep ball. 

I think there’s definitely some truth to the idea that Sark isn’t quite the QB whisperer that his reputation would suggest, but I would like to see his offense perform with a competent offensive line. I don’t know how much of the OL scheme problems is on Sark vs Flood, but he needs to completely overhaul. 

He sure can't be trusted to not have a weak link in the unit, whether it is lack of development, or evals, or landing "must get" recruits / portal targets is up for debate. 

He may not own QB performance, but he definitely should own the lack of running game success.

[Rockin TL]

A question i have because ive seen it thrown around a lot about Sark being a great head coach, what evidence is there of that?