The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place as Steve Sarkisian assembles his initial staff on the 40 acres. Friday afternoon, Sarkisian announced 9 on-field hires in addition to naming his Director of Football Performance. The head coach spent some time talking about how he went about filling out his staff:
“Player development, X’s and O’s and ability to recruit were our priorities with this staff. When you look at their backgrounds, there’s experience and expertise from an NFL standpoint, coaching at a very high level in the college ranks, and it’s an outstanding collection of proven and successful recruiters, as well,” Sarkisian added. “For every coach we hired, I looked closely at their ability to recruit and evaluate prospects, and this group can do that with the best of them. They all have a great recruiting background and many of them with significant ties to recruiting in the state of Texas.”
Let’s take a look at the hires that became official and what Sarkisian had to say about the members of his new coaching staff:
AJ Milwee- QB Coach
Sarkisian praised Milwee, calling the former Alabama analyst his “right-hand guy”. Milwee was set to become the offensive coordinator at Arkansas State under new head coach Butch Jones, also a former Alabama analyst, before joining the Texas staff. Milwee was previously an offensive coordinator at Akron for 6 seasons, so he has playcalling experience. Sarkisian thinks very highly of his new QB coach and will value his input while gameplanning and also on game day.
Interesting Sarkisian quote about Milwee- “I like the guy’s drive, I like the guy’s focus, but I also like that he thinks like me.”
Stan Drayton- Offensive Run Game Coordinator/RB Coach
Drayton is one of two on-field holdovers from Tom Herman’s staff and is entering his 5th season at Texas. He is considered one of the best teachers of the running back position in the country and is widely respected by his position group. Recruiting wise, he reeled in 2020 5-star Bijan Robinson, who will be the focal point of the Texas offense. It is not surprising that Sarkisian chose to retain Drayton and he will be counting on him to continue his track record of development and recruiting his position at a high level.
Sarkisian on Drayton- “He has developed some of the best runners in the country and is clearly done the same thing since he’s been here.”
Andre Coleman- WR Coach
Coleman joined Texas as an analyst during the 2019 season and was promoted to WR coach for the 2020 season. It was an up and down season for the Texas receivers, but the friendliness of Steve Sarkisian’s offense will benefit Coleman greatly both on the field and on the recruiting trail. Sarkisian was not shy in his praise for Coleman, mentioning that he tried to hire the former Kansas State offensive coordinator as his receivers coach on several different occasions.
Sarkisian on Coleman- “I’m excited about Andre. He’s somebody that might actually talk to at my last two stops about potentially joining us. I wasn’t the final say so that didn’t quite work out but I had a prior relationship with [him] probably the last three or four years and the development of the receiver position, the connections he’s had in state, even his time recruiting in state here when he was at Kansas State. I think her all are all positives for us on that front.”
Jeff Banks- Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator/TE Coach
One of the biggest wins on Sarkisian’s initial staff was being able to hire away Jeff Banks from Alabama. Banks is one of the best recruiters in the country and has spent time in the state of Texas previously as an assistant at Texas A&M. He has deep ties to high schools in Texas and will be a volume recruiter for the Longhorns. Banks also is seen as one of the best special teams coaches in the country. There is a reason Texas is paid over $1 million to pry him away from Nick Saban’s staff. He should make an immediate impact.
Sarkisian on Banks- “Jeff has roots in recruiting are really here in the great state of Texas. But he’s also a my opinion that the premier special teams coordinator in the country. So we get a fantastic coach there and get a fantastic recruiter with with ties to the state.”
Kyle Flood- OL Coach/Offensive Coordinator
Flood comes to Austin after spending the previous two seasons as the offensive line coach at Alabama. Prior to his time in Tuscaloosa, Flood was with Sarkisian with the Falcons, where he served as the assistant offensive line coach after his stint as the head coach at Rutgers from 2012 to 2015. He is receiving a promotion to offensive coordinator to come to Austin, but Sarkisian made it clear on Friday that he would call the plays on game day while receiving input from Flood.
Sarkisian on Flood-“I think Kyle has a wealth of knowledge and experience at the offensive line position. He’s a tremendous recruiter, and a great developer of talent which clearly we saw a year ago at Alabama.”
Pete Kwiatkowski- Defensive Coordinator/OLB Coach
Sarkisian and Texas surprised nearly everybody earlier this week when they hired away Pete Kwiatkowski from Washington. Kwiatkowski had spent the last 7 seasons with the Huskies and coordinated some of the top defenses in the country. Sarkisian praised him for how tough his defenses are to face and said he had been “a thorn in my side the last decade” so he knew it was somebody he wanted to get to run the Texas defense. Kwiatkowski will also coach the outside linebackers, which he had done with the Huskies the previous 3 seasons. This leaves open the possibility that Sarkisian will hire an inside linebackers coach with his final on-field assistant spot.
Sarkisian on Kwiatkowski- “When you start talking to him and when we first started talking, he kept coming back to fundamentals and technique. Fundamentals and technique. That is one of his key components to playing great defenses”
Bo Davis- Defensive Line
Bo Davis is a familiar name for Texas fans, having coached the defensive line under Mack Brown from 2011 to 2013. Davis is seen as a great recruiter and developer who is coming back to Austin after spending the last 3 seasons in the NFL with the Detroit Lions. Former players speak very highly of him and he should be able to get a leg up in recruiting having recruited the state of Texas previously for the Longhorns.
Sarkisian on Bo Davis- “He’s a tremendous recruiter. He’s a tremendous developer of talent. Once you get them here, which is important. It’s one thing to get players here. It’s another to develop them and probably one of the key components to Bose. He’s an unbelievable staff guy and we talked about building a culture here.”
Terry Joseph- Secondary Coach/Defensive Pass Game Coordinator
Many in the state of Texas are familiar with Joseph, who served as the defensive backs coach at Texas A&M for 3 seasons from 2014 to 2016 and was most recently the safeties coach at Notre Dame. Similar to Kwiatkowski, Sarkisian praised Joseph for the way he prepared his secondary when they played Alabama in the CFP. Interestingly, Joseph was one of the first hires Sarkisian made on the defensive side of the ball.
Sarkisian on Joseph- “Was really impressed obviously with with our game against Notre Dame and just the way they defended us compared to everybody else in the country and just I think a real Pro’s Pro when it. He has some defensive coordinator in his background at North Carolina. He’s got ties to some of the people that were bringing on staff who he’s worked with before so really excited about about Terry”
Blake Gideon- Safeties Coach
Gideon returns to Texas after having played for the Longhorns from 2008-2011. He has risen quickly through the coaching ranks, going from Georgia State to Houston to Ole Miss in the last 3 seasons. Gideon should serve a good recruiter for Sarkisian’s staff and has connections throughout the state after growing up in the state and having a father who coached in the high school ranks in Texas. He is also likely to contribute to special teams coaching after being named the Special Teams Coach of the Year by FootballScoop.com in 2019.
Sarkisian on Gideon- “I just think Blake he’s got a very bright future in the profession and he’s been super impressive up to this point so far so I am excited about that”
Torre Becton- Director of Football Performance
Becton previously worked for Sarkisian at the University of Washington and comes to Texas after being the head athletic performance coach at Cal the last 4 seasons. One of the most interesting parts of Sarkisian’s press conference is when talked about his vision for what the Longhorns want to do strength and conditioning wise. He talked about how the program needs to be wired into sports science and nutrition but also said they will also be focusing on velocity training, which will emphasize the need to improve explosiveness.
Sarkisian on Becton- “The fact that you have somebody there that you’ve worked with before, that I know can really support our messaging and reiterate our messaging from a weight room standpoint was really big to me.”
