After employing big-body receivers at USC, Sarkisian changed his philosophy when he became the head coach at Washington.
AUSTIN, Texas — It’s not a coincidence that Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has coached the two fastest players in NFL Combine history.
In fact, the recruitment of Long Beach (Calif.) Jordan wide receiver John Ross by current Longhorns co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Johnny Nansen marked a sea change in Sarkisian’s recruiting philosophy at wide receiver.
During Sarkisian’s first stint at USC under his old BYU offensive coordinator Norm Chow, the Trojans were still running a pro-style attack that liked to call iso run plays from two-back formations with big-bodied wide receivers working on the outside like 6’5, 235-pound Mike Williams, the leading pass catcher on the 2003 team, and 6’5, 215-pound Dwayne Jarrett, the leading pass catcher on the 2005 team.
As Sarkisian has done at multiple critical inflections points in his career, however, he adjusted as the game started to change with the rise of spread offenses around college football that emphasized 10 or 11 personnel and, often, Air Raid philosophies.
The commitment of Ross in January 2013 started to change things for Sarkisian even though he only coached the speedy Ross for one season before taking over as the head coach at USC. Interestingly enough, Ross wasn’t even particularly productive as a freshman catching passes from Keith Price, finishing with 16 receptions for 208 yards and a touchdown, but the impact of his speed was apparent to Sarkisian.
“When he got in the program, you could feel the difference of what it looked like,” Sarkisian said on Monday.
It wasn’t until 2016 that Ross truly broke out with 1,150 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns on 81 receptions playing in current Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith’s offense.
The next February, Ross ran a 4.22 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, the fastest time in history until Xavier Worthy ran a 4.21 this year.
When Sarkisian became the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, he coached something of a wide receiver unicorn in Julio Jones, a 6’2, 220-pounder with 4.39 speed, while trying to identify more players with speed. In 2018, that led to the Falcons drafting Calvin Ridley out of Alabama, a player much more in Sarkisian’s current ideal mold at 6’0, 190 pounds and possessing 4.4 speed.
If Sarkisian’s change in philosophy wasn’t fully cemented when he arrived back in Tuscaloosa to serve as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator, Alabama’s roster construction provided any further confirmation he may have needed from the group of future Heisman winner De’Vonta Smith, three other eventual first-round draft picks, and an eventual second-round draft pick.
A notable wide receiver on that roster who transferred twice before signing with the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent? Tyrell Shavers, a 6’6, 205-pounder with 4.59 speed who signed with Alabama as a top-100 prospect nationally.
“It’s what we’ve tried to recreate and I think we’ve got a pretty good group of guys now that understand the style of play in which we’re trying to play the game,” Sarkisian said.
It wasn’t an easy process, as Sarkisian went through two wide receivers coaches before landing on Chris Jackson, who only had one year of experience as an NFL assistant coach, and saw 14 transfers at the position.
Big-bodied receivers left over from the previous coaching staff, like Troy Omeire, Marcus Washington, and Casey Cain, mostly played sparingly for the Longhorns, and the big-bodied receiver Texas took from the NCAA transfer portal, Isaiah Neyor, suffered a knee injury that limited him to playing just eight snaps in burnt orange and white.
So it’s hardly surprising to consider that the only wide receiver who did stick around from the Tom Herman era, Jordan Whittington, recorded the second-highest speed on the team during the 2022 offseason.
And that Sarkisian made recruiting Worthy such a priority when he was released from his National Letter of Intent with Michigan because the Wolverines couldn’t get him enrolled early as a member of the 2021 recruiting class.
Worthy went on to become one of the most productive wide receivers in school history before his historic effort at the NFL Combine and was a perfect fit for what Sarkisian wants in a wide receiver.
“I want guys that can catch and run with the ball,” Sarkisian said. “When you really watch us, we don’t throw many stationary throws where guys are standing there catching the ball — we like to catch the ball on the move so that when they can catch and continue to run. That’s why the quarterback’s accuracy is so important. And, generally speaking, the faster you are on the move, the tougher you are to guard and then get on the ground once you catch it.”
The current roster construction finally fully reflects Sarkisian’s philosophy. The leader in receiving yards, junior Alabama transfer Isaiah Bond, ran a blazing 10.48 100-meter dash in high school. Junior Houston transfer Matthew Golden, perhaps one of the slower wide receivers on the current roster, still ran a sub-11 100m at Klein Cain. Senior Oregon State transfer Silas Bolden ran a 10.61 100m in high school. Freshman Ryan Wingo is even faster with a 10.55 100m personal best. Redshirt freshman Ryan Niblett has 10.58 speed and reached 22.3 miles per hour in the season opener. Freshman wide receiver Aaron Butler reached 21.2 mph in game in high school. Sophomores Johntay Cook and DeAndre Moore don’t have verified track times, but Cook ran relays in high school and was a long jumper and a triple jumper. Even freshman Parker Livingstone, the team’s tallest receiver at 6’3, was praised by Sarkisian when he signed for his straight-line speed.
When Sarkisian mentions the key aspects of the Texas football brand, speed is always one of them, and the Longhorns now have an incredible amount of it.
It is “All Gas, No Breaks” after all.