Report: Mike Stoops had his job offer canceled by Steve Sarkisian on Friday morning

Late Thursday evening, the honeymoon period for new Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian came to an abrupt end when news from Tuscaloosa surfaced that Alabama Crimson Tide analyst Mike Stoops, the former defensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners, was to become the new linebacker coach for the Longhorns.

Hours later, Sarkisian reversed his course, telling Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman that he was hoping to hire another linebacker coach on Friday.

A press release on Friday announcing the other nine assistant coaches, as well as Football Performance director Torre Becton, only heightened speculation that Sarkisian’s staff were finalized until it was not the case. Sarkissian also organized a Zoom call with the media on Friday afternoon to discuss his new assistants.

At first glance, adding a former Power Five head coach with significant coordinating experience to the Sargsyan staff as a post coach would seem like a home hire. But Oklahoma’s rivalry and Stoops’ poor performance against Texas, including the 2018 Cotton Bowl game that led Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley to shoot Stoops, all contributed to the social media storm. that broke.

But the backlash was more than that story and the fact that Stoops hadn’t coached linebackers since he was an assistant at Iowa in 1991 – Stoops’ previous behavior towards the Texas program quickly took hold. front of the stage Thursday evening.

So, what happened?

The same reporter who originally broke the Stoops news in Texas, Matt Zentiz of AL.com, helped fill in the gaps on Friday night:

Stoops in Texas were fed up with a deal reached that Stoops informed Alabama and head coach Nick Saban of his plans, said goodbye to people around the Crimson Tide program and was due to travel to Texas on Friday to start the process of finding a new place to live with his wife.

A Friday morning call from Sarkissian changed those plans.

Sarkisian, the former offensive coordinator for Alabama, said on that call that he could no longer hire.

Stoops’s hiring was far enough advanced that interactions with the public on social media by the former Oklahoma defensive coordinator also point to his future plans:

Even with the information from the Alabama side, it is still unclear which side in Texas has denounced the hiring of Stoops. Was it just the reaction of the public on social media? Or did it come from other places, like the board level, after President Kevin Eltife played a key role in hiring Sarkisian? Does this come from major donors?

This question remains unanswered.

Either way, Sarkisian now has a deeper understanding of how things work on the Forty Acres. Let it be a learning experience, because Texas goes to Texas.