Texas Head Coach Steve Sarkisian Cites Penn State for "Concern" for CFB

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has said a lot in these past two weeks. He made a major mistake by calling out Texas Tech's weak schedule, and the Red Raiders brought it right to his front door.

One week before, he came to Penn State by saying that what they did to James Franklin is why he is concerned about the health of college football.

Sarkisian's exact quote was "I watched a coach get fired five games into a season last year after being in the semifinals the year before. That's concerning to me about the health of our sport."

There is a lot to unpack about this quote.

First, it's feelings like this that make the 24-team college football playoff a very real possibility. I would even go as far as to say it is not just a possibility, it is a very likely reality.

Coaches, from a selfish perspective, are going to want to add another possible accolade to their names; that's not all that hard to accomplish. If the playoff expands to 24 teams, Texas may never miss the postseason, and for the rest of his career, Sarkisian and all of the other coaches will be able to say that he was a playoff-caliber coach.

The second main idea here is come on, Sark. The state of college football is not at risk because James Franklin lost control of his mediocre program. Two things are true: Sarkisian and the Nittany Lions were in the Semifinals in 2025, but don't mistake it for having the program in a good place. 

They hardly made it into the 2025 bracket, and then they had the easiest path to the Championship. They played SMU and Boise State in back-to-back games to get to Notre Dame. Not exactly Murderers' Row. Penn State was never a serious contender under James Franklin, and a change was needed.

Also, if you don't want to get fired, don't go on a six-game losing streak in a year that the expectation is a National Championship.

Yes, if the concern is that coaching college football is hard, then yes, I can hear that. It is hard to win, it is hard to live up to expectations, and it is hard to accomplish hard things. Unfortunately, if you fail to meet expectations, sometimes changes are made.

Welcome to life.

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