rewrite this title Thanks, but no thanks: Titans, other NFL teams should reject Steve Sarkisian

Steve Sarkisian has a job (for now) at one of the top college football programs in the country at the University of Texas. It is a destination job. The type of job coaches will leave a job for when it opens up. 

Despite that lofty position, Sarkisian’s representatives have reportedly let it be known to NFL teams that he would be willing to make the jump to the NFL, including with the Tennessee Titans. 

That report comes via The Athletic’s Dianna Russini on Saturday, though his representatives have denied it.

Maybe he wants a new challenge.

Maybe he knows a disappointing year at Texas is putting him on the hot seat and is trying to get out in front of it. 

Whatever the case may be, NFL teams — including the Tennessee Titans — should politely tell his representatives, thanks, but no thanks.

NFL teams should avoid going on the college coach path

It is not so much about Sarkisian himself that should make NFL teams stay away. It is more about how the recent history of college coaches trying to make the jump to the NFL has gone. 

And it’s gone poorly. 

Other than Jim Harbaugh, when he made the leap from Stanford to the San Francisco 49ers in the early 2010s, most of the college coaches that have attempted to take over NFL teams have badly flopped. Even the successful college coaches. 

Back in 2023, Ben Solak noted at The Ringer that only two coaches since 2000 that made the jump from the NCAA to the NFL posted winning records in the pros. The only two who had succeeded were Harbaugh and Bill O’Brien, who had a .509 winning percentage with the Houston Texans.

Every other coach on the list had a losing record in the pros and in some cases, a brutal losing record.

That list included the likes of Kliff Kingsbury, Chip Kelly, Nick Saban, Doug Marrone, Butch Davis, Steve Spurrier, Greg Schiano, Matt Rhule and the two most regrettable hires of them all, Bobby Petrino and Urban Meyer. 

All of those coaches were highly successful in the NCAA. In the cases of Saban and Spurrier, they are all-time greats. 

They all failed in the NFL.

It’s not that they’re bad coaches. It’s that they are used to coaching a different type of game. Managing college athletes and a college program is a very, very different experience than managing professional athletes. It is also a situation where X’s and O’s, playcalling and strategy means more. In college, you can be a master recruiter, assemble a powerhouse roster, schedule soft nonconference games and just out-talent everybody. 

That doesn’t work in the pros. Everybody is good, and the gap between the good teams and the bad teams is razor thin. 

The other issue that relates specifically to Sarkisian, is that he really has not had consistently dominant success in the NCAA ranks. He’s been good at times — but never really great. His best run has come at Texas where he put together back-to-back 12-win seasons in 2023 and 2024. But they have been followed up with a wildly disappointing 2025 season that saw Texas open as the No. 1 team in the country and then completely underwhelm through the first eight games. All while prized quarterback Arch Manning has shown no progress in his development. 

Is that what you want if you are the Titans with a young quarterback in Cam Ward? 

Is that what you want if you are any NFL team in need of a new direction?

Learn from recent history. Avoid the college coaches in the NFL.