Texas needs to replace some starters on defense, but its coaching staff remains intact

By most metrics, Texas didn't play well on defense during the 2021 football season.

In that first year of the Steve Sarkisian era, the Longhorns allowed 31.1 points and 426.6 yards per game. Among the nation's 130 FBS defenses, those averages were No. 99 and No. 100. Texas gave up 57 points to lowly Kansas and 55 to rival Oklahoma.

While reflecting the past few months about those struggles, Sarkisian has floated a theory about continuity. The five defensive assistants he hired — Jeff Choate, Bo Davis, Blake Gideon, Terry Joseph and Pete Kwiatkowski — arrived in Austin with more than 80 years of collegiate coaching experience. But the only overlap on their résumés happened from 2006-11 and from 2014-15 when both Kwiatkowski and Choate were on the coaching staffs at Boise State and Washington, and Choate wasn't a defensive coach for three of those seasons.

One year later, Texas retained all five of those defensive coaches and started to see improved results on the field. Last season, Texas was No. 27 in scoring defense (21.6 points per game) and No. 53 in total defense (368.4 yards per game). The Longhorns shut out Oklahoma and held the top-20 scoring offenses of Alabama, TCU, UTSA and Kansas under their season-long averages.

Sarkisian mentioned that continuity among his defensive coaches a few times this May as he trekked across the state on the Texas Fight Tour. And with the Longhorns beginning fall practice this week, he expounded on those thoughts Tuesday during his opening press conference of the season.

"When I took the job here, I wanted to hire the best coaching staff that I could, and we took a little bit of an unconventional approach to getting the staff hired," Sarkisian said. "I went and hired Blake Gideon, Terry Joseph and Bo Davis before I hired Pete Kwiatkowski as the defensive coordinator, and then hiring Jeff Choate. (Aside from Kwiatkowski and Choate), these other guys had never worked together.

"Not only did they have to get accustomed to PK's scheme and philosophy, but then formulating ideas — there's a lot of great expertise amongst those guys. There was definitely a learning curve, a feeling-out process for them and some growing pains that we went through, especially in year one. But as we grew together, and as we started to develop the players that we had and then recruit the type of players that we wanted at positions, it all started growing together."

Coaching together, growing together

All five of those coaches are still at Texas. Sarkisian said he believes they are "very comfortable with one another. They're speaking the same language. There's an expectation from the players of what's expected of them and how they're going to get coached."

Per Sarkisian's preference, Texas' assistants do not speak to the media during the season or spring practices. The coordinators instead make an appearance at an August press conference. If mandated by a bowl game, they'll speak again in the postseason.

On Tuesday, offensive coordinator Kyle Flood joked with a reporter that "you really should ask me that question two weeks from now, but Sark won't let you talk to me two weeks from now."

During his 20-minute session in front of a microphone Tuesday, Kwiatkowski also was asked about the coaching continuity on defense. He endorsed Sarkisian's theory.

"The longer you are with somebody, the more you get to know each other and how you think and how guys coach their players, how they respond to criticism, the knowledge that other guys have," Kwiatkowski said. "At the end of the day, I want guys being able to coach and do from a coaching standpoint what they are good at and what they believe in. The give-and-take between us as a staff has been really good. It's been fun."

What will be Gary Patterson's next move?

Even though Texas has retained its five full-time defensive assistant coaches, there will be some new faces on that side of the ball. Out is Gary Patterson, at least for now. After reports surfaced last week that Patterson was mulling a return to Texas, Sarkisian said Tuesday that "he's not part of the program. We'll see where it goes from here."

The all-time leader in coaching wins at TCU, Patterson spent last year helping Texas' defense as a special assistant to the head coach. He stepped back from those duties this offseason.

Since Patterson's departure, Sarkisian hired Payam Saadat as a special assistant to the head coach. This won't be an on-field coaching role for Saadat, who has previously worked as a defensive coordinator at Portland State, Central Washington, Army and Cal Poly. Special assistants are allowed to advise, break down film and work on scouting reports.

"He's a guy that's kind of been one of the pioneers of the old Arizona Desert Swarm flex defense where there's historically provided a lot of pressure on the quarterback and created a lot of one-on-one matchups up front," Sarkisian said. "I felt like is that something we're trying to get better at? Well, if we are, how do you do that? You have to bring in people that have some background of it.

"When he was here visiting for a couple days, I really loved his rapport with our staff. We've put in a lot of time into developing that rapport over the last couple years. So I want to make sure everybody that we bring in can only enhance that continuity."

Texas will return to the practice field Wednesday afternoon. Linebacker Jaylan Ford, the Big 12's preseason defensive player of the year, is among the six starters returning to Kwiatkowski's defense. The Longhorns are looking to fill the holes left by five players who are currently trying to make NFL rosters as rookies.

The "point of emphasis for us this year is turnovers, third downs, fourth downs and sacks," Kwiatkowski analyzed. Last year, Texas ranked 77th in team sacks (2.08 per game), 80th in fourth-down conversion defense (54.1%), 88th in third-down conversion defense (41.1%) and 104th in forced turnovers (14).

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas defensive assistants ready for third football season together