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We aren't even talking about football in Destin

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook05/27/26josephcook89

DESTIN, Fla. — I’ve been around Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian for just about every opportunity he’s had with the media here at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin. And there are two words Sarkisian hasn’t said that speak to not only what the focus of these meetings are, but also how dire the mood appears to be for coaches in the meeting room: Arch Manning.

Unless Sarkisian mentioned his starting quarterback during a SiriusXM interview where I was out of earshot or in an ESPN appearance, Sarkisian has not yet talked about Manning.

Maybe that’s naiveté on my part to think business and procedure meetings would have much discussion about on-field matters when the big theme of this week is the structure and future of the sport.

However, I also think the demeanor of not just Sarkisian but also other coaches speaks to how tiresome this is for so many leaders of football programs who have to get mired down in discussions about NIL, the College Football Playoff, and other things. And for those discussions to be about things out of their actual control.

Maybe Sarkisian can put it a bit better than I can when talking about what seems to be the main themes at meetings like this.

“I got the job at the University of Texas in January of ’21,” Sarkisian said Tuesday. “The amount of change that has occurred in the five and a half years that I’ve had the job has really been incredible, and I’ve been in this profession for 25 years.”

Sarkisian mentioned a lot of things the Longhorns have been star players in like conference realignment, the transfer portal, the expanded CFP, and revenue sharing. He noted, rather presciently, that another evolution is likely at some point. There have been a lot of coaches who have said similar.

But no one really has a smile on their face when talking about it.

“I think we need to, as college football, our ability to change with the times is important,” Sarkisian said. “But I do feel (change) is inevitable right now.”

Projecting emotions isn’t my strong suit, nor is reading body language, but Sarkisian isn’t talking much about football, nor are any of the football coaches here in attendance.

That’s not the only thing that seems to have Sarkisian down.

Like so many who read Inside Texas and even write for Inside Texas, our fandom for the sport started long ago. There’s some hero who was a poster on the wall or a favorite trading card that got us all into college football and our favorite team. Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams, Vince Young, Colt McCoy. Those types of players.

All of those men won conference championships, and conference championships were big deals. Only one in Young won a national title, though Campbell played for one unofficially and McCoy left his formal national title game due to injury.

There are still fond, fond memories for all those players. The Heisman moments. The run to the end zone in Pasadena. The victories over Oklahoma.

But if those players were from a different era — this era — Young would probably stand out above the rest, maybe in a way different than he arguably already does. Why? Because he’s the only one that has won a national title.

To be sure, winning national championships is important. But college football was unique in that a season could be enjoyed and cherished even without a national title at the end. All those players are Texas legends. And the coaches that led those players, Darrell Royal and Mack Brown, are the two best coaches in program history.

Now? Would their careers look similar if they were dropped into modern college football? That’s doubtful.

“I watched a coach get fired five games into a season last year after being in the semifinals the year before,” Sarkisian said in reference to James Franklin. It should be noted he and Franklin do share agents, but that probably speaks to why it was such an available idea for the Texas head coach.

“That’s concerning to me about the health of our sport. To me, I just think we’ve got to find a way to get out of this notion of it’s national championship or bust for all the schools because it’s not a healthy way to live for our fanbases and it’s not a healthy way to live for our donors.”

Even Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko said similar.

“I don’t know why we’re trying to become a trophy sport,” Elko said. “I don’t understand why that’s something that we’re trying to do. Then, there’s some self preservation right? If you really ask me on the record what does Mike Elko want? I want 40 (teams in the CFP), because then I’ll make it and then I won’t get fired.”

The Playoff and its nature are important, but the conversations here have basically been about what are the things that determine what a Playoff team is. There are still lingering questions and there is remaining uncertainty. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said CFP executive director Rich Clark shared some data, and we’ll cover that more in-depth when we get a chance to talk to Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte later on Wednesday.

Again, that’s not talking about football. That has the coaches down.

Let’s look to the Sunshine State and Florida head coach Jon Sumrall for more examples of what I’m referencing. The current way of doing things had him working three jobs last year essentially. That was his own choice, but that wasn’t an easy one.

I get it’s hard to have much sympathy for multi-millionaires, but you don’t get to this point in the sport without a passion for football that I believe are orders of magnitude greater than the passion possessed by fans like you and me. I do love the game, but I don’t love it enough to do what these guys do. That’s why they get paid that much.

But they’re paid to coach a game that is evolving over and over and over and over and over and over in a way that’s hard to keep up with. Their demeanors have not been very bubbly even as they get to hang out on the sandy Miramar Beach shores.

These guys love talking ball. But Sarkisian hasn’t even used the name, at least to my knowledge, of his starting quarterback.

We aren’t talking about football in Destin. We’re talking about so many other things, and there doesn’t appear to be a clean way forward to where ball could be the focus at an event like this.

It’s visible on the coaches’ faces. It’s visible in the number of complaints and overall misgivings about the future of the sport at this point. And if I had to bet, it’ll look very similar next year.

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