Steve Sarkisian was just named Kyle Shanahan's replacement as offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons. You read that right. The Falcons, who were just in the Super Bowl, replaced their offensive coordinator who left to be the head coach for the 49ers with Steve Sarkisian.

I think this is absolute waste of a hire. They could have went out and got somebody who is much, much more experienced and already a professional coach. Besides one year as the Raiders QB coach in 2004, everything Sarkisian has done has been at the college level, and he was not that great when coaching college players. Now, he is taking over a Falcons offense that has the MVP, Matt Ryan, 2 great, young running backs in Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman, and probably the best receiver in the NFL right now in Julio Jones.

I ask, what makes Sarkisian the better, and more qualified, person to take this job over some available coaches? Like I said, he had very minimal success at the college level. He was part of Pete Carroll's staff at USC, first as the QB coach in 2005-06, then as the assistant head coach/QB coach/offensive coordinator from 2007 to 2008. That was where he found his most success, but looking back, I think I could have coached those 5 star athletes just as well as he did. With talent like that, it is not that hard to tell them to go out and play hard.

Then, for some inexplicable reason, the University of Washington gave him the head coaching job after the 2008 season. Washington was supposed to be the up and coming program, and Sarkisian was going to be the guy to return them to their glory days of the early 90's. Well, that did not happen. Washington was very mediocre during his tenure. They were always just on the cusp, and people always said that, "this was going to be the year for the Huskies", but they never panned out. Sarkisian was the same guy that brought a live tiger, in a cage, to a practice to prepare for an early season game against LSU. I guess he thought it would fire up his guys, but they got absolutely destroyed by LSU on that particular Saturday. It was embarrassing. In fact, besides a couple of wins against top tier opponents in his first season, in which Washington finished 5-7, his best record in the four seasons he coached there was 7-6. Not that great.

But, in what was a great fail upwards, after the Lane Kiffin debacle at USC, the Trojans decided to hire Sarkisian away from Washington in 2013. I was puzzled by this hire at the time. I figured they were getting an almost identical coach, but they claimed they were trying to get away from Lane Kiffin. Kiffin and Sarkisian are 2 great examples of guys that continue to fail up somehow. But, Sakisian was retuning home, and he was going to make USC relevant again. USC was in a rut since Pete Carroll bolted for the NFL, and I guess the higher ups figured Sarkisian would return them to glory. Well, that did not happen. He was a total disaster while the head man at USC. His life fell apart coaching there. They had the whole Josh Shaw incident, look it up, and the whole Stanford game where officials may or mat not have been contacted prior to a game to make some calls that would give USC an advantage. Then, I was actually watching this game, he was accused of being intoxicated during a game against Arizona State. I remember vividly watching and thinking to myself, he does not seem right on the sideline. He looked like, at any moment, he was going to barf all over the field, then the next second, he looked to be slurring words when speaking to his players. It was a mess. It was revealed later that he was going to take a leave of absence right after the ASU game, and check himself into rehab for alcohol abuse. During this time, Clay Helton was named interim head coach. Sarkisian was quickly fired after players and assistant coaches said that they could smell alcohol on his breath during practices.

I thought this was going to be the nail in the coffin as far as Sarkisian being a coach for any big time school, but after only one year away, Alabama hired him as an analyst for their football team. Saban was stocking his coaching staff with big names basically. Recruits love this, and Saban is no dummy. Sarkisian was basically an assistant offensive coordinator for the majority of the 2016 season. Kiffin called the plays, yes he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama, and Sarkisian gave his input. Then, as only someone like Lane Kiffin could do, he got fired after already accepting a job at Florida Atlantic, and Sarkisian was called on to be the new offensive coordinator for the national title game. I wrote about that game and how stagnant Alabama seemed on offense, and Sarkisian was the play caller. It was assumed that he would slide into Kiffin's spot, but surprisingly to me, and I bet a lot of other people, when the Falcons offensive coordinator job opened, they wasted little time hiring Sarkisian to the same position.

I do not get this hire, as I have stated throughout. I do not know what they saw in him that made them think he could lead the number one offense in football. His play calling in the title game was predictable and dreadful. How will that translate to the NFL? Not well, in my opinion. I feel like the Falcons are going to waste at least one year of 4 great offensive players in their prime. The only "sense" I can make of them picking Sarkisian to be the new offensive coordinator is that the head coach, Dan Quinn, was also a Pete Carroll guy at Seattle, and maybe they have a relationship since they both worked for him. I personally think Sarkisian is going to be very, very bad as the head play caller for the Falcons. I already thought that the Falcons would take a tiny step back after blowing the Super Bowl, but now that they hired Sarkisian, I think they will be lucky to got 9-7 next year. I mean, Julio Jones is incredible, and I love the running backs, but I think Matt Ryan played the best he will ever play, and with Sarkisian calling the plays, I think his inevitable fall back to Earth will be a fiery crash back to Earth now. This puzzled me, and I think it will, in the long run, end up hurting the Falcons.

Steve Sarkisian is not the man for this job. He would not have even been in my top 25 of candidates, but I guess he was the Falcons first, and only, choice to take over for Shanahan. I think it is going to be a nightmare.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has a bad feeling that the ghost of Bobby Petrino will not be good for Steve Sarkisian in the ATL. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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