Since Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian never considered giving up play-calling responsibilities in the wake of the program’s worst offensive output in total yardage in 10 years in the overtime win over the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington, totaling just 179 yards, something needed to change heading into Starkville.
On the field, the Horns did manage significant improvement, ripping off 17 points offensively in the fourth quarter and gaining 428 yards during the 45-38 win over the Bulldogs,
overcoming two 17-point deficits in the process.
What changed on the sidelines was co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach AJ Milwee moving into the coaches’ box, trading places with co-passing game coordinator and assistant quarterbacks coach Mike Bimonte, elevated from his longtime analyst role during the offseason that had him in the box.
Milwee was responsible for going through film clips with the quarterbacks on the sideline to provide feedback between offensive possessions. On Saturday against Mississippi State, the one-time Akron offensive coordinator’s role shifted to providing input to Sarkisian from an elevated perspective, drawing on the rapport the two have built since Milwee was an offensive analyst under Sarkisian at Alabama in 2019 and 2020.
It’s a familiar dynamic for the Texas head coach and his co-coordinator.
“When we first got here, he was up top,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “I’m trying to think if it was two years ago or a year ago — I don’t remember — at the time I felt like Quinn [Ewers] needed to have somebody on the sidelines with him to really talk to because I just wasn’t as accessible being the head coach and doing that, so we brought him down and there was great rapport there.”
With the offense struggling, Sarkisian decided to put Milwee back in the box.
“As the season went on, I just felt like, man, AJ knows me so well. We’ve been together so long that I felt like some of the information from him was going to be helpful for me in game, in real time, and allow him to watch the game, as opposed to being on the sidelines with the same view that I had,” Sarkisian said.
Sarkisian also wanted to draw on the relationships that Bimonte has built with the offensive players.
“I thought Mike could provide a little more energy and juice — he’s got great rapport with all of our players, not only Arch, but all of those guys on offense,” Sarkisian said.
The positive feeling Sarkisian had going into the game played out as expected.
“I thought it was a win-win going into it and it proved that way. I thought AJ was very helpful for me on game day being up top,” Sarkisian said.
“I also think Mike Bimonte was very helpful for our players in the midst of the adversity we were getting faced with — I thought his energy was really helpful. In turn, I don’t think we missed anything with the communication with Arch on the sidelines and making adjustments on the iPads and things like that.”
