Chris Landry's take on Sark leaving Alabama for Atlanta

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Sarkasian is a much different personality than Kiffin but they think alike as offensive coaches and are close personally. Both are more comfortable with a more easy going encouraging style (think Pete Carroll) as opposed to the more hard edged Nick Saban.

Of course, the opportunity to resurrect their coaching careers were more than worth it for both Kiffin and Sarkasian. But, knowing all three, I never felt that these matches would work for the long term. Dealing with the more laid back–sometimes lacking in fine details style of Kiffin and Sarkasian, was not ideal for Saban.

I have had several coaching friends inquire about potential problems brewing with Sarkasian and Alabama over the past several weeks. While I don’t believe that Saban would have dismissed Sarkasian after signing day, Sarkasian’s control over the offense was beginning to be marginalized.

This is when the internal talks of Sarkasian moving on began to take full force. He visited the Falcons training camp after being dismissed by USC and hit it off with head coach Dan Quinn. The mutual friend is Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

As talks progressed for Sark, Saban began the process of getting his bases covered offensively. This led to the naming of Mike Locksley as co-coordinator last month.

To answer the Elephant in the room question (sorry, I couldn’t resist), I can tell you that Nick Saban would love to pursue some ideas that a Chip Kelly would offer, but I’m not convinced that hiring him as OC would fit either. Kelly is close with Bill Belichick and I see him using this year as a consultant role for someone at the NFL level or perhaps help consult in a few varied roles around the college and NFL game.

Former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich is definitely interested in joining the Alabama staff in the right position but it remains to be seen if that is a fit for Saban at this time.

Texans offensive coordinator George Godsey is another former Belichick disciple who would be a good fit and has worked well with OL coach Brent Key.

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