agree that he isn't a great head coach. both in terms of strategy and prep for all three phases, as well as gameday management itself.
1 - Kirby values special teams, that is clear. He puts them in position to make game altering plays. I promise you that makes them play hard more often than not. Sark doesn't give a shit about special teams. He took points of the board from our struggling kicker last year and F'ed up the 4th down call. That is a excellent window into his mindset. He doesn't grasp the importance of all three phases of the game. Could be due to his OC responsibilities, sure, could just be the job is bigger than him.
2 - Kirby understands MO. he makes critical calls to capture momentum and use it. This is college football and guys liek Smart and Saban best understand this. Sark treat gameday decisions from his culture-building viewpoint. "All gas no breaks" instead of taking points. He defends this by stating as much, something to the tune of "i don't want to shake the confidence of my offense by not going for it". Or see point 1.
Someday you will need your receiving team to be ready for the onside kick. Someday you will need your kicker to win the game. Its no mistake both of these issues directly cost of us 1 victory against Georgia and greatly contributed to the loss yesterday.
Sark is not a good CEO tl;dr
Give Mack all the shit you want - over time he developed good gameday management abilities. His kickers were clutch, his special teams made game altering plays, and he (over time, I know) learned how to influence a game with all three phases. What he lacked was a winning mentality that needed legendary leadership from the QB position to overcome.
The reality is there aren't many coaches at all who are everything. Saban and Smart are the only two I can think of. Day had to get relieved of his playcalling duties or he was gonna get fired. Elko? LSU asshole can't even think of his name? Oregon's HC seems consistently on point. IU has their guy who preaches execution. Just fucking look at Indiana man. 3 years I believe and that dude has a legit top 10 team.
Coaching matters and I love Sark but he isn't a good HC.