On Tuesday morning, USA Today college football writer Matt Hayes released an interview with Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. In the article, Sarkisian ran down his problems with the NCAA but, for some reason, specifically attacked Ole Miss, insulting its academic standards.
In Hayes’ interview, the Texas head coach went “scorched Earth” on the NCAA, calling out how it handles issues, the lack of punishments and how bad an idea expanding the College Football Playoff is.
Sarkisian then brought up one of his harshest criticisms in the interview — a pointed shot at the University of Mississippi:
“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours. You may be a semester from graduating, but you’re going all the way back to 50% if you play here and want a degree.
But at Ole Miss, they can take you. All you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree.”
Now, it doesn’t appear that Ole Miss offers an actual course in basket weaving. Sarkisian's comment rather implies that the Longhorns have higher academic standards than the Rebels and other programs, highlighting one of the many “inequities” in the sport.
Sarkisian also discussed the tampering allegations against Ole Miss brought by Clemson coach Dabo Swinney. Swinney accused the Rebels of contacting former Clemson linebacker Luke Ferrelli, alleging that the program sent him a photo of a million-dollar check while actively enrolled at Clemson, not in the transfer portal. Ferrelli is, of course, now at Ole Miss.
It’s not the first time Ole Miss has taken shots in the media this week; the Rebels were also criticized earlier this week by new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin, who spoke with Vanity Fair about his decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU. While most of his comments were standard, the new Tigers head coach said LSU has more diversity and “it feels like there’s no segregation.”
Kiffin later apologized for his comments.
“I really apologize if anybody at Ole Miss or in Mississippi was offended by that.
I was asked questions about the differences in recruiting, and I said a narrative that we battled there from some out-of-state Black parents and grandparents was not wanting their kid to move to Mississippi. That’s a narrative that coaches have been fighting forever. It wasn’t calculated by bringing it up.”
Ole Miss hasn’t responded to either comment, but they will in a way this fall. The Rebels host LSU on September 19 and will play at Texas on October 24.
