Texas’ Steve Sarkisian speaks on creating a more versatile offense (5:31)Sarkisian discusses the new additions to the Longhorns’ roster and how they are helping the offense become more dynamic and well-rounded. (5:31)
Heather DinichMay 12, 2026, 02:38 PM ETMultiple Authors
First-year Florida coach Jon Sumrall, a former assistant at Ole Miss, added to the fray later Tuesday afternoon with a jab at Sarkisian on X: “Grateful to coach at a top 10 public university that also offers advanced basket weaving!”
“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours,” Sarkisian told USA Today. “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.”
Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter did not respond to a request for comment, but he did post to X on Tuesday: “Kind of amazing how uncomfortable our success is making some people.”
The flurry of jabs comes just weeks before the SEC’s annual spring meetings, which will be held May 26-28 at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa in Miramar Beach, Florida.
In a four-hour interview with Vanity Fair that was published Monday, Kiffin, who was the head coach at Ole Miss before taking the same job at LSU, said some top recruits would tell him they weren’t interested in coming to Oxford, Mississippi.
“[They would say], ‘Hey, Coach, we really like you, but my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'” Kiffin told the magazine. “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’s diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.'”
According to the article, Kiffin clarified his remark one day later: “I just hope [my comment] comes across respectful to Ole Miss. … There are some things that I’m saying that are factual; they’re not shots.”
Texas’ Steve Sarkisian speaks on creating a more versatile offense (5:31)Sarkisian discusses the new additions to the Longhorns’ roster and how they are helping the offense become more dynamic and well-rounded. (5:31)
Sarkisian discusses the new additions to the Longhorns’ roster and how they are helping the offense become more dynamic and well-rounded. (5:31)
Some SEC football coaches aren’t waiting for kickoff to get after each other.
Kiffin told On3 on Tuesday that his comments were not calculated.
Heather DinichMay 12, 2026, 02:38 PM ETMultiple Authors