‘All you have to do is take basket weaving' – Texas' Steve Sarkisian pulls no punches with harsh criticism of Ole Miss

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The Longhorns’ head coach held absolutely nothing back when discussing the state of affairs in college football, sending one sharp dagger flying towards a fellow SEC school.

One of the SEC’s marquee matchups for the 2026 season just got some added bulletin board material thanks to one of the head coaches involved.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian isn’t one to completely unload on a program publicly, but he did just that on Tuesday in an interview with USA Today writer Matt Hayes. And he directed part of his scorn squarely at the Ole Miss Rebels, who the Longhorns face next season.

In a long and multifaceted interview with Hayes, Sarkisian talked about a number of topics surrounding college football, including a lack of guardrails and NCAA enforcement of the rules.

But it was the manner in which Ole Miss has allegedly taken in transfer portal players and managed their academic credits that drew the strongest and most direct verbal rebuke from Sarkisian.

Steve Sarkisian calls out Ole Miss for transfer portal, says you just have to take ‘basket weaving’ to get a degree

“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player's academic credit hours,” Hayes quotes Sarkisian as saying. “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.

"It's like we've forgotten about academics, yet less than 5% of these guys will play in the NFL.” 

Additionally, while he didn’t make reference to a quote by Sarkisian on the topic, Hayes did say that Sarkisian was ‘reminded’ of a situation involving Ole Miss and Clemson surrounding linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who transferred to Clemson from Cal. Ferrelli ultimately re-entered the portal and went to Ole Miss just days after arriving at Clemson.

“It is here where Sarkisian is reminded of the swift move allegedly pulled off earlier this spring by the Ole Miss staff,” Hayes wrote. “Clemson coach Dabo Swinney claims Ole Miss coaches were recruiting Tigers linebacker Luke Ferrelli while he was in class – and after he had just transferred from Cal. Sent Ferrelli a photo of a million dollar check, and Swinney has the receipts to prove it.

“And NCAA enforcement has done nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Sarkisian is not off base on his feelings about academics mattering. Perhaps the thing that has been the most lost in the fray in the new NIL/transfer portal world is the reminder that the players are indeed at institutions of higher learning. It is still important for players to earn a degree. And for many college athletes, that will still be their tickets to earning a living one day.

But how Ole Miss chooses to process and handle the academic credits of their players is, frankly, their own business.

One thing is for certain: things should be very spicy when the Rebels come to Austin in late October.

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