‘ESPN Is Rotten to Its Core,’ ‘Not Cool’ — CFB Fans Blast Network As Viral Video Sheds New Light on Steve Sarkisian Controversy

‘ESPN Is Rotten to Its Core,’ ‘Not Cool’ — CFB Fans Blast Network As Viral Video Sheds New Light on Steve Sarkisian Controversy

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‘ESPN Is Rotten to Its Core,’ ‘Not Cool’ — CFB Fans Blast Network As Viral Video Sheds New Light on Steve Sarkisian Controversy
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian watches from the sideline during the NCAA football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas on Sept. 12, 2026.
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian watches from the sideline during the NCAA football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas on Sept. 12, 2026.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian’s thrilling Week 2 comeback win against Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes was overshadowed by off-field controversies. The Longhorns coach skipped both the customary halftime ESPN interview with Laura Rutledge because of technical difficulties and the full-time powwow with Holly Rowe to celebrate with his team.

Sarkisian later gave his side of the story, leading to a strong reaction from college football fans.

Fans Slam ESPN After Steve Sarkisian Interview Controversy

At halftime, Laura Rutledge noted that ESPN faced some technical difficulties. Fresh footage of the incident revealed that the Texas head coach waited for a few seconds for the issue to get resolved before saying something to Rutledge and heading off to the locker room.
Sarkisian later addressed the issue, telling reporters, “I was scheduled to have an interview with Laura Rutledge. ESPN was having technical difficulties, and I had to make an in-moment decision to stay, wait on the interview, or try to get with our team and try to make the proper adjustments to come out and play as good as we could in the second half.”

The Longhorns coach then added, “Could have definitely handled that situation better with a little bit more patience in the moment.”

In light of that revelation, one fan complimented Sarkisian for his patience during the failed halftime interview.

“I mean, biggest game of the year by far and he’s just patiently waiting, as the clock is ticking and your team is down by multiple touchdowns, I’m shocked he waited as long as he did,” the fan commended.

Another fan blasted ESPN for not adapting to the circumstances.

“Is ESPN incapable of recording an interview in their truck? Not that hard. “Moments ago Laura talked with Sark”.. making coaches wait for what are gonna be extremely vanilla questions is idiotic,” the fan remarked.

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One person sympathized with the coach whose team was trailing 20-3 at the time.

“That’s not cool, especially when we’re down 20-3,” the fan posted.

Another fan slammed the network for its flagging professionalism. “ESPN is rotten to the core. It should be out of business,” the fan concluded.

One fan asked for the abolition of the coaches’ interviews during games.

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“Make these pointless interviews stop! Enough already!” The fan exclaimed.

Another fan was incensed that coaches were forced to do the halftime interviews instead of coaching their teams.

“Down at the half and gotta waste time on that (expletive) instead of going to coach his team up to come back. Stupid,” the fan fumed.

Sarkisian blowing off Rowe at full time led quarterback Arch Manning to make some controversial remarks about the incident, which sparked widespread backlash among fans and analysts. The matter was settled after the quarterback apologized and Rowe publicly accepted the apology.

This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.

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