Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday that he would have handled the postgame moment with ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe differently after the Longhorns’ comeback win over then-No. 1 Ohio State.
The issue stemmed from a delay before Sarkisian’s planned interview with Rowe. Instead of waiting on the broadcast, he chose to head off and celebrate with his team after Texas erased a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
“As as it pertains to after the ball game, again there was a delay after I greeted Coach Day in the middle of the field. There was a delay in the moment, you know, through that delay, I wanted to go celebrate with our team. We just had a 21-point fourth-quarter comeback against the No. 1 team in the country,” he said.
Sarkisian also made clear that his decision was not meant as a slight toward Rowe, who lost her mother two weeks ago.
“If hindsight’s 20/20, if I could do it all over again, I would have exuded more patience in that moment and and and sat through and waited for the interview with Holly,” Sarkisian noted.
“Obviously, we have a ton of respect for ESPN and Holly. Holly and I go way back to even to my days of playing at BYU, and we’ve got a great relationship. ESPN is a great partner of ours.”
The awkward episode came after both Sarkisian and quarterback Arch Manning had been forced into apology mode. Manning apologized for laughing at an AI-generated video that showed Sarkisian slapping Rowe.
Texas is back on the field this weekend against UTSA.
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