The Texas Longhorns’ dramatic 24-23 comeback over the Ohio State Buckeyes should have dominated the conversation after Saturday night in Austin.
Instead, the aftermath of a brief sideline encounter between head coach Steve Sarkisian and ESPN reporter Holly Rowe has overshadowed the Longhorns’ rally, pulling quarterback Arch Manning into a controversy that Yahoo Sports columnist Dan Wolken says begins with the coach himself.
Shortly after the final whistle, Rowe approached Sarkisian for the network’s standard postgame interview. Sarkisian did not stay. He shouted “Texas Fight, Hook ’em!” and walked off before the conversation could start, leaving Rowe visibly frustrated on camera.
Wolken argued the entire episode that followed would never have happened if the coach had handled that moment differently.
“Because we would not be here if Sarkisian simply acted like a normal human being Saturday night,” Wolken wrote. “There was no reason for Sarkisian to bigfoot Rowe in the postgame scramble.”
Wolken described Sarkisian’s conduct as “disrespectful and immature,” saying the tone filtered into the program and the fan base.
That atmosphere became visible when an AI-altered clip of the exchange began circulating. The fake video took the real ending of Sarkisian’s interaction with Rowe and depicted the coach slapping her before running away.
Manning was asked Monday about social-media edits celebrating the win. He brought up the clip unprompted, calling it “hilarious.” The comment drew immediate criticism.
A day later he posted an apology on Instagram, calling the remark insensitive, stating there was nothing funny about it, and saying he needed to do better. Rowe later accepted the apology after the two spoke privately.
Wolken granted Manning some grace. The 22-year-old is still learning how to navigate life as one of college football’s most visible players, and the written apology showed awareness. But the columnist refused to treat the matter as closed.
“But where’s Sarkisian’s apology?” Wolken wrote.
He framed the episode as more than a quarterback’s lapse in judgment, calling the conditions that produced it an “organizational problem” and noting that teams often reflect the personality of their head coach.
Sarkisian had already missed a scheduled halftime interview with ESPN’s Laura Rutledge because of technical issues, a delay Wolken found understandable.
The later snub of Rowe, in Wolken’s view, was not. The result is a story that began as a signature win and has instead become a debate about leadership, media relations, and the example set at the top of the Texas program.
