Steve Sarkisian is worries that his headset’s communications will be cutoff during his clash with Tennessee due to the presence of the President. In his urgency to point out this fact, the Longhorns head coach accidentally created a controversy around last year’s Indiana national championship win, especially that last Miami drive with Carson Beck.
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“A good friend of mine is Mario Cristobal. Last year, when they were playing Indiana in the national championship, they had that drive at the end of the game; they had no communications because he was leaving early before the game ended,” Steve Sarkisian said on the Longhorn Network on September 24. There is only one problem. Sark may be wrong about when the communications actually went out.
Those words made it sound like Miami ran its last drive without headsets. Sarkisian said he learned that from Cristobal, a friend from their Alabama coaching days, and not from being on the Miami sideline. The Longhorns HC has seen versions of that before, including when he was Alabama’s offensive coordinator, and Trump attended the Alabama-LSU game. He did not say the outage cost Miami the title, but social media still ran with the last-drive version.
That version did not match what the Indiana coach remembered from the field. Cignetti heard the clip after practice on Thursday and addressed it that night. “When President Trump left the game around the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter, there were two or three plays; we were on defense, and we couldn’t hear at all. And the second play was when they gave the ball to Toney, pitched it to him on the fly sweep, for the touchdown with six thirty-seven to go,” Cignetti said on his weekly IU radio show on September 24.
“These are just facts; they’re facts. And the communication device came back right after the touchdown, and we had no problem, either side; we had no problem the rest of the game,” he added.
He also spoke with ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “We couldn’t hear (on the TD), then it came back,” Cignetti told ESPN, describing the stretch that included Miami’s touchdown. That places the blackout on the Malachi Toney scoring drive, not Miami’s final possession.
Cignetti’s clarification matters because Miami’s last drive ended with Carson Beck’s interception. Claiming comms were down on that possession leads to a different scenario than saying they were down a few minutes earlier.
The championship game was played on January 19, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium. No. 1 Indiana beat No. 10 Miami 27-21. Late in the fourth, Miami was trailing, and the comms issue hit around the 7-minute mark, according to Cignetti.
Toney scored on a 22-yard play at 6:37 to make it 24-21. Cignetti said communication returned before the kickoff, and Indiana later kicked a field goal for 27-21. Miami’s last chance ended when Jamari Sharpe intercepted Beck with 44 seconds left.
When the president enters, changes location, or leaves, headsets and helmet comms can go quiet for a short time. Coaches get no prior warning, and the play clock does not stop. This is the reason why the staff keep hand signals and boards ready.
Multiple Miami sources confirmed a brief fourth-quarter drop of a couple of plays. Two of those sources told CBS Sports it was not the final drive.
They also said it did not decide the outcome. NBC’s Nicole Auerbach reported a source with knowledge that matched Cignetti’s window. The White House Rapid Response account later said Trump’s departure “did not cause headset or comms issues for the teams,” citing Axios reporter Marc Caputo’s timeline.
After the January loss, Cristobal was asked about Beck’s final throw. He said the ball was going to the right place and needed to be farther outside. He did not mention headsets or Trump on that play.
Coaches agree on something cut out in the fourth quarter, but not on which drive. Saturday’s game in Knoxville is why the old clip is moving again.
Trump is scheduled to attend No. 1 Texas at Tennessee on September 26 at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee opened gates early and added extra screening because of the visit. Sarkisian is preparing Texas for another short stretch with no comms, and that is how the Miami example came up.