The head coach of the Texas Longhorns, who earned $10.8 million last season, is far from pleased with the tactics many programs are now using in the transfer portal era. He did not hold back while addressing the current state of college football, describing it as a “wild-west culture” where winning outweighs everything else.

According to him, several programs have pushed education and player development aside to focus purely on assembling rosters by any means necessary to gain a competitive edge. The HC took a not-so-subtle jab at Ole Miss’ selection committee after the whole Luke Ferrelli controversy.

“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours,” Steve Sarkisian said. “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.”

If you want the reason behind such a strong comment, it traces back to new Ole Miss HC Pete Golding, whom Sarkisian believes ignored the sanctity of college football when he swooped in late to secure the linebacker transfer from the Clemson Tigers. The alleged transfer tampering involving the Ole Miss Rebels only adds fuel to his frustration.

The head coach of the Clemson Tigers secured a commitment from linebacker Luke Ferrelli through the transfer portal on January 11. Ferrelli even expressed his excitement about beginning a new chapter with Clemson on Instagram. Confident in the addition, Dabo Swinney fully backed his decision and shut down visits from other linebacker prospects, believing Ferrelli was locked in with the program.

However, the situation took a dramatic turn on January 16, the ultimate day of the transfer portal window, when Ferrelli unexpectedly re-entered the portal. The sudden move left Clemson stunned, with virtually no time remaining to find a replacement or prepare for such a late roster shake-up. This has resulted in strong wordplay from Swinney, shaming the Ole Miss HC for the cheap tactics.

“Sorrells met with Luke face-to-face in his office, and Luke communicated to Jordan and Ben Boulware that Pete texted him on Wednesday morning — the head coach at Ole Miss — when he was in his 8 a.m. class,” Swinney said. “And he said the text message said, ‘I know you’re signed. What’s the buyout?’ And Luke said that Coach Golding also texted him a picture of a $1 million contract.”

It was about time someone took a stand on this. Many have shed tears over this, but the NCAA seems to have chosen silence rather than resolving the issue.

Ole Miss also suffered a blow from its ex-head coach

While Sarkisian was an outside voice, Lane Kiffin, who helped the Rebels reach the CFP, also noted his criticism. Kiffin signed a $91M with LSU, which landed him straight under the line of fire. Everyone thought it was just because of the money, but the real reason appears to be racial diversity in Louisiana. During recruitment at Ole Miss, Kiffin saw students and families opting out because they feared segregation.

“Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’s diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation.’ And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world. I just hope [my comment] comes across respectful to Ole Miss… There are some things that I’m saying that are factual, they’re not shots,” added Kiffin.

Sark is not alone in his disappointment. Comments made by Kiffin have brought significant attention to the shortcomings of the

Ole Miss Rebels football program, highlighting the challenges it must solve to compete more effectively in the transfer portal era.