When fresh criticism around Ole Miss started making noise, Archie Manning chose to respond with calm pride. Steve Sarkisian’s remark had put the school back in an uncomfortable spotlight, but for Archie, the matter was personal. So when he was asked about Ole Miss, his answer was clear and straight.

“I’m very proud of my school,” Archie Manning told On3 when they reached out for comment amid the fallout. “My school had to make changes years ago and did. I know so many people who send their kids to Ole Miss that have a great experience. It’s my school and always will be.”

The way he still calls Ole Miss “my school” is sweet. But Archie Manning is one of the foundational figures of the Rebels football program. He was their QB from 1968 to 1970 and remains one of the most iconic players in school history. His legendary 1969 performance against Alabama, with 436 passing yards, 104 rushing yards, and three touchdowns, stood as one of the SEC’s greatest individual games for decades. 

Ole Miss retired his No. 18 jersey, and he was inducted into multiple programs’ Hall of Fames. So yeah, Archie Manning is very loyal. He even showed up last December ahead of the Rebels’ first-ever CFP appearance and gave a lesson on accountability. But even as he was publicly defending his alma mater, the school was simultaneously catching heat, with one of the loudest ones coming from Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian.

In a USA Today interview with Matt Hayes, Steve Sarkisian unleashed on the NCAA, transfer rules, and the current state of college football. But during the conversation, he somehow dragged Ole Miss in.

“At Texas, we will only take 50 percent of a player’s academic credit hours,” he said. “You may be a semester from graduating, but you’re going all the way back to 50 percent 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.”

Needless to say, everybody targeted that statement. This wasn’t really about basket weaving; Ole Miss doesn’t even offer the course. But Steve Sarkisian was taking a direct shot at the school’s academic standards while arguing that programs operate under wildly uneven rules. Florida head coach Jon Sumrall even joined the fun by quote-tweeting the story with a sarcastic response. 

“Grateful to coach at a top 10 public university that also offers advanced basket weaving!” he tweeted. 

Still, Steve Sarkisian’s comments weren’t actually connected to Lane Kiffin’s controversial statement about Ole Miss. According to reports, the USA Today interview was conducted back in March, long before Kiffin’s Vanity Fair interview became a discussion point.

Lane Kiffin apologizes for controversial comment 

Lane Kiffin’s situation was more complicated. In a Vanity Fair piece published Monday, the former Ole Miss coach discussed recruiting challenges he has faced in Oxford. He admitted that some families, particularly grandparents of Black recruits, had concerns about Mississippi’s racial history.

“[They would say], ‘Hey, Coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'” he said in the interview. “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 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.'”

Now, objectively, Lane Kiffin was talking about a real recruiting challenge that coaches in the South have dealt with for years. But for a large chunk of the Ole Miss fanbase, it sounded like their old coach, who’s now at LSU, was publicly reinforcing negative stereotypes about the university. He later clarified to On3’s Wilson Alexander that he never intended to portray Ole Miss negatively.

“I really apologize if anybody at Ole Miss or in Mississippi was offended,” he said. “In a four-hour interview, I was asked a lot of questions on a lot of things, and Ole Miss has been wonderful to me and to my family.”

He explained that he was simply discussing recruiting narratives that have existed for years when battling for out-of-state prospects. But by then, the story had already gone viral. But amid all this drama, Archie Manning reminded everyone that his connection to Ole Miss hasn’t changed at all.