Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian has made his thoughts clear on a couple of significant issues affecting college football in December. Sarkisian is dealing with the recruiting issues on top of getting the No. 5 Longhorns prepared to play the No. 12 Clemson Tigers on Saturday at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium.
The Longhorns have been the subject of speculation about the transfer portal and quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning. Ewers has not publicly announced he’s going to enter the 2025 draft, leading some to believe he could return to college next year to improve his draft stock.
With Manning ready to start in 2025, it’s unlikely Manning and Ewers will be in Austin next season. However, beat reporters believe Ewers is headed for the draft, and Manning is staying with Texas. Sarkisian spoke out about the transfer portal overlapping with the College Football Playoff.
Texas Football coach talks about QB decision
Per video posted on X by Cory Mose of KVUE, Sarkisian took issue with the NCAA granting Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia an extra year of eligibility. Pavia played at JUCO before transferring to the FBS, and he argued that his years playing JUCO shouldn’t take away from his eligibility at the FBS level, where he can make NIL money.
“I totally disagree with the…determination on this,” Sarkisian said. “We chose to go to Junior College football. That’s where we wanted to start and play our careers. So, I don’t understand it at all. We’re going to have guys 28-29 years old playing college football. What’s the point? I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I totally disagree with it.”
When asked by @Joshua_Newman about the decision to allow Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia an additional year, Steve Sarkisian was pretty straight forward:
"I totally disagree…we're going to have guys 28-29 years old playing college football"#HookEm | #Texas pic.twitter.com/9yTFXZXkCd
— Cory Mose (@Cory_Mose) December 19, 2024
Fans had mixed reactions to Sarkisian’s comments on social media.
Fans react to Steve Sarkisian’s comments
“I mean he’s not wrong. It’s getting outta hand fast,” wrote a fan.
“Lazy take by Sark,” argued a fan. “We already allow players to go to these sports academies for a year without penalty. Why not alllow an athlete to use their “redshirt” year in Juco. Frankly, if NCAA did its job and was proactive these issues could be easily figured out.”
“It’s no longer going to be any semblance of what we love, this will be the death knell of college football . It will officially be the death of the game we love,” suggested another.
“Oh this is rich coming from a Mormon who played at BYU where they routinely have players much older than everybody else on their team because they go on their missions, etc,” posted one commenter.
“I thought college players had to wait 3 years before going to the NFL because their bodies weren’t mature enough. So now it’s fine if some 27 or 28 years are playing with 18 yera olds,” asked a fan.
“You should stop paying players then. Make them graduate under the scholarship that was presented to them. The others will flunk out problems solved,” suggested another.
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