The halftime and postgame interviews that were supposed to take place during and after Texas's Week 2 game against Ohio State were anything but normal, with ESPN experiencing technical difficulties that forced Longhorns' head coach Steve Sarkisian to make a tough decision, at least once.
Sarkisian opted to decline the halftime interview after waiting for a few minutes with ESPN's Laura Rutledge, seen dashing to the locker room to iron out what he had to lead the Horns to their 20-point comeback.
Then, after Texas had secured the miraculous victory, Sarkisian also declined his postgame interview with ESPN's Holly Rowe, after the network reportedly faced similar technical difficulties, and he was seen running to celebrate with his team.
Since then, Sarkisian has been under fire for disrespecting the two ESPN sideline reporters, which was only compounded by a poorly worded reaction from Texas quarterback Arch Manning.
Manning apologized for his actions earlier this week, and on Thursday, Sarkisian officially commented on the entire matter, explaining the situation from his point of view and expressing that he would have done it differently if given a second chance.
"I want to address is a couple of my in-game interviews last Saturday night at Ohio State ball game. The first at halftime; I was scheduled to have an interview with Laura Rutledge. ESPN was having technical difficulties, and I had to make a had to make a in in-moment decision to say, wait on the interview or try to get with our team and try to make the proper adjustments to come out and play as good as we could in the second half.
"I let Laura know that, and I think she said that on air. And then I had an opportunity to visit with Laura when we came back out of the locker room to let her know where our thoughts were as a team and what we needed to do in the second half of that game.
"As it pertains to after the ball game, again there was a delay after I greeted Coach Day in the middle of the field. There was a delay in the moment; you know, through that delay, I wanted to go celebrate with our team. We just had a 21-point fourth-quarter comeback against the No. 1 team in the country.
"If hindsight's 20/20, if I could do it all over again, I would have exuded more patience in that moment and sat through and waited for the interview with Holly. Obviously, we have a ton of respect for ESPN and Holly. Holly and I go way back to even to my days of playing at BYU, and we've got a great relationship. ESPN is a great partner of ours.
"We know we're going to have more opportunities with that crew covering us, and we're looking forward to those opportunities. So, could have definitely handled that situation better with a little bit more patience in the moment. But that obviously led to the situation with Arch [Manning] and his press conference as it pertained to the AI video, and obviously Arch recognizes he made a mistake, and it's an unfortunate one.
"Nowhere do we condone domestic violence or violence against women. Nothing in our program says that, nor [does] Arch individually.
"I think if he could take it back, he would. But he has since apologized to Holly. He's made a public apology, and you know our goal is that we can move forward and him be the guy that we all know that he is and what he represents. So those are the two house-cleaning things I wanted to make sure I addressed with all of you on this call, and then get into the football side of things," Sarkisian said.
Steve Sarkisian, Arch Manning continue to smooth out Holly Rowe debacle
When Manning apologized earlier in the week, taking to Instagram to make a public apology as well as apologizing directly to Rowe herself, the ESPN reporter responded with an Instagram story of her own, accepting the quarterback's apology.
In what looks to be a joint effort to continue to negate any accusations that the University of Texas and the Longhorns don't respect women or think that violence against women is a laughing matter, Sarkisian's statement seemed to be an effort to join his quarterback in apologizing.
As the No. 1 team in the country and a member of the SEC, the Horns will undeniably appear on ESPN throughout the rest of the season, and sideline reporters like Rutledge and Rowe will continue to be featured on those broadcasts.
Now, only time will tell if Manning, Sarkisian, and the rest of the program can handle these situations better moving forward.
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