Let all the Bulldog faithful rally behind the men who now wear the red and black with two words, two simple words which express the sentiments of the entire Bulldog Nation: Auburn Sucks.
NEW: Steve Sarkisian on Ole Miss’ transfer portal practices and academic standards:
“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours. 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… pic.twitter.com/1fjQSpal0b
— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) May 12, 2026
Look, Sark has some reason to be bitter towards Ole Miss, particularly Pete Golding, his former counterpart during their times together with Saban’s Alabama.
According to Wickersham, as Manning’s recruitment came down to the wire, Pete Golding, then Alabama’s defensive coordinator (who now holds the same job at Ole Miss), invoked Sarkisian’s struggles with alcoholism in an attempt to sway him away from the Longhorns while on a call with Manning and his circle of trust. Wickersham explained the moment while speaking with Pablo Torre.
“Pete, who is friends with Sark, says on this call, ‘I love Sark, he’s my best friend.’ And then he’s like oh my god, do I go there? And he did. He goes, ‘I hope he can stay sober,’” Wickersham explained.
After the call, Manning’s high school coach Nelson Stewart called Golding directly, saying “Pete, that’s f—ed up!”
Don Saban, with two henchman at his side, circa 2019.
Unlike the former OC he took over for, Sark made his recovery and didn’t turn it into a narcissistic showcasing of his new namaste philosophies on life. Just went back to work and got right. Good for him.
Josh Pate serves up a softball to Sarkisian. I understand Pate wants access over being a real interviewer, but the follow-up questions that could come from this were many (yes, he has done that with Kirby as well).
"High school kids have agents. How do we still motivate these guys to understand the value of team?"
Listening to Sark talk about culture of team first while he parks Lamborghinis in front of the football facility for high school recruiting visits makes me laugh.
How many iterations of this are we going to see each and every year until the end of eternity as long as Texass has the deep pockets and heaviest bankroll in the SEC?
Respect? They enter the conference in 2024 and declare that they will run the conference, then losing to Georgia not once, but twice. In 2025, they couldn’t get out of their own way at times and Archduke oscillated between horrible and great, at times. Again, they visited Georgia, predicted to shock the world, just to get Kirb Stomped in Sanford and limp into the Cheez-Its bowl.
To their credit, at least they went an played the bowl game, and won it, beating a B1G team in the process.
But I believe it was off-season last year where some sports pundit asked the question: is Texas the new Alabama?
The answer is no. Alabama isn’t even Alabama. Funny how NIL can’t buy you everything, amirite?
The national talking heads are so desperate to be right about the Archduke. On another topic, Josh Pate haz a sad about where John Mateer is on the list.
If Manning’s stats from prior year were shown without his name compared to the others at the top of the list especially against opponents with a pulse, would he be anywhere close to the top?
A longtime defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator before becoming the head coach at Kentucky, Stoops and new Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp “have a lot of respect for each other,” the source said.
Stoops will be enjoying a 38 million dollar buyout while serving in the role. Question is – head coaches would go repair their careers by landing in Tuscaloosa under Nick Saban…but is Sarkisian and Texas really the place to go now? Based on results and records, I say no, but it’s probably a nice place to go and buy up all you need to win while collecting a healthy check in the process.
Also, fun fact:
The three current and former SEC head coaches on Texas’s staff are a combined 1-16 against Kirby Smart https://t.co/fdnm8kdeV7
Remember those days when they showed the Longhorns rolling out sports cars and huge wads of cash? And how Texas could just lock in those five stars by the buckets and they’d be GUARANTEED that the SEC run through Austin? Right? RIGHT?
With the Quintrevion Wisner news on Friday morning, here is the current list of Texas Longhorn departures pic.twitter.com/sosBzs7iBy
Welp. Doesn’t look like it’s working…two years in, zero titles, and three losses to Georgia in the process while they poach Georgia recruits with the big money and sports cars.
Seems to be working well. Keep it up, Sark…and, as always, horns down.
Oh, Benevolent Archduke! How grateful are the Longhorns for your kind generosity in parsing out portions of your coffers in order to bring Agent Muschamp to Austin!
Well, well. I guess time off for family wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, was it?
Former #Georgia DC Will Muschamp will become the new DC for Texas, the school announces. 😳
Muschamp was the co-defensive cordinator for the Dawgs in the 2022 and 2023 seasons and then stepped back into a defensive analyst role in 2024. pic.twitter.com/fe5DkPejNk
His Vanderbilt son, Whit, was listed as a sophomore, so maybe he’s portaling to Texas, too. Some food for thought, though, before we rush to judgment that this will be the secret sauce to get Texas past Georgia.
New defensive coordinator, same offensive play caller at Texas. Fascinating.
Reader suggestion for this came from cyndiandlarry, so I’ll give my best “what if” scenario for CFP chaos. A few parameters to consider:
The Committee said conference championship games would NOT hurt a CFP contender’s chances for being included in the playoffs.
CFP rankings seem to have considered head-to-head results, as my colleague at work seemed to point out that CFP rankings releases have put the winner of head-to-heads above the loser in prior rankings, even if they are side-by-side.
The CFP Committee seems to make things up as they go.
That said, let’s get into the hypotheticals:
Hypothetical #1 – All the favorites win.
Okay, this means that Ohio State (-4) wins, Georgia (-2.5) wins, Virginia (-4) wins, and Texas Tech (-12.5) wins. This would also need to include the conference champ from the AAC or the Sunbelt. Currently North Texas is a narrow favorite over Tulane and James Madison is a huge favorite over Troy.
If this is the case, you’re looking at this likely outcome:
Look, ma! No challenges on the schedule! I’m king of the world!
Sure, Indiana could be #2 or #3 since they see this as the latest one-loss team and losing to the glorious Bucknuts, but the top 4 would be this group of teams. Would they consider the strength of record (SOR) and strength of schedule (SOS)? Yeah, they should…doesn’t mean they will. Beauty contest, and all. That’s three conference champs in the top 3, but what about the rest?
#5 – Oregon, #6 – Ole Miss, #7 – Texas A&M, #8 – Oklahoma…then this is where it gets interesting. There’s no doubt the Committee and their B1G lean can’t stand the idea of FIVE SEC teams in the playoffs. Would they drop Alabama out, especially if it’s not a close win?
Hypothetical #1a – Alabama loses big.
If Alabama lays an egg, they drop out, pushing Notre Dame up to #9 or potentially sneaking Miami in at #10 at #9 and keeping Notre Dame at #10. Notre Dame draws viewers, and without Miami, the CFP Committee loses viewers from the Florida market (trust me, they’re probably thinking of this). I don’t see Texas sneaking in, especially since potentially both North Texas and Texas Tech would already be in, so there’s no need for the Texas viewership at that point.
Let’s face it, this is the only record the Committee cares about.
Hypothetical #1b – Alabama loses a tight one.
In this case, Alabama drops to 10 and Notre rises to 9. Sorry Miami, quit doing Cristobal things and this wouldn’t be an argument.
That leaves #11 at Virginia and #12 as North Texas. Even in James Madison slaughters Troy, they’re ranked lower than both Tulane and North Texas, so James Madison is likely out, unless Duke wins…say, that reminds me.
Hypothetical #2 – All the underdogs win
This is where it gets interesting. In this case, I see the top 4 being as follows:
#1 Indiana, #2 Ohio State, #3 Alabama, #4 BYU
Now that’s an ugly look. Alabama makes a giant leap up and is ahead of BYU based on SOR and SOS, and also because Alabama is currently ranked higher than BYU. So what about the rest?
Screw you, points spread!
#5 – Oregon, #6 – Georgia, #7 – Texas Tech, #8 – Ole Miss, #9 – TAMU, #10 – Oklahoma or Notre Dame, #11 – Tulane, #12 – James Madison
#12 is the wild card…James Madison has one loss, and is currently ranked ahead of Duke (who is currently not ranked in the CFP rankings). Would the Committee leapfrog Duke ahead of James Madison just so the ACC would have a representative. No doubt, they’d love to avoid a conference lawsuit from the ACC, but this scenario has Notre Dame dropping out, which would likely be a formidable litigator than the whole ACC combined.
Why James Madison and not Duke? The current structure calls for the five highest-ranked conference champs, not five being four PF and the highest G5. If Duke doesn’t leapfrog James Madison, the ACC is eliminated. The Irish, though, I could see being kept at #10 and pushing out Oklahoma, who also has two losses and are likely playing on borrowed, time, anyway. This would avoid the five-team imbalance of the SEC in the playoff, and give the de facto ACC rep (in every other sport, any way) as Notre Dame to try to keep up appearances.
Hypothetical #3 – Texas Tech Wins, North Texas Wins, Virginia Wins, Georgia loses, B1G is inconsequential.
Georgia, in this case, would finish no worse than sixth. They could finish at 5 (if it’s close), which would push all the contenders down a level. The #11 is Virginia’s and #12 is whichever G5 finishes highest in the final poll. That leaves the coveted #10 spot up for debate, which I covered in Hypothetical #2.
While the Committee is not viewing the change in head coaching at Ole Miss as an issue, it makes one wonder, if Ole Miss gets killed, what furor will arise over the exclusion of Miami, Notre Dame, or even BYU should BYU lose a narrow game against the final #2 team in the polls.
Hypothetical #4 – Miami and Vanderbilt play a secret game in Hawaii this weekend.
Who cares, they’re both likely out, anyway.
I don’t like the post-season, anyway. Worth every penny.
So what’s likely to happen?
Most likely outcomes:
The B1G maintains two teams in the top 4.
The SEC has no fewer than four teams in the CFP, with locks for Georgia, Ole Miss, TAMU, and Oklahoma. Alabama really, really needs to win, or lose a tight one.
Miami, Texas, and Vanderbilt outside looking in.
Notre Dame is praying for all the favorites to win, really needs BYU and Alabama to lose, but the Irish are likely in.
The ACC needs to cancel the officiating live look-ins, and do everything they can to help Virginia win, it’s their likely only hope.
TAMU, Ole Miss, or Oklahoma will fuel the fire that the SEC is overrated and didn’t deserve to be there.
JP’s Predicted Final CFP:
First Round Byes:
1 – Ohio State, 2 – Texas Tech, 3 – Indiana, 4 – Alabama (sorry, I’m not jinxing us by predicting a win)
