Texas Longhorns edge Colton Vasek (92) sacks Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Blake Shapen (2) on Oct. 25, 2025, at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.
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Texas Longhorns running back Quintrevion Wisner (5) runs the ball against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Oct. 25, 2025, at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.
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Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) passes the ball against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Oct. 25, 2025, at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.
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Texas Longhorns kicker Mason Shipley (49) kicks a 26-yard field goal against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Oct. 25, 2025, at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.
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STARKVILLE, Miss. — If Steve Sarkisian leaves for an NFL job this offseason, then his postgame interview Oct. 25, 2025 on a rainy evening in the Deep South might get him a write-in vote for Best Actor.
Sarkisian isn’t leaving Texas football anytime soon — provided you take his heated response to a story suggesting otherwise at face value.
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In the minutes after his Longhorns crawled out of the grave to turn back Mississippi State in a 45-38 overtime thriller that kept their postseason hopes alive, Sarkisian railed at a report that made national news earlier Saturday.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian coaches from the sidelines against Mississippi State during the first half Oct. 25, 2025 in Starkville, Miss.
James Pugh/Associated Press
MORE CEDDY: How the Horns pulled it out in Starkville
The Athletic published a story that Sarkisian would be open to leaving Texas to take a job in the NFL and mentioned the Tennessee Titans, who fired head coach Brian Callahan after a 1-5 start, as a possible landing spot. The report garnered enough online juice that Sark’s agents Jimmy Sexton and Ed Marynowitz released a statement calling the report “patently false” and “wildly inaccurate.”
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“I’d love to touch on this, so bear with me for a second because it really pisses me off that one person can make a report, then, in turn, the entire media sports world runs with (it) as factual to the point of my agency and my agents have to put a statement out that they never have done historically,” Sarkisian said. “(Sexton and Marynowitz) have never done that, but I had to do that to protect my locker room and my team.”
Well, these reports happen all the time and those of us in the mainstream media are going to take a veteran reporter such as Dianna Russini seriously, given her years reporting on that league.
MORE HORNS: Three questions facing Longhorns after OT win
For what it’s worth, a UT spokesman said he had not received any inquiries from The Athletic asking for comment from Sarkisian. Had it been me, I would have placed a call to Texas or Sarkisian’s reps to balance things out.
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Sarkisian wasn’t finished addressing the subject.
“I respect what you guys do, I really do — and everybody else — but the fact that everybody ran that as truth is really embarrassing,” he said. “I’ve got a small circle when I make decisions on what I do and what I don’t do, and nobody would speak on my behalf without me knowing, and so where that report came from, I’d love to talk to that person, because it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
For the record, it’s not for us to believe one side over the other. We let our readers and viewers decide for themselves.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning carries the ball during the first half against Mississippi State on Oct. 25, 2025 at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.
Justin Ford/Getty Images
Horns kept their postseason hopes alive
Not lost in the uproar surrounding Sark’s coaching future was the program’s largest comeback win since the 2007 team rallied from 35-14 down at Oklahoma State to win 38-35. The current crew made a bit of their own history by erasing a 31-14 second-half deficit to win rare consecutive overtime games albeit against Kentucky and Mississippi State, who entered the weekend a combined 1-21 in league play dating back to last season.
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The Horns are still breathing though the November road to the College Football Playoff will be rough with games remaining against three ranked teams — Vanderbilt, Georgia and the surging Texas A&M Aggies — with a dose of traditional rival Arkansas mixed in.
MORE HORNS: Texas fans ride social media roller coaster
They’re still alive because players like Ryan Niblett, whose late 79-yard punt return helped force overtime, and quarterback Arch Manning, who turned in the first signature true road performance of his career with 346 passing yards and four total touchdowns while wideout Ryan Wingo hauled in five catches for 184 yards. Fellow receivers Emmett Mosley V and Parker Livingstone had two touchdowns each; Mosley’s second one a toe-tapper in overtime that ended up winning the game.
Texas wide receiver Ryan Niblett (21) runs a punt return for a touchdown against Mississippi State during the second half Oct. 25, 2025 in Starkville, Miss.
James Pugh/Associated Press
Niblett saved the season Saturday and backup quarterback Matthew Caldwell added to his growing cult after throwing the deciding pass to Mosley in OT after Manning left the game. Texas’ defense, playing without injured captain Michael Taaffe, had an uncharacteristically leaky day but held the Bulldogs scoreless on their final four possessions with the program’s livelihood on the line.
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The word “culture” gets thrown around and the Texas contingent couldn’t stop saying that word after the game. They earned the right to say it because the Horns found it from somewhere.
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“Football is such an unpredictable sport,” defensive tackle Hero Kanu said. “You never know what’s going to happen. It’s going to be positive. You’ve got to keep playing. We had the offense’s back and obviously the special teams’ back. The special teams had our back. So it really was a team win. It was amazing.”
Horns look ahead to November
It doesn’t matter how they got here, but these homesick Horns just moved to 3-1 in the league and are tied for third place in the conference loss column with Ole Miss and Georgia, though the Rebels have one more win. Vanderbilt presents a stiff challenge in what will be Texas’ first home game in 42 days. The Commodores scored just 17 points in Saturday’s win over Missouri, but their fiery quarterback Diego Pavia will roll into the 512 full of confidence.
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If the Horns can beat Vandy for a second straight year, they’re firmly in play in a conference that’s still up for grabs.
Texas has responded to the Florida no-show with three straight wins to close out October. If they take out Vandy, this enigmatic team could be going places.
Even if their coach says he isn’t.
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