ESPN slammed for chaotic coverage of marquee college football game as reporter is forced to apologize live on air… before Texas coach’s ‘classless’ response on field

ESPN reporter Laura Rutledge was forced to apologize to Steve Sarkisian before the Texas head coach was slammed for his ‘classless’ behavior to her colleague, Holly Rowe, after beating Ohio State. The Longhorns scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter as Arch Manning orchestrated a 24-23 win over the No.1 ranked Buckeyes in Austin.The win sparked wild scenes inside Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium with Sarkisian briefly pulled away from the celebrations by ESPN’s on-field reporter, Rowe.But as Rowe tried to speak to the head coach, he simply shouted over her question: ‘Texas fight. That’s called Texas fight. Hook ‘Em!’.He threw up a Longhorns sign to the camera with his left hand as he stormed away from Rowe and joined his team celebrating, refusing to give any insight into the game or answer any of her questions.Veteran reporter Rowe was left visibly annoyed and frustrated as Sarkisian walked away, and fans online were unimpressed with his behavior towards one of the most well-respected reporters in the industry.  Steve Sarkisian threw up a ‘Hook ‘Em’ as Holly Rowe tried to ask him about the Texas win Sarkisian stormed off from the ESPN interview without answering any questions from RoweSarkisian was slammed online as ‘classless’ for his response, with one fan pointing out his quarterback, Arch Manning, was happy to do a post-game interview.’Manning took the time to talk. But Shark couldn’t? Classless.’ Another added: ‘I like Steve Sarkisian. But yeah, I can’t defend that behavior.’The incident came after an awkward halftime situation occurred between Sarkisian and the ESPN broadcast, raising questions over the network’s nationally televised coverage of one of the marquee Week 2 matchup. Rowe’s fellow sideline reporter, Rutledge, was waiting to speak to Sarkisian at the interval with his team losing 20-3. But the camera panned to her as Sarkisian was running down the tunnel into the locker room. ‘Alright, we actually just lost Sark because he had to go,’ Rutledge explained. ‘I’m sorry about that, you guys. He waited for a long time. Credit to him for waiting. We’ll try to get him on the way out of the half.’Rutledge was unable to speak to Sarkisian as he made his way back out for the second half, but later assured that he had ‘been very patient’ and ‘apologized’ despite the fact she said ESPN owed him the apology.She explained: ‘I do want to make sure we clear something up. [Steve Sarkisian] did decline the interview at the half. ‘He had waited a long time, been very patient with some technical issues that we had. He apologized to us. We should be apologizing to him, which we did.’Join the discussionIs it ever acceptable for coaches to snub post-game interviews after a dramatic victory?What’s your view? Sarkisian celebrated a memorable win after a dramatic fourth quarter comeback in Austin Sarkisian’s Longhorns scored 21 unanswered points to beat Ohio State in a massive victoryMany fans slammed ESPN for the situation and suggested it contributed to Sarkisian’s short interaction with Rowe after the game.  One fan wrote: ‘Maybe ESPN shouldn’t have made him stand around at half time waiting to come to him before kissing Ryan Days ass. Tell the whole story. Sorry Holly took the brunt of it but after that win and the snub at half time he wanted to be with his team not ESPN.’Another theorized: ‘I think there was some bad blood because they were supposed to interview him at the end of the first half and they blew him off. I think he was still a little sore about it. Evidently he waited before going into the locker room before the first half and then never spoke to him.’ Rutledge spoke to Manning while Rowe was getting snubbed by Sarkisian, with the Texas quarterback explaining how he was fueled by last year’s loss to the same opponent.’We couldn’t lose to them again,’ Manning said. ‘I had nightmares about that game last year. It wasn’t pretty but we found a way to win.’ When Sarkisian finally talked in depth about the game in his post-game press conference, he offered a powerful statement on his team’s mindset.He said: ‘We talk a lot about this in here as a team: you know, life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it, and we just hammered that on everybody.’Focus on the 90%. Leave the 10% at the first half. Let’s focus on the 90%. What are we going to do about it in the second half?’.