Texas trailed No. 1 Ohio State 23–3 entering the fourth quarter Saturday night.
Twenty points.
Then Texas scored 21 unanswered, went 91 yards, 72 yards and 73 yards on three straight touchdown drives, punched in the winner with 25 seconds left and beat Ohio State 24–23.
Largest fourth-quarter comeback ever against an AP No. 1 team. There’s the football story.
By midnight we were discussing Steve Sarkisian’s manners. Or the lack of.
All because ESPN and Holly were involved.
I do not like these fuckers.
This is not new. LWS has been bitching about ESPN, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and assorted Bristol jerks since back when people still had to sit down at a computer to be angry on the internet.
TL/DR: fuck Herbie, Fowler and Holly.
So no, I’m not pretending to be neutral about what happened with Sark and Holly Rowe.
FIRST, ESPN SCREWED UP THE HALFTIME INTERVIEW
This should have ended the whole argument before it started.
Texas went to halftime down 20–3. ESPN wanted Sark. Sark waited. ESPN had technical problems. Sark kept waiting.
Eventually, the head coach of a team getting its ass kicked by Ohio State went to coach his football team.
Laura Rutledge later explained it. Sark had waited through ESPN’s problem, finally had to leave, and had even apologized.
Rutledge had it right: ESPN should have been apologizing to him.
Somehow ESPN screwing up its own interview became evidence that Sark was the asshole.
THEN SARK DID HIS ACTUAL JOB
Texas entered the fourth down 23–3.
Then Ohio State started backing toward the cliff.
Touchdown.
Touchdown.
Touchdown.
Texas wins 24–23. Austin loses its fucking mind.
Sark is trying to get to his players and the school song after the biggest regular-season win of his Texas tenure.
Here comes Holly Rowe.
Sark gives ESPN about one human breath, throws the Hook ’em sign and heads toward his team.
And here is the alternate angle, because apparently the Warren Commission has reconvened for sideline interviews.
Holly did not appear delighted.
The internet immediately opened court.
Sark = classless. Disrespectful. Jerk. Dick move.
One Tennessee board thread treated the incident as though Sark had shoved a fat nun into traffic.
I’m with Sark.
ESPN BOUGHT THE GAME. IT DIDN’T BUY CUSTODY OF THE COACH.
Holly Rowe has a job. She is good at it. ESPN wanted the postgame interview.
Fine.
Sark had a job too. His involved digging out of a 20-point fourth-quarter hole against the No. 1 team in America.
ESPN had already burned some of his halftime because its equipment wasn’t working. After the game, Texas was trying to get to “The Eyes of Texas.” At some point the coach gets to go be the coach.
The network bought television rights.
It did not purchase visitation rights to Steve Sarkisian’s pulse.
AND THEN THERE WERE HERBSTREIT AND FOWLER
Another Tennessee thread spent the game on Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler.
“It’s like listening to a non stop wrestling promo from a heel that never gets over.”
lbleeding
Perfect.
“They don’t give a second for a viewer to have a single thought of their own. It’s like a turkey box call and the hen gets tired of listening.”
lbleeding
I cannot improve that.
TN24 had the solution I have wanted for years: give me the game feed, crowd noise and the stadium announcer. Let everybody else take the night off.
I would pay extra. In fact, I have paid extra not to listen to those shits telling me what to think.
The thread thought Fowler and Herbstreit sounded a hell of a lot happier while Ohio State controlled the game, threw in the occasional SEC needle, then got noticeably less festive when Texas started crawling back into it.
Herbstreit is a former Ohio State QB in case anyone forgot. He should not be allowed to call the game.
Maybe you hear it differently. Fine. I have listened to enough Fowler-Herbstreit premium-game theater that I would happily pay $4.99 for crowd noise and a distant tuba.
WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE
This is not a new LWS or Tennessee grievances. In 2007 we were already writing about the Tennessee-Chris Fowler blood feud.
Then came Schiano Sunday, when Fowler and assorted national media figures decided Tennessee fans needed instruction on how to feel about their own football program.
And a couple of weeks ago we had Kirk Herbstreit bringing Peter into the Tennessee message-board ecosystem.
Same network. Same microphones. Same urge to explain everybody else to themselves.
HOLLY HAS BEEN IN THE TENNESSEE BUSINESS BEFORE, TOO
This is why I laughed at the Tennessee thread suddenly treating Holly Rowe like an apolitical visiting dignitary.
Another thread immediately dug up her recent dustup with Tennessee athletic director Danny White. Holly later explained why she deleted the post and said she still stood by what she had said.
Good. She gets opinions. Danny White gets opinions.
Sark gets to go sing the Eyes of Texas with his football team.
AND ARCH MANNING STILL TALKED TO ESPN
This is my favorite part.
The network did not collapse. No federal disaster declaration was issued. Arch Manning spoke to ESPN after the game.
Content was produced. Questions were answered. Disney remained solvent.
Then Skip Bayless wandered into the manners police and informed everyone that Sark had not been classy.
When Skip Bayless shows up to restore civility, we can probably adjourn.
Texas had just come back from 23–3 against No. 1 Ohio State.
For five damn minutes, let the man enjoy the football game.
ESPN will survive without owning the first complete sentence out of everybody’s mouth.
And if Herbstreit and Fowler need something to talk about while they wait, I know a Tennessee message board with several suggestions.
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