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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michelle R. Martinelli

Steve Sarkisian ripped SEC title game refs in an extremely brief halftime interview

Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian apparently didn’t have too much to say at halftime during the SEC championship game, but in just 12 words, he still slammed the game’s officiating.

With a 6-3 lead over No. 5 Georgia, the No. 2 Longhorns collected eight first-half penalties for 80 yards, while the Bulldogs had two for 19 yards before the break. Obviously, eight first-half penalties is not great, and an extra sting was attached to some, like a pair of penalties forcing two Texas interceptions on Georgia quarterback Carson Beck to be called back.

ESPN’s Laura Rutledge led with a question about penalties during her halftime interview with Sarkisian, who kept his comments brief but definitely made his feelings known.

Rutledge: Coach, eight penalties in this first half. How do you get your team to clean some of that up?

Sarkisian: Well, hopefully they call them for holding one of these times too.

That’s it. That was the whole interview, which ended with a very awkward silence as Rutledge was clearly giving Sarkisian room to elaborate and the Longhorns coach obviously not being interested.

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