Lane Kiffin fires joke at Steve Sarkisian after Texas senate hearing

After a moment of reverence that Lane Kiffin seems to save only for Nick Saban, Kiffin is back to his joking ways. On Wednesday morning, Kiffin tagged new Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian in the now-viral video of a Texas state senator trolling Texas president Jay Hartzell. 

Come on w it @CoachSark 😂 @TexasFootball @Big12Conference https://t.co/txfBm8lYfx

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) August 4, 2021

The special hearing on the future of college sports in the state of Texas took place Monday. Kolkhorst asked Hartzell about his school’s athletic budget, and Hartzell guessed it was around $220-$225 million. That ranks near the top in the nation. 

“And that’s without a winning football team of late,” Kolkhorst countered. 

Hartzell noted that the Longhorns have been winning games, just not as many as they hoped. 

“3-7 against the Horned Frogs. So, maybe your fanbase would rather lose to Alabama than TCU,” Kolkhorst replied. 

TCU has won two straight and six of the last seven in its rivalry series with Texas. They drubbed the Longhorns 48-10 in 2014 and 50-7 in 2015. 

Kiffin and Sarkisian are good friends

The two head coaches have crossed paths multiple times in their coaching careers. Sarkisian was hired as USC’s head coach in 2014 after Kiffin was fired the previous year. 

They are both graduates of what Dennis Dodd calls “Nick Saban’s coaching rehab.” Kiffin and Sarkisian served under Saban as offensive coordinators, Kiffin from 2014-2016 and Sarkisian from 2019-2020. Additionally, Sarkisian was an offensive analyst at Alabama in 2016 and took over the offense for the Crimson Tide’s National Championship game against Clemson when Kiffin departed to be the head coach at Florida Atlantic. 

Kiffin has a deep respect for Sarkisian and his journey to return to head coaching. 

“He won on the national stage and what a great comeback story,” Kiffin told The Paul Finebaum Show at SEC Media Days last month. “I talk to him weekly, probably. And it’s just awesome to see, see him so healthy, see him overcome that, and I’m just really proud of him.”

Image courtesy of Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images