Former Texas WR DeAndre Moore Jr. Fires Back at Steve Sarkisian

The Texas Longhorns are no stranger to making headlines, and that remained the case during SEC Media Days in Tampa on Thursday.

Per usual, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian grabbed some notable attention, but arguably the most interesting thing he had to say centered around some brutally honest comments about the team's NIL cap space headed into the offseason.

Sarkisian openly admitted that Texas needed to part ways with key players like wide receivers DeAndre Moore Jr. and Parker Livingstone along with running backs Quintrevion Wisner and CJ Baxter in order to afford elite transfers like Cam Coleman.

DeAndre Moore Jr. Responds to Steve Sarkisian

Moore Jr. hopped on X to respond to Sarkisian. And though he only used three emojis, the message to Sarkisian was clear. It's obvious he wasn't fond of the comments by his former head coach, who openly admitted that Texas needed to upgrade from Moore, Livingstone and others on offense after missing out on the College Football Playoff.

Take a look:

🥱🥱🥱 https://t.co/k5pyyfRExH
— Deandre Moore Jr (@mooreofdmo) July 23, 2026

Here are Sarkisian's full comments:

“To make the moves we make, to bring in a Cam Coleman, to bring in a Hollywood Smothers, to bring in a Raleek Brown, to bring in a Mike Masunas at tight end; we had to let DeAndre Moore go," Sarkisian said, per On3. "We had to let Parker Livingstone go. We had to let Tre Wisner go. We had to let CJ Baxter go.

"We had to let some pretty good players leave to create the cap space to bring those guys in. I think strategically, there were some tough decisions to make. But, we made them. I think we all can agree that we’re probably better around Arch today than we were a year ago at this time.”

Sarkisian's remarks were met with some criticism on social media from opposing fan bases. Though this is likely the financial approach that many of the top teams in the country take, openly admitting you're trying to replace players you recruited out of high school could have gone unsaid.

Some college football fans argued that Sarkisian's comments could end up backfiring on Texas from a recruiting perspective. It's reasonable to think that some players might not want to head to Austin if it means that they could end up being replaced a few years down the line.

But after all, it's a business. And like the NFL, if you're not producing and failing to meet the standard, it's reasonable to think you could be replaced.

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