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Two top head coaches exchange jabs amid College Football Playoff debate

Ryan Young|
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is on the offensive making the case for his 9-3 Longhorns to make the College Football Playoff.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is on the offensive making the case for his 9-3 Longhorns to make the College Football Playoff. | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

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Texas LonghornsMiami (FL) Hurricanes

The final College Football Playoff rankings release doesn't drop until Tuesday night, and the 12-team bracket won't be set until the formal selection show Sunday, but tensions are already running hot between a couple of high-profile head coaches advocating for their team's inclusion.

No coach has been on the offensive more than Texas' Steve Sarkisian, talking into every camera he can find to make the case why the 9-3 Longhorns deserve an at-large berth over several two-loss playoff hopefuls.

He's emphasized that the Longhorns' 14-7 Week 1 loss to now-No. 1 Ohio State shouldn't be held against them because they chose to play that marquee non-conference game rather than schedule an easy win.

“It would be a disservice to our sport if this team is not a playoff team when we went and scheduled that non-conference game. Because if we’re a 10-2 team, it’s not a question," he said.

But he didn't stop there and, whether intentionally or not, took aim at another CFP bubble team in 10-2 Miami when he griped about teams playing for style points.

"My point to everybody is, is this about what your record is at the end? Or is this about beating quality teams and showing how good a team you really are by beating quality teams on the field?

"Or is it don't play good teams, put up a bunch of yards, put up a bunch of points and make it look good? Throw fade route touchdowns with 38 seconds to go when you're ahead 31-7 so that the score looks better," Sarkisian said during an appearance on SEC Network.

"Is the committee watching the games or are they looking at a stat sheet at the end of the game to say, 'Oh, well, they won by this many points, they must've played really good.'"

It wasn't hard to connect the dots on that one -- Miami beat then-No. 22 Pittsburgh 38-7 last week, padding the lead on a 33-yard touchdown pass with 41 seconds left.

Miami coach Mario Cristobal didn't let that comment go without a response ...

"I get it, everybody's trying to posture themselves for their programs and whatnot. The great part about stuff like that, when coaches try to speak about themselves like that, they also gotta take a look at the common opponent between us and that particular coach," Cristobal said on CanesInSight.

"Seeing that we had the opportunity to really dominate that opponent while that opponent dominated them."

That common opponent was 4-8 Florida. Miami beat the Gators 26-7 on Sept. 20, while Texas lost to Florida two weeks later, 29-21.

And as much as Sarkisian has framed the Longhorns' playoff debate around the loss to Ohio State, it's that loss in The Swamp that is ultimately threatening to keep his team from the CFP despite major wins over top-10 Texas A&M and Oklahoma teams and Vanderbilt (No. 14 in the last rankings).

Notre Dame (10-2), Miami (10-2), Texas (9-3), Alabama (if it loses the SEC championship game to Georgia and drops to 10-3), BYU (if it drops the Big 12 championship game to Texas Tech and falls to 11-2) and Vanderbilt (10-2) are the bubble teams vying for what could be just a couple spots.

In addition to the five conference champion automatic qualifiers, the Big Ten championship game loser between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana is a lock along with 10-2 Oregon (No. 6 in the last CFP rankings) as the third Big Ten team, then 11-1 Texas A&M (No. 3 before the loss to Texas), 11-1 Ole Miss (No. 7) and 10-2 Oklahoma (No. 8) from the SEC, at least as the rankings dictated last week. That's 10 spots with two to fill.

If 11-1 Georgia loses to Alabama, both would make it, leaving one spot for the Fighting Irish, Hurricanes, Longhorns, the Big 12 title game loser, and the Commodores.

Expect to hear plenty more from the coaches of those teams in the days to come before the final bracket is set.

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Ryan Young
RYAN YOUNG

Ryan Young joins CFB HQ On SI after 15 years as a college football beat writer, including the last seven years in Los Angeles covering the USC Trojans for Rivals. He previously covered Florida and Coastal Carolina after four years at the Kansas City Star. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland.

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