Texas coach Steve Sarkisian slammed by fans over 'classless' act to ESPN reporter on field after Ohio State win: 'Can't defend that behavior'

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has faced criticism after he stormed off from his ESPN interview after a shocking upset over Ohio State.

The Longhorns scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter as Arch Manning orchestrated a 24-23 win over the No.1 ranked Buckeyes in Austin.

The win sparked wild scenes inside Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium with Sarkisian briefly pulled away from the celebrations by ESPN's on-field reporter, Holly Rowe.

But as Rowe tried to speak to the head coach, he simply shouted over her question: 'Texas fight. That's called Texas fight. Hook 'Em!'.

He threw up a Longhorns sign to the camera with his left hand as he stormed away from Rowe and joined his team celebrating, refusing to give any insight into the game or answer any of her questions.

Veteran reporter Rowe was left visibly annoyed and frustrated as Sarkisian walked away, and fans online were unimpressed with his behavior towards one of the most well-respected reporters in the industry. 

Sarkisian was slammed online as 'classless' for his response, with one fan pointing out his quarterback, Arch Manning, was happy to do a post-game interview.

'Manning took the time to talk. But Shark couldn't? Classless.' Another added: 'I like Steve Sarkisian. But yeah, I can't defend that behavior.'

The incident came after an awkward halftime situation occurred between Sarkisian and the ESPN broadcast. 

Rowe's fellow sideline reporter, Laura Rutledge, was waiting to speak to Sarkisian at the interval with his team losing 20-3. But the camera panned to her as Sarkisian was running down the tunnel into the locker room.

 'Alright, we actually just lost Sark because he had to go,' Rutledge explained. 'I'm sorry about that, you guys. He waited for a long time. Credit to him for waiting. We'll try to get him on the way out of the half.'

Rutledge was unable to speak to Sarkisian as he made his way back out for the second half, but later assured that he had 'been very patient' and 'apologized' despite the fact she said ESPN owed him the apology.

She explained: 'I do want to make sure we clear something up. [Steve Sarkisian] did decline the interview at the half. 

'He had waited a long time, been very patient with some technical issues that we had. He apologized to us. We should be apologizing to him, which we did.'

Rutledge spoke to Arch Manning after the game while Rowe was getting snubbed by Sarkisian, with the Texas quarterback explaining how he was fueled by last year's loss to the same opponent.

'We couldn't lose to them again,' Manning said. 'I had nightmares about that game last year. It wasn't pretty but we found a way to win.' 

When Sarkisian finally talked in depth about the game in his post-game press conference, he offered a powerful statement on his team's mindset.

He said: 'We talk a lot about this in here as a team: you know, life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react to it, and we just hammered that on everybody.

'Focus on the 90%. Leave the 10% at the first half. Let's focus on the 90%. What are we going to do about it in the second half?'.