Archie Manning Defends Ole Miss Against Criticism From Kiffin, Sarkisian

Archie Manning defends Ole Miss amid criticism from LSU's Lane Kiffin, Texas' Steve Sarkisian

The Ole Miss legend is backing his alma mater as it takes heat from multiple SEC coaches

By Austin Nivison

May 13, 2026 at 10:01 am ET • 2 min read

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You don't have to look far to find an SEC coach criticizing Ole Miss for one reason or another. Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian both did it in interviews that dropped this week, and the only question might be which coach will jump onto the dogpile next?

Despite the heat that his alma mater has taken over the last 72 hours, Ole Miss legend Archie Manning is standing behind his alma mater. Manning spoke to Chris Low of On3 -- and, without mentioning any names, defended the school in the wake of negative comments from Kiffin and Sarkisian.

"I'm very proud of my school," Manning said. "My school had to make changes years ago and did. I know so many people who send their kids to Ole Miss that have a great experience. It's my school and always will be."

The two coaches came at Ole Miss from different angles, but they both made waves nonetheless. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Kiffin said it was tougher to recruit in Oxford than in Baton Rouge due to a lack of diversity. Kiffin even claimed the families of some high-profile recruits were reticent to send their kids to Ole Miss.

"'Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren't letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'" Kiffin said. "That doesn't come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus's diversity feels so great: 'It feels like there's no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that's the real world.'"

Kiffin added that he wanted to be "respectful" to Ole Miss, although his remarks were "factual" and "not shots."

Sarkisian, on the other hand, went after Ole Miss' academic standards. In an interview with USA Today , the Texas coach said the difference in academic standards between schools makes it harder to land big-time portal additions.

"At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player's academic credit hours," Sarkisian said. "You may be a semester from graduating, but you're going all the way back to 50% if you play here and want a degree. But at Ole Miss, they can take you. All you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree."

This banter in May may not amount to much in the moment, but the Rebels probably won't forget these comments. Ole Miss plays both LSU (Sept. 19) and Texas (Oct. 24) this season, and those games just got a little more juice.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/archie-manning-ole-miss-criticism-lane-kiffin-steve-sarkisian/)._