Former Alabama offensive coordinator and current Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has fired a shot at one of his new rivals in the Ole Miss Rebels, now led by former Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding.

The transfer portal has obviously been a hot topic, and last month Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp made headlines when talking about how the Longhorns have higher academic standards than other places across the SEC.

Now, Sarkisian has taken an even stronger shot at the Rebels directly when talking about the kind of bar Texas holds potential transfer athletes to in the classroom.

“At Texas, we will only take 50% of a player’s academic credit hours,” Sarkisian began during a conversation with USA Today. “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…It’s like we’ve forgotten about academics, yet less than 5% of these guys will play in the NFL.”

In reality, it’s more likely that all schools have academic practices that are open to criticism when it comes to big time college football. So, to hear someone as prominent as Sarkisian take such a direct shot at another school in his conference certainly made some major headlines.

Whether or not Golding continues the war of words remains to be seen, but this certainly has been an offseason to remember in terms of sound bites, and it does not look to be slowing down.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.