A day after Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said that President Donald Trump’s departure from the College Football Playoff final in January led to the teams losing headset communication in the crucial final minutes, the White House denied the claim.
The Hoosiers beat Miami 27-21 for the title in Miami Gardens, Fla., in a game Trump attended.
Trump reportedly will be in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday to watch Sarkisian’s No. 1 Longhorns oppose No. 14 Tennessee.
Sarkisian said Thursday, “In the fourth quarter if (the president) decides to leave early, your communication gets cut off and shuts down.
“A good friend of mine is (Hurricanes coach) Mario Cristobal. Last year when they’re playing Indiana in the national championship, they had that drive at the end of that game they had no communications because he was leaving early before the game ended. And so you get no warning, it just cuts out. And so you got to be prepared for that. That is definitely something that is unique that could come up in this ballgame.”
A White House social media account responded on Friday, writing, “No, President Trump’s departure from the CFP championship in January did not cause headset or comms issues for the teams.”
That message linked to a post from an Axios reporter who wrote that Trump left the CFP game at 10:47 p.m. local time and arrived at a local airport seven minutes later, with Miami’s Carson Beck throwing the game-clinching interception at 11:15 p.m.
Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti spoke Thursday night on his radio show, saying of the report regarding a major headset communication shutdown, “We got a bunch of BS.”
He added, “When President Trump left the game around the seven-minute mark in the fourth quarter, there were two or three plays we couldn’t hear at all. The second play was when they gave the ball to (Malachi) Toney, pitched it to him, for the touchdown with 6:37 to go. What’s floating around on social media is, the communication device went down on Miami’s last drive of the game on offense. Oh really? I had to dispel that. …
“Communication device came back right after the (Toney’s) touchdown. And we had no problem the rest of the game.”
