Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian recently claimed there was a communication discrepancy during the 2026 College Football Playoff championship game. On Thursday, Sarkisian told 247Sports that whenever U.S. President Donald Trump moves inside a stadium, all communication is cut. He claimed the same happened during last season's national championship, which the Indiana Hoosiers won by beating the Miami Hurricanes. The Longhorns coach added that the total communication blackout took place on Miami's final drive.
Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti has now pushed back on the claim, clarifying when the communication issues actually occurred during the game. In an episode of the "Kirkwood & Dunn" podcast, Cignetti asserted there was a moment when communication devices went down during Trump's appearance. But he pointed out that it did not happen during Miami's final drive of the game on offense.
"What's floating around on social media is that the communication device went down on Miami's last drive of the game on offense. So I had to dispel that. And these are just facts. The communication devices came back right after the touchdown, and we had no problem either side. We had no problem the rest of the game," Cignetti was quoted as saying .
Sarkisian said his claim comes from Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal. He has yet to comment on the matter, but the result remains the same. Cignetti and his Hoosiers defeated the Hurricanes 27-21 to win their first national championship.
Curt Cignetti did confirm there was a moment during his team's national championship win when communication devices were cut due to President Donald Trump moving around. While he dismissed the claim that the blackout happened on the Miami Hurricanes' last drive, Cignetti said that communication was cut around the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter. At that point, the Hurricanes' Malachi Toney scored a touchdown.
"There's something spreading like wildfire on social media, right, that when the president leaves that communication devices go out, the headsets. That's a fact, that happens. And when President Trump left the (national championship) around the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter, there were two or three plays – we were on defense – where we couldn't hear at all. And the second play was when they gave the ball to Toney, pitched it to him on a fly sweep for the touchdown at 6:37 to go," Cignetti said.
The Hoosiers, the Hurricanes, and the Texas Longhorns all have 3-0 records to start the 2026 season.
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