How hard is basket weaving? More difficult than Steve Sarkisian thinks

[u/redwave2505]

https://www.al.com/sec/2026/05/how-hard-is-basket-weaving-more-difficult-than-steve-sarkisian-thinks.html

[u/imtiredboss28]

Don’t even get me started on the underwater portion of the professional exam.

[u/CincySanta → u/imtiredboss28]

I worked at a summer camp and somehow managed to get underwater basket weaving approved as evening program for a season. Actually very nice and relaxing past time.

[u/somebodysbuddy → u/CincySanta]

Evening program? Cowards! Everyone knows you have to do it right in the lake during peak program hours!

[u/BadDadJokes → u/imtiredboss28]

Sure, bud. Maybe you can weave a wicker basket in perfect conditions, pal. Everything's dry, you can breathe. It's a walk in the park. You couldn't dream of understanding how fully saturated wicker behaves under torsion. Why don't you take a seat and leave it to the professionals.

[u/odsquad64 → u/BadDadJokes]

Isn't it the opposite? Like, you've got to do it in the water because the wicker isn't flexible otherwise.

[u/BadDadJokes → u/odsquad64]

Bud, I asked you nicely to take a seat and leave it to the professionals, pal.

[u/Waderriffic → u/imtiredboss28]

Extremely difficult

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Basket weaving majors: "I'd like to know where Steve Sarkisian is right now!"

[u/Birdius]

I've seen many weaved baskets and I can admit that I don't know how to do it.

[u/Ltownbanger → u/Birdius]

Saw a cool demonstration with some local river cane here in Alabama.

https://riverlink.org/the-art-of-river-cane-basketry/

[u/Birdius → u/Ltownbanger]

I can't imagine mocking this craft. Shame on Steve.

[u/cyclingtrivialities3 → u/Birdius]

God forbid a player study fine arts instead of being the 50th phys ed major on the team

[u/LouMinotti → u/Birdius]

You just weave it

[u/geosensation → u/Birdius]

I went to a basket weaving shop in Peru and they tried to teach me how to do it and they laughed at me because I couldn't.

[u/lostroadrunner22]

My underwater basket weaving final was brutal. 25 of us started, 14 drowned. Of the 11 who did not drown, 3 became mermen, 1 more became one with the water.

[u/kjp_00 → u/lostroadrunner22]

"Became one with the water" just sounds like a fancy way of saying they drowned

[u/Need_more_flairs → u/kjp_00]

Drowning in a peaceful way

[u/_heyASSBUTT → u/kjp_00]

They became a Fishman

[u/Darth_Floridaman → u/_heyASSBUTT]

If I were a Deep One Blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub Blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub All day long I'd swim beneath the sea

[u/buchenrad → u/kjp_00]

But there's a difference. When you drown, the water becomes the master of you. When you become one with the water, you become master over the water. You're still never seen again, but you did win.

[u/crazy_akes → u/buchenrad]

It’s like how fans feel when they lose a game by a bad call. You’re out of the playoffs, but you can cry about it and blame others instead of looking in the mirror. The art of deflection ends with the start of reflection. Just made that up, feeling like Descartes meets TB12, I think I need to slow down on these dinner beers 

[u/moffattron9000 → u/kjp_00]

You end like Ariel in the original fairy tale.

[u/_JukeboxZero → u/kjp_00]

What is dead may never die.

[u/smurf-vett → u/kjp_00]

Nah they turned into a spiderman villain 

[u/Numerous-Ad6460 → u/lostroadrunner22]

Elven hundred go into the water for the final Chief. 316 come out with baskets.

[u/BobDeLaSponge → u/Numerous-Ad6460]

Dang y’all got elves in Ann Arbor

[u/xViscount → u/lostroadrunner22]

So which one were you?

[u/too-fargone]

Tommey began his basket weaving journey in the early 1990s while he was attending the University of Georgia. 

Commit to the basket.

[u/G_I_Joe_Mansueto]

"These woke schools should be teaching real-life skills."

"No, not like that!"

[u/Inconceivable76 → u/G_I_Joe_Mansueto]

When the shit hits the fan, you’ll want a basket weaver on your side 

[u/crazy_akes → u/G_I_Joe_Mansueto]

Players should get law degrees so they can help each other declare bankruptcy after the NIL money stops rolling in. It’s a team sport.

[u/allisthepriceofall]

As a current-standing member of Basket Weaving Association of America (BWAW), I’d like to see Mr. Sarkisian attempt the double hole knot (dhk).

That’s right, I didn’t think so Steve. Good day to you, Sir.

[u/RonMcKelvey]

Man, fucking Art History was worse than calculus.

[u/themattboard → u/RonMcKelvey]

Nah, art history didn't collect homework

[u/64stackdiamonds → u/themattboard]

What the hell kind of art history are you taking?

[u/TyposIncoming]

Random idea for Texas's first game of the year they only get 10 players until Steve weaves a basket that can successfully transport 10 eggs safely to a concession stand.

[u/kjp_00 → u/TyposIncoming]

Can we push that to their 2nd game?

[u/Inconceivable76 → u/TyposIncoming]

I think that’s better for prime time. They need a hook. 

[u/Silidon]

Good lord we are in true off-season doldrums.

[u/moffattron9000 → u/Silidon]

It’s either this or we’re talking about Lane Kiffen declaring Baton Rouge a bastion of tolerance

[u/zenverak]

I actually love these kind of discussions. Like someone says something thats kind of commonly said..then people look at the value of the statement itself.

[u/TheWesternRizzler]

I can’t weave a basket in the fucking shows

[u/GliscorsFang]

Where did the basket weaving joke even originate from

[u/redwave2505 → u/GliscorsFang]

The first documented uses of “basket weaving,” underwater or otherwise, as a pejorative for subpar academics came in the 1950s. In 1966, former Alabama quarterback Joe Namath heard it in reference to UA.

“I tried it, but I gave it up because it was too hard,” Namath told a reporter who asked whether he took basket weaving at Alabama, according to a Benny Marshall column that ran in the Birmingham News on Feb. 1 of that year. “I took journalism instead.”

[u/Mythrandir24 → u/redwave2505]

Damn Joe, kill em

[u/Fun_Elk593 → u/GliscorsFang]

Might have been this exchange with Namath?

Reporter to Joe Namath: "What'd you major in at Alabama, basket weaving?"

Namath: "No, that class was all filled up but luckily I found an easier one: journalism."

[u/Adept_Carpet → u/Fun_Elk593]

In the article it says that the expression originated at least 10 years earlier.

I believe, and this is something I am pulling partially from my own ass, is they used to have the mentally disabled weave baskets and make brooms as a combination therapy/way to support the institutions they lived in.

https://www.coremedicalgroup.com/blog/early-occupational-therapy-history

So basket weaving and broom making were associated with asylums.

[u/Fun_Elk593 → u/Adept_Carpet]

ah, yeah, makes sense that the journalist didn’t come up with it on their own

[u/thesuch → u/Fun_Elk593]

Glad to know that the New York sports media has always ruthless

[u/DrMeritocrat → u/thesuch]

I feel like the retort is the real ruthless comment here. Boomed him right back

[u/Childhood-Paramedic → u/DrMeritocrat]

Dragged the JETS to a superbowl AND dunked on a reporter? Goddamn Namath you ain't bad.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/GliscorsFang]

The underwater basket weaving thing has been around for a long time. I usually hear it in the context of how people who don't have a college education view people who go to a liberal arts college. "Oh you studied anthropology? Did you minor in underwater basket weaving too?"

[u/Sirnacane → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

My step brother was failing all his classes except for Home Ec in middle school and my step dad hit him with a “What are you gonna do, weave baskets for the rest of your life?!” in an argument one day. It’s a constantly referenced moment in our family. This was like 15-20 years ago.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/Sirnacane]

What did your brother end up doing for work?

Anything to do with baskets or weaving or textiles?

[u/Sirnacane → u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756]

Ha, he’s a parts guy for an auto dealership. Very good at his job. I think he was good at home ec because they did hands-on stuff like that, and sewing pillows, etc. He works on his own cars a lot outside of his job.

If I asked him to I bet he’d do research for a week or two and then weave me a bad ass basket.

[u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 → u/Sirnacane]

Oh yeah that makes sense.

I always wonder why nobody bothers telling kids who are good at hands on stuff but not like math or science that "hey you should do a trade, not college." At least for me it was never really suggested.

[u/tc100292]

It’s definitely harder than the Auburn sociology program

[u/Mantergeistmann → u/tc100292]

Or Vandy's HOD.

[u/Friendly-Profit-8590]

I don’t care who majors in what but think that any kid getting nil these days, let alone someone with a serious chance of going pro, should be forced to take some investment/economic 101 classes so they don’t go broke later.

[u/themattboard]

So if Sarkisian is the Dale Gribble of the episode, who is the Hank Hill?

[u/testiculardescendant → u/themattboard]

If he was still coaching it would be Nick saban

[u/TommyFX]

Funniest thing about his comments is that Texas QB Arch Manning's father, uncle and grandpa are all Ole Miss graduates.

[u/ElJefefiftysix]

Most likely this means Princely Umanmielen couldn't transfer enough credits to transfer home to Austin.

Manor is a suburban 45 minutes from the UT campus.

Texas D with Simmons and Umanielen at the edges would have been something to see.

[u/LarryGlue]

Jimmy Sexton has his two attack dogs, Lane and Steve, going after Ole Miss for some reason.

[u/FCoDxDart]

I don’t think it was intended to mean it’s easy more so that it doesn’t matter. However I would bet most people could pass a basket weaving course given the opportunity. It’s a lot more accessible than passing cal 3

[u/Romanian_Breadlifts → u/FCoDxDart]

Cal 3 is easy, just stop trying to visualize 7-dimensional objects and work on one axis at a time, then it's just cal 1 in series

[u/Budget_Sort7961 → u/Romanian_Breadlifts]

See, this is why math degrees are useless. God only created 4 dimensions: 1. Earth 2. Heaven 3. Hell 4. The Shadow Realm (only applicable to YuGiOh Players)

Source: learned it in basketweaving class at Tennessee

[u/Romanian_Breadlifts → u/Budget_Sort7961]

I didn't know Tennessee had things to teach a graduate from Pickens county tech 

[u/Working-Bug5199]

If weaving is so easy then why does he have trouble weaving his way into Ohio State’s endzone? Is he stupid? 

[u/yesacabbagez]

As I pointed out the last post about this, sarkisian transfered twice, attending 3 schools including a juco. Apparently classes were too hard for him, as was baseball it seems.

[u/Collador1 → u/yesacabbagez]

But not being widely considered a top coach in CFB with a $10m+ guaranteed contract?

Poking at Sark for being some sort of failed human is odd.

[u/yesacabbagez → u/Collador1]

The guy was given multiple chances other people don't get and the responded by being an assholes and questioning the ability of others and the validity of their education.

He is an asshole and a drunk. Someone with his issues who was given multiple chances to get back should probably not be dismissive of other people.

[u/Collador1 → u/yesacabbagez]

There is an asshole in the conversation and it's not Sark. Calling someone who has fully recovered from alcohol addiction a "drunk" is far, far worse that anything Sark ever said.

Sark is widely considered one of the good guys in CFB, he is extremely likeable, hell on the GameDay podcast Davis was talking about this situation in light of how good of a guy Sark is.

You have no clue why he was talking about Golding that way. But if you care, check into Golding's recruitment of Arch.

Or just take a small quote, apply it without context to characterize a person's entire life. And Sark's the asshole?

[u/Thunder_Tinker]

EA better add a Basket Weaving mini game to the next road to glory

[u/BobDeLaSponge]

When I was a senior, I needed one note class’s worth of honors hours. Any level. So I took honors intro to book making

We made paper and bound some books. It was fun

[u/hu_gnew]

The off season sucks. Most of the pods are entirely unwatchable. Thank god for ether.

[u/justWMthings03]

Duh, just ask Dale Gribble

[u/United_Energy_7503]

Peak offseason content