KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Colin Simmons tied the program record with five sacks as top-ranked Texas held off No. 14 Tennessee 20-17 Saturday with President Donald Trump on hand in the Longhorns' first visit to Neyland Stadium.
Raleek Brown ran for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and his 4-yarder with 5:41 left gave the Longhorns the winning margin in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. Giannis Spetic had a pair of field goals.
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“We win big games around here, we do,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I know we don’t win them all, but we won a lot of them. And what an incredible performance by our defense.”
It was a defensive day with Texas (4-0) dominating with 10 sacks, led by Simmons. The linebacker's day for the record books also will be remembered for his vulgar celebration after one sack. He was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct with the referee saying Simmons was “simulating” using the restroom.
“We took him out, we addressed it and put him back in," Sarkisian said. “At that point, I’m not going to give the guy a death penalty over an unsportsmanlike conduct. We got to fix it though. That can't continue."
Tennessee quarterback Brandon Faizon made it interesting late, capping an 80-yard drive with a 30-yard TD pass to Mike Matthews with 1:22 left. Linebacker Arion Carter recovered the onside kick, and Jelani McDonald batted away Brandon’s pass to Travis Smith Jr. on the final play in the end zone.
Sarkisian called it crazy in a game Texas also gave up a 57-yard punt return by Qua Moss for a TD. Sarkisian took a timeout that gave Tennessee a second chance at the onside kick after sending the first out of bounds.
“Next thing you know you're fighting to finish a game, which we were able to do,” Sarkisian said.
Arch Manning also made his first trip to Knoxville, where his uncle Peyton played for Tennessee in the 1990s.
Manning threw for 201 yards while being sacked six times. He also was intercepted once with the Longhorns needing the smothering defensive performance to help on a day with too many penalties, including two illegal forward passes by Manning.
Tennessee (3-1) hadn't beaten The Associated Press' No. 1 team since 1985, and that drought continues.
“Up front we weren’t good enough,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said. "Quarterback was not good enough. We didn’t play smart enough, but I’ll take the effort.”
The takeaway
Texas: The Longhorns have lots to clean up, particularly when it comes to penalties they can control. They piled up 11 for 115 yards with seven of those in the first half. Jermaine Bishop Jr. wiped out his own 22-yard punt return in the third quarter with a fair catch signal that officials caught.
Tennessee: The Vols came in 14th nationally averaging 516.3 yards total offense per game. They came nowhere near that with Brandon surviving a beating in his SEC debut. Brandon finished 17 of 29 for 145 yards. He didn't talk to reporters after the game.
Heupel said the freshman: "Didn’t get rid of it when he needed to get rid of it.”
Up next
Texas has a week off before playing Oklahoma in Dallas on Oct. 10.
Tennessee hosts Auburn on Oct. 3.
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