It was more ugly than pretty, but at the end of the day Texas did enough to leave Neyland Stadium with a big road SEC win to head into their bye week undefeated. Despite never trailing, Texas was never firmly in control of the game and had to lean on their defense more than they should have to bail them out.
The Longhorns will have a lot to clean up over the next two weeks ahead of their “Red River Rivalry” showdown with Oklahoma as Texas was flagged 11 times for 115 yards, turned the ball over twice and allowed Arch Manning to get sacked six times. Although the performance was sloppy and uneven, they return to Texas undefeated ahead of playing their next four games in the “Lone Star State”.
Here are three big takeaways from the Longhorns big, ugly win over the Vols.
1. Colin Simmons Played The Best Game of His Texas Career
Simmons’ five sack game will be talked about for years to come by Longhorn Nation, as he tied the single-game record of five by Shane Dronett, who accomplished the feat in 1990 against the Texas Tech. Now with this historic game on his resume, Simmons has seven sacks on the season and is two sacks away from being the fourth player in program history to reach 30 sacks in their career.
If it wasn’t for his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in second quarter, Texas junior edge rusher Colin Simmons would have a legit case of saying he played a perfect game. Instead, Simmons, a projected top pick in the NFL Draft, will have to settle for having one of the best defensive days in program history after registering seven solo tackles, five sacks, four tackles for loss and one forced fumble.
The Duncanville native’s record tying day led a Texas sack party of 10 overall sacks, while showing the country on a national stage why he’s one of the most talented edge rushers in college football this season. Not bad for a guy who was limping around DKR in a walking boot after last week’s game.
2. Will Muschamp’s Defense Answered The Bell
From national pundits to diehard Longhorn Nation fans, many people across the globe wondered if Texas’ defense could deliver when needed. Saturday afternoon, Will Muschamp’s Longhorn defense answered the question with a resounding yes!
Besides holding Tennessee’s freshman quarterback sensation Faizon Brandon to 145 yards passing to go with their 10 sacks, Texas was able to shut down Tennessee’s hyped up running game to 70 yards. As the 70 rushing yards was 228 yards below the Volunteers average as they came into game averaging 299 yards a game on 44 carries.
3. Texas Wins Big Games
Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian opened his press conference following his team’s big win saying: “We win big games around here.” Some may roll their eyes while others might simply not like it, but with the win, Texas has more wins against top 25 teams than anyone else in the nation since 2023 and that is a fact.
Despite being under siege most of the game, Manning was able to connect with Ryan Wingo on back-to-back passes of 18 and 14 yards to lead the Longhorns to the game winning touchdown. Manning is now 17-3 in his 20 career starts and raises his career record to 3-3 on the road.
Although he needs to be more consistent and play a more complete game, Manning once again proved Sark right while proving a lot of others wrong, he was good enough to take the Longhorns into hostile Neyland Stadium and come out with the win.
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