Texas coach Steve Sarkisian hyped up his team after going into an electric Neyland Stadium in Knoxville and beating No. 14 Tennessee 20-17 on Saturday afternoon.
"Coming into the game today, I think no team in the country had more wins against top-25 teams since 2023," Sarkisian said of the Longhorns at his postgame press conference, according to On Texas Football's CJ Vogel. "So we're kinda used to this environment."
He added, "I get it, we're held to a different standard than maybe other places, but we win big games around here - we do. I know we don't win them all, but we've won a lot of them."
The Longhorns escaped with a three-point victory, holding off Tennessee after allowing the Volunteers to recover their onside kick with under two minutes remaining. Sarkisian's defense broke up a Hail Mary in the end zone to punctuate a dominant performance on that side of the ball.
Texas held the Volunteers to just 221 yards of offense and smothered freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon. Colin Simmons, a projected first-round pick in the 2027 draft, had a monster game, recording eight tackles and five sacks. Texas sacked Brandon 10 times in total and posted 12 tackles for loss.
Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning struggled to consistently move the ball in the win, throwing for just 201 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. He was also sacked six times, and his star running back, Hollywood Smothers, was held out of the game due to a lower-body injury.
"They're a good defense, well coached, so it was definitely frustrating a little bit," Manning told reporters after the game, per Vogel.
He added, "I thought we hurt ourselves a little bit, I could've been more efficient and hit more completions."
No. 1 Texas will head to Oklahoma to take on the Sooners on Oct. 10 after a bye week.
