Texas keeps finding ways to win big games, but sloppiness could cost Longhorns everything down the road
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Faizon Brandon was trapped. When the highly regarded Tennessee freshman quarterback tried to sprint through the middle of the line, a white jersey from Texas was there to pinball him backward. When Brandon tried to retreat back into open space, another was waiting to drive him into the ground.
Colin Simmons, the Longhorns' all-world pass rusher, got up after completing the sack and instead of doing the obvious thing — running to the sideline after Texas' defense had forced a three-and-out with all the momentum in the second quarter — showed why it's hard to trust the nation's No. 1-ranked team as a legitimate contender for the national title.
Texas, of course, is talented enough to do it. But do the Longhorns have the discipline and accountability they'll need in the crucible of a brutal SEC schedule and a month-long postseason?
Because it wasn't just that Simmons' celebration was aggressively dumb — by now, you've surely seen the urination simulation that drew as warranted an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty as has ever been thrown in a football game — it's that he was right back on the field shortly thereafter and pretty much every defensive snap until Texas finished off a 20-17 victory that got much more complicated than it needed to be.
But this is Texas under Steve Sarkisian: A lot of good stuff. Way too much sloppy stuff. And ultimately, an organization that isn't as buttoned-up as it needs to be if championships are the goal.
"I know we may not always be our best and play super clean football," Sarkisian said. "I get it, we're held to a different standard than other places. But we win big games around here. We do. I know we don't win 'em all, but we win a lot of them."
It's a fascinating experiment. In this young season, Texas already more owns a win over Ohio State and then went on the road in front of more than 100,000 people and beat a Tennessee team that was ranked in the top 15 (though it remains to be seen whether the Vols will ultimately be worthy of that designation).
Nobody is asking Sarkisian to apologize for wins. They're hard to get, and they all count. But while the résumé looks pristine, the product on the field often looks odd.
How did Texas win a game in which in which it committed 11 penalties, had two massive special teams gaffes and was fairly dysfunctional on offense most of the day?
Well, it won because of Simmons. He wrecked Tennessee's offense, he made Brandon see ghosts all game, he got the quarterback on the ground five times. He is a disruptor without equal in college football. He was everywhere.
"He's the best defensive player in the country," Texas linebacker Justin Cryer said. "He was unblockable today."
But in so many ways, Simmons' infamous, unnecessary celebration will be burned into the mind if Texas finds itself on the wrong end of a January game that gets decided by a bad, undisciplined penalty that lets an inferior team off the hook.
At that point, with five minutes left in the first half, some coaches would have sent Simmons straight to the locker room or at least made him sit a handful of plays to set a standard for what is and isn't acceptable for a championship-level team.
Not Sarkisian.
"We took him out, we addressed it and put him back in," he said. "At that point, I'm not going to give the guy the death penalty over an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. We have to fix it. We can't continue [doing that] as we move forward. … We have to focus on the team and not so much 'look at me' and we'll try to improve upon that. But five sacks was pretty cool too."
Though there's a pretty big gulf between sitting a guy for a series to send a message and the death penalty, point taken. You'd be tempted to worry about the punishment on Monday, too, watching Simmons ragdoll everyone who tried to block him.
"He knows better," Cryer said. "But you get five sacks a game, you can do whatever you want."
Simmons was the last Texas player to come into the interview room Saturday and apologized. But even then, after the first question about the penalty, Texas' longtime sports information director John Bianco encouraged reporters to focus on the game. It's enough to make you wonder whether, in fact, the lesson will be learned or if it'll disappear like a puff of smoke from the victory cigar Sarkisian had in front of him.
"I was definitely in that mode, feeling myself, but it happens," Simmons said. "We don't harp on that. Next-play mentality, move on."
Had a couple things gone differently Saturday, Texas wouldn't have had the luxury of moving on from all those self-inflicted mistakes, including two passes by Arch Manning that were called back for being beyond the line of scrimmage and a big punt return called back because a player on the other side of the field from the returner signaled for a fair catch.
It was a bit of a mess.
And though it looked like Texas had finally unlocked its running game with a powerful drive to take a 20-10 lead with 5:41 left — Manning wasn't a huge factor with 201 passing yards, an interception and six sacks taken — just a few minutes later the Longhorns found themselves on the brink of collapse.
Tennessee, which had scored its only touchdown via a punt return that the Longhorns didn't cover very well, went 80 yards in under three minutes to get within a field goal. Then the Vols executed an unusual onside drop kick that Texas didn't seem totally prepared for — Sarkisian questioned whether it was against the rules — and had the ball back at midfield with 1:22 left.
Though Texas took care of business from there, it was a win in the eye of the beholder.
"Just a crazy deal," Sarkisian said. "You give up a punt return, an onsides kick and next thing you know you're fighting to finish a game."
But by now, this is who Texas is. These are the kinds of games they play. And when they can walk off the field in a place like this with a win, the penalties, offensive line problems, special teams mistakes and red zone issues don't matter.
Until they do.
"We have a lot of work to clean up but at the end of the day it keeps showing we got fight in us," Simmons said. "We got heart in us, and that's all that matters."
Does it? We'll find out in January.
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