No. 1 Texas left Knoxville with a win, but the Longhorns hardly left with answers.
In a 20-17 escape over No. 14 Tennessee, Texas survived a frantic finish that featured a late Volunteers touchdown and an onside kick recovery attempt that kept the home team alive. The Longhorns did enough to get out of their SEC opener with the result intact, but the performance was messy enough to leave plenty on the table heading into the bye week.
The offense was the biggest culprit. Texas spent most of the afternoon making life harder on itself, piling up 11 penalties for 115 yards and absorbing six sacks.
At one point in the second quarter, the Longhorns had more penalty yards than Tennessee had offensive yards. Even when Texas finally found some rhythm in the fourth quarter, it came in fits and starts.
The best burst of the day ended with the Raleek Brown touchdown that gave Texas a two-score cushion, only for the offense to follow it with a three-and-out that lasted 43 seconds and moved the ball 11 yards backward.
Special teams nearly turned a tense finish into a disaster. After Tennessee needed to recover an onside kick to have any shot at tying the game, Sark called a timeout before an unsuccessful kick, and then Ryan Wingo let the kick dribble between his legs and let the Volunteers back into a game that should have been long over.
What kept Texas standing was a defense that looked capable of carrying the team. The Longhorns went three full quarters without allowing a score, and Tennessee punted or turned the ball over on downs on 11 straight drives.
The defense was undercut by the offense’s struggles and the special teams hiccups, but it still did enough to keep the Volunteers in check for most of the night. Without Tennessee’s punt return touchdown and late offensive score, the final margin wouldn’t have been close.
Colin Simmons was a force throughout the game, knocking on the door of the NCAA single-game sacks record, and Texas’ defensive front kept pressure on Faizon Brandon and the Tennessee passing game when the outcome was hanging in the balance. The Longhorns still had to survive a dramatic final sequence and swat away a last-second heave, but the defense held up when it mattered most.
The bigger issue is obvious: Sark needs to figure out Arch Manning.
Texas’ offense has been rough for two straight games, and Manning has not looked like the No. 1 player he was billed to be out of high school or the preseason NFL prospect many expected. Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Knowles had him uncomfortable all day, and the result was a steady stream of misfires, sacks and stalled drives. Manning looked indecisive, struggled to push the ball downfield and never really settled in.
The offensive line didn’t do him many favors, getting caught by late shifts and movement up front. But Manning’s own hesitation and overthinking helped turn a game that could have been lopsided into a one-score grind. Texas escaped, but without the defense, this would have been a disastrous way to open SEC play.
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