Texas survived its toughest test yet and came away with the same reward it brought into Knoxville: the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25.
The Longhorns went into their first SEC road game of the season facing a raucous environment at Neyland Stadium and the No. 14 Volunteers. They left with a 20-17 win, powered by a defense that took over the game and a late touchdown from Raleek Brown that helped Texas finish the job.
That victory keeps Texas at No. 1 in the latest AP Top 25. The Longhorns are 4-0 overall and 1-0 in SEC play, and they added another ranked road win to a resume that already looked strong before kickoff. According to Texas Athletics, Texas has now piled up 16 wins over ranked opponents since the start of the 2023 season, the most of any FBS program in that span.
The defense was the headline in Knoxville. Texas registered 10 sacks, and Colin Simmons tied the program record with five of them. The Longhorns also limited Tennessee to 221 total yards and just 70 on the ground, making life miserable for the Volunteers for most of the afternoon.
Tennessee did manage a late touchdown to pull within three, but Texas kept the door shut when it mattered most. On the final play, the Longhorns broke up a Hail Mary and escaped with the win.
Texas’ offense did enough, but not much more, finishing with 262 total yards. Even so, the combination of a clutch late score and a suffocating defensive effort was enough to preserve the ranking and the unbeaten start.
Now Texas gets a bye week to recover from a demanding opening stretch. After that, the Longhorns will return on Oct. 10 against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry in Dallas, Texas.
For the moment, though, nothing has changed at the top. Texas stays No. 1, still unbeaten, and still holding the top spot after a road win that asked plenty of questions and answered enough of them to keep the Longhorns right where they began the weekend.
In Other News...
Florida Just Reached A Place Gators Fans Have Missed For Years
The AP Top 25 after Week 4 kept Texas right where it has been, still No. 1 with 62 first-place votes, as Georgia stayed at No. 2 and Notre Dame held No. 3. But one of the more notable shifts came a little farther down the list, where Florida climbed into the top 10 at No. 8, a spot the Gators had not occupied in five years.
For Texas, the ranking serves as another reminder that the margin for staying atop the poll is thin, with the usual heavy hitters still in close pursuit. Floridas return to that tier adds a bit more weight to the Longhorns path ahead, because every week now seems to bring another contender moving back into view. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Learned Something Important About Will Muschamps Defense In Knoxville
Texas left Knoxville with a 20-17 win built on defense, and it was the kind of performance that tells a coach a lot about his team early in the season. Tennessee never found a steady rhythm against the Longhorns, and the game turned into a field-position grind as Texas kept applying pressure and making the Vols work for every inch.
Will Muschamps unit was especially disruptive up front, and the pass rush never let Tennessee settle in. The Longhorns kept collapsing the pocket in waves, with multiple players getting involved and one standout turning in a night that will be remembered around Austin for a while, even if the full scale of it took until after the final whistle to really sink in. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Survived Tennessee Despite A Problem That Could Haunt Them
Texas came out of Knoxville with a win, but not much comfort. The Longhorns edged Tennessee 20-17 in a game that exposed the kind of offensive issues that can turn into a real problem later in the season, with Texas sputtering through stretches and getting tagged for 11 penalties and 115 yards. Even so, the defense kept the night from slipping away, harassing Tennessees freshman quarterback from start to finish and giving Texas a chance to survive a messy road test.
The pass rush was the difference, and it was relentless enough to tilt the entire game. Texas piled up 10 sacks, with Colin Simmons tying a school record by getting to the quarterback five times, a performance that masked plenty of offensive frustration elsewhere on the field. For a team still unbeaten, the bigger concern may be how much it had to lean on its defense to escape a game that stayed tense until the very end. [Read more 🡒]