{"id":446464,"date":"2026-09-24T17:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T17:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/446464\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T17:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T17:54:08","slug":"university-of-texas-football-longhorns-prepare-for-trump-in-tennessee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/446464\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Texas football: Longhorns prepare for Trump in Tennessee"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN \u2014 Texas<\/a> coach Steve Sarkisian said his No. 1-ranked football team always does a good job of blocking out all the outside noise that could distract the Longhorns but said that the expected presence of the president at Saturday\u2019s game in Knoxville against Tennessee<\/a> does add an extra degree of preparation.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> is expected to attend the SEC opener for both teams, which is scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m. Central Daylight Time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t change anything for us from a logistic standpoint,\u201d Sarkisian said Thursday. \u201cOne thing we have to be aware of is when the president goes to any game is that at any time he enters the stadium or leaves the stadium or changes locations within the stadium, they cut all communication. So they cut (out) your headsets to the coaches and the coach to player communication. So you have to have a plan for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarkisian said the communications for the teams shuts down whenever Trump enters or leaves the stadium or even if he goes to the rest room.<\/p>\n

This will mark the second time he has coached in a game that the president has attended.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian probably hopes for a better outcome than when Trump, during his first term, showed up for top-ranked LSU\u2019s 46-41 win over the 13th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide team. Sarkisian served as offensive coordinator under Nick Saban for that game, which the Tigers won after cruising to a 33-13 halftime lead. That Alabama team did reach the national championship game that season but fell to Clemson 44-16.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian does think it\u2019s fine for his players to take in the festivities surrounding this game, but the presidential visit doesn\u2019t impact the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really doesn\u2019t impact what we do,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom our players\u2019 perspective, we really try to operate with a sense of gratitude for what we get to do. I always challenge the staff and players to take in a moment. It\u2019s okay to take it in and then recalibrate, refocus and go play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time a sitting president took in a Longhorn road game had a much better result. President Nixon helicoptered in to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Game of the Century when Texas came back from two scores down in the fourth quarter to beat the Razorbacks 15-14. Nixon came to the winning locker room to congratulate the Longhorns and gave coach Darrell Royal and quarterback James Street a plaque naming Texas the national champion, a gesture that irked also unbeaten Penn State.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve played in a lot of big games around here,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cWe\u2019ve already played in a big game earlier this year (in a win over Ohio State), so I think there\u2019s a level of comfort that we know what it takes to prepare for moments and games like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2014 Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said his No. 1-ranked football team always does a good job of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-446464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}