{"id":448747,"date":"2026-09-26T20:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/448747\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T20:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T20:36:09","slug":"colin-simmons-ties-program-record-with-5-sacks-as-no-1-texas-beats-no-14-tennessee-20-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/448747\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Simmons ties program-record with 5 sacks as No. 1 Texas beats No. 14 Tennessee 20-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. \u2013 Colin Simmons tied the program record with five sacks<\/a> as top-ranked Texas<\/a> held off No. 14 Tennessee<\/a> 20-17 Saturday with President Donald Trump<\/a> on hand in the Longhorns\u2019 first visit to Neyland Stadium.<\/p>\n

Raleek Brown ran for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and his 4-yarder<\/a> with 5:41 left gave the Longhorns the winning margin in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. Giannis Spetic had a pair of field goals.<\/p>\n

It was a defensive day with Texas (4-0) dominating with 10 sacks, led by Simmons. The linebacker\u2019s day for the record books also will be remembered for his vulgar celebration after one sack. He was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct with the referee saying Simmons was \u201csimulating\u201d using the restroom.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tennessee quarterback Brandon Faizon made it interesting late, capping an 80-yard drive with a 30-yard TD pass to Mike Matthews with 1:22 left. Linebacker Arion Carter recovered the onside kick, and Jelani McDonald batted away Brandon\u2019s pass to Travis Smith Jr. on the final play in the end zone.<\/p>\n

Arch Manning also made his first trip to Knoxville, where his uncle Peyton played for Tennessee in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Manning threw for 201 yards while being sacked six times. He also was intercepted once with the Longhorns needing the smothering defensive performance to help on a day with too many penalties, including two illegal forward passes by Manning.<\/p>\n

Tennessee (3-1) hadn\u2019t beaten The Associated Press\u2019 No. 1 team since 1985, and that drought continues.<\/p>\n

Qua Moss returned a punt 57 yards for a TD with 11:14 left in the third quarter that tied it up at 10 for Tennessee. Cooper Ranvier had a 33-yard field goal.<\/p>\n

The takeaway<\/p>\n

Texas: The Longhorns have lots to clean up, particularly when it comes to penalties they can control. They piled up 11 for 115 yards with seven of those in the first half. Jermaine Bishop Jr. wiped out his own 22-yard punt return in the third quarter with a fair catch signal that officials caught.<\/p>\n

Tennessee: The Vols came in 14th nationally averaging 516.3 yards total offense per game. They came nowhere near that with Brandon surviving a beating in his SEC debut. Brandon finished 17 of 29 for 145 yards.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Texas has a week off before visiting Oklahoma on Oct. 10.<\/p>\n

Tennessee hosts Auburn on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here<\/a>, visit the Top 25 here<\/a> and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KNOXVILLE, Tenn. \u2013 Colin Simmons tied the program record with five sacks as top-ranked Texas held off No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[154571,4971,145,154569,154572,154,27,29,28,154570],"class_list":["post-448747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-brandon-faizon","tag-colin-simmons","tag-donald-trump","tag-jermaine-bishop-jr","tag-mike-matthews","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-travis-smith-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448747","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=448747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}