Credit: Randy Sartin-Imagn Images, ESPN on ABC
The No. 1 Texas Longhorns were able to escape Knoxville with a win over No. 14 Tennessee on Saturday after holding off a late charge from the Volunteers. A win is a win, but it’s possible the day could have been a bit less stressful for the Longhorns had defensive end Colin Simmons elected to celebrate his sack of Tennessee quarterback Faizon Brandon in a less vulgar manner.
With Texas holding a 10–3 lead in the second quarter, Simmons brought down Brandon deep in Vols’ territory to force what should have been fourth down. To celebrate, he proceeded to pantomime unzipping his pants and urinating on the field. The move, rather obviously, brought out a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct and gave Tennessee a free first down. It also forced the referee to explain the flag was for “simulating using the restroom,” which you have to imagine was not where he thought his day would be going when he woke up this morning. Commentators Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler were dutifully disappointed in Simmons.
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The Vols moved the ball past midfield but couldn’t capitalize on the drive Simmons had gifted them.
After the game, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about how he handled Simmons after the penalty.
“We took him out. We addressed it, and put him back in,” he said. “I’m not gonna give the guy the death penalty over an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. We’ve got to fix it though. That can’t continue as we move forward.”
Sarkisian went on to stress that the best way to celebrate was with your teammates, and then took a hard left to propose that Simmons’s celebration was really about the media, and told you a lot about where society is today.
“Unfortunately, in our society right now, we live in the ‘look at me’ society. All of you guys have your Twitter accounts, and as fast as you can type something because you want everyone to look at your account, and you get clicks. Well, that’s the world that we live in. So we’ve got to get to—it’s about the team and focus on the team, and not so much ‘look at me.’ So we’ll try to improve upon that, but five sacks was pretty cool today too.”
Sarkisian’s take on society feels a few years late, but at least he still calls it Twitter.
Reading between the lines, it really feels as though Sarkisian is willing to let a very silly and unnecessary penalty go relatively unpunished as long as you have five sacks in a game. That should be good information to know for the Longhorns moving forward.
As for Simmons, he also addressed the celebration, apologizing while saying he got caught up in the moment.
“I do want to say, I apologize for the celebration,” he said. “I was definitely in that mode, feeling myself, but you know, it happens.”
Asked if the penalty was addressed by his coaches on the sidelines, Simmons said simply, “Next play mentality. Move on.”
Texas has eight opponents left in the regular season, and six of them are currently ranked, so it would be wise to fix these sorts of mistakes as soon as possible. But as Sark said, “Five sacks were pretty cool today too.”
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