3 takeaways from Texas football's win at Tennessee

3 takeaways from Texas football’s win at Tennessee originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Texas won or Tennessee lost? We’ll both would be true. But this was a game too close for comfort if you’re the Longhorns. Nevertheless, No. 1 Texas walks out of Neyland Stadium with a 20-17 win over 14th-ranked Tennessee on Saturday.

The exciting finish in Knoxville made up for the slog through three quarters of the top 25 matchup. Unless you are a fan of quarterbacks getting their heads caved in, this one wasn’t for you. Here are three takeaways from the SEC Game of the Week.

Texas look average, but they’re setting themselves up for a championship run

The fact that Colin Simmons, who got penalized for a dumb celebration in the middle of the game, came back to end with 5 sacks is outstanding. He took over when Texas needed a boost. He did what star players do and took over. Simmons was one sack away from setting the NCAA record for most sacks in the game. They say defense wins championships. Well, the Longhorns brought that energy on Saturday.

There will be plenty of people breaking down Arch Manning’s performance, but he can remain a game manager if Texas’ defense continues to play lights out.

Faizon Brandon and the Vols are where Arch Manning and the Longhorns were last year

At several points during the game, this looked like this year’s Texas against last year’s version of Texas. Brandon gave off vibes of Manning from the beginning of last year. A competent quarterback who didn’t have enough time to make decisions.

This was kind of a strange game, but for all the talk about how good Texas could be, they’re still not a complete team. In all of college football, and they got a win on the road in the SEC. Give Brandon and the Vols another year of development and he’ll be dangerous.

There needs to be a conversation about Steve Sarkisian calling plays

Texas spent a lot of money in the offseason on guys like Cam Coleman and their running back duo of Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown. The jury is still out if they’re elite offensively, but again they won in a tough environment. Also, this is a game Texas would’ve lost last year. They can be happy with the win over the Vols, but there is stuff offensively they need to improve on.

If Sark takes himself out of the driver’s seat for calling plays, it could be what Texas needs to be a threat.

Texas will hit a bye week before facing Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry on Oct. 10. 

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