KNOXVILLE, TN – Cigar smoke filled Texas’ locker room, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why.
Steve Sarkisian described it as the “tradition” after winning at Neyland Stadium.
Sure, it’s tradition if you’re Alabama’s coach. The victors lighting a smoke is ritual in the “Third Saturday in October” rivalry.
But, cigars after a 20-17 win for No. 1 Texas at No. 13 Tennessee?
I don’t mean to be the fun police, but, sorry, that’s not tradition. That’s just a taste of tobacco and the smell of a stanky locker room.
There’s no cigar tradition for UT vs. UT. Texas had never even played a game at Neyland Stadium before this white-knuckle, yellow-finger affair.
Anyway, what were the Longhorns celebrating?
Their 11 penalties, which included one 15-yard
flag for a player pretending to unzip and urinate on the field?
How about Texas allowing Arch Manning to get sacked six times? Light one up, after your quarterback got lit up!
Apparently, Manning’s stogie misfired.
“It wasn’t working,” Manning said of his cigar.
Well, isn’t that just fitting? Texas mustered just 262 yards of offense and needed to swat away a Tennessee Hail Mary to survive an upset scare from an opponent with a freshman quarterback who was facing an SEC opponent for the first time.
“I’m not going to apologize for winning on the road against a top-15 team,” Sarkisian said.
Fair enough. A lot of teams would like Texas' 4-0 record and marquee win against Ohio State. This is now two wins for Texas against top-15 opponents, while the defending national champions were busying themselves with Howard and Northwestern.
Still, I don’t know if I can trust a team that’s passing out cigars after a messy win in September against an opponent destined for an also-ran bowl game. I start to wonder whether a Texas team that’s funded by a war chest and supposedly built for greatness might be suffering from a bit of contentedness and living too high on the hog.
Is Texas 'soft'? Steve Sarkisian says this game proves otherwise
After this win, Sarkisian took a shot at an article in The Athletic in which an anonymous coach described the Longhorns as being “soft everywhere” and lacking “an edge.”
“They may want to write another article,” Sarkisian said of a story written by a reporter who wasn’t in the room.
Let the next article say this: Texas looked “soft everywhere” on offense against Tennessee, and soft in the head while racking up 115 yards in penalties, but at least its defense was tough as old boots.
Thanks to Texas sacking a freshman quarterback 10 times, the Longhorns could pass out cigars, one week after Kirby Smart’s fellas were practicing against themselves during TV timeouts to get in some extra reps, while routing an SEC opponent.
Which of those teams would you pick to win the SEC?
If Texas had anything to revel in here, other than its annihilation of Tennessee’s offensive line, let it be the in-game decision-making of Vols coach Josh Heupel.
Heupel furthered his growing reputation for being a liability rather than an asset as a game-day coach when he dialed up a deep shot on 4th-and-7 in the second quarter rather than attempting a 51-yard field goal.
Tennessee kicker Cooper Ranvier is 4 for 4 on field goals this season. If he had been allowed to go 5 for 5, this game would’ve been headed for overtime.
“We got confidence in Coop,” Heupel said, “Just where it was at (on the field), the wind, and structurally, what we felt like we would see, we felt like we had a good play.”
They didn’t, and Texas can celebrate that, at least.
“I know we may not always be our best and play super-clean football, and I get it, we’re held to a different standard than maybe other places,” Sarkisian said, “but we win big games around here. We do, and I know we don’t win them all, but we win a lot of them.”
Do you trust Texas after ugly win against Tennessee?
It’s true, Sarkisian wins a lot of big games at Texas, including wins against Oklahoma and Texas A&M each of the past two seasons. Cigars might’ve been warranted after the Longhorns overcame a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter against Ohio State two weeks ago.
But, you have to wonder whether this is yet another talented Sark team that will fall short of an SEC title, and short of a national title, because it’s delighting in an ugly win, rather than feeling motivated by the all the warts that could be found within it.
Sarkisian participated in the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry and the smoky aftermath as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator, so perhaps he thinks that rivalry's tradition should apply to any opponent that beats the Vols.
“It’s just kind of a little bit of a tradition here at Tennessee, so we had cigars,” Sarkisian said. “My clothes, my suit, is probably going to stink.”
This is who Texas has become under Sarkisian. It usually wins, sometimes loses, and it’s often eventful. Last season, it found itself in five one-possession games, including three times against opponents that finished with losing records.
“A crazy deal," Sarkisian said of this game that nearly spiraled into an epic collapse for Texas after Tennessee recovered an onside kick. "You give up a punt return (for a touchdown), an onsides kick and next thing you know you're fighting to finish a game."
This time, the Longhorns got to celebrate with cigars inside a hazy locker room, but play with fire as often as Texas does, and that's a recipe for national championship dreams to go up in smoke.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas football lit cigars. This performance should've set off alarms | Opinion
