Ahead of President Donald Trump attending this Saturday's game between Texas and Tennessee at Neyland Stadium, college football fans learned how his presence could impact the game on the field. In an interview with Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, he revealed that headset communication is cut
when the president moves in, out of and around the stadium and it's a disruption that needs to be planned for by teams on the field.Sarkisian also broke the news that this happened once before during the biggest college football game of last season: the College Football Playoff National Championship. According to Sarkisian, President Trump's early departure from January's game between Miami and Indiana actually did cause disruptions to headset communications
during the game.
"In the fourth quarter, if he decides to leave early, your communication gets cut off and shuts down," Sarkisian said. "A good friend of mine is Mario Cristobal. Last year, when they were playing Indiana in the national championship, they had that drive at the end of that game, they had no communications because he was leaving early before the game ended. And so you get no warning, it just cuts out. You've gotta be prepared for that."
When President Trump is moving about at Neyland on Saturday, communications are cut off stadium-wide.
— OnTexasFootball (@ontexasfootball) September 24, 2026
Steve Sarkisian says last year's Miami-Indiana national championship dealt with this exact situation ... late in the fourth quarter ... 😯
MORE ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/lzy3caLC7L
According to reports from ESPN's Pete Thamel and NBC Sports' Nicole Auerbach, headsets for both Miami and Indiana were disrupted for a few plays at around the 7-minute mark of the fourth quarter. That time period includes Miami's late touchdown from Carson Beck to Malachi Toney that cut Indiana's lead to three at 6:37 of the fourth quarter. Communications then resumed ahead of the following kickoff and stayed on for the rest of the game.
With President Trump set to attend Saturday's game between Texas and Tennessee, expect hand signals or other means of communication to be implemented to get around the possible loss of headset connection during the game.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Donald Trump’s CFP championship departure caused headset issues for Miami and Indiana
