Colin Simmons tied the school record with five sacks and Raleek Brown rushed for two touchdowns as top-ranked Texas notched a 20-17 victory over No. 14 Tennessee on Saturday afternoon in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams in Knoxville, Tenn.
Arch Manning completed 14 of 19 passes for 201 yards and one interception for the Longhorns while making his first visit to Knoxville, where his famous uncle Peyton starred for the Volunteers in the 1990s.
Brown rushed for 67 yards on 17 carries and Ryan Wingo caught six passes for 74 yards for Texas (4-0, 1-0 SEC). Simmons, who also forced a fumble, tied the longstanding school mark set by Shane Dronett in 1990 against Texas Tech.
The Longhorns had 10 sacks as a team while holding Tennessee to 221 total yards. Rasheem Biles registered a team-high 13 tackles and had one sack.
Qua Moss returned a punt for a touchdown, Faizon Brandon was 17-of-29 passing for 145 yards and one touchdown, and Mike Matthews caught a touchdown pass for the Volunteers (3-1, 0-1). Tyree Weathersby had 2.5 of Tennessee’s six sacks while Arion Carter had 11 tackles and recovered an onside kick.
The Volunteers drove 80 yards on 10 plays late in the game and Brandon capped it by tossing a 30-yard scoring pass to Matthews with 1:22 remaining to bring Tennessee within three.
Jackson Ross’ ensuing onside kick went off the hands of Wingo and Carter recovered it at the Tennessee 49-yard line.
But Tennessee’s last drive was hurt by several things — a sack by Biles, a holding penalty, a false start and two 10-second runoffs. Then a 4-yard pass in the field of play on the next-to-last play occurred with receivers way downfield. They scrambled back to get back onside, leaving only enough time for Brandon to throw an incomplete Hail Mary pass to end the game.
It was the first regular-season meeting between the marquee programs. They previously met three times in Cotton Bowls.
Texas gained 262 offensive yards but 102 of them came on pass plays of 43 yards to Emmett Mosley V, 30 to Cam Coleman and 29 to Jermaine Bishop Jr.
The Volunteers evened the score at 10 on Moss’ punt return. He veered to his right and found open space and finished off the 57-yard return with 11:14 left in the third quarter.
Texas moved back ahead when Gianni Spetic kicked a 44-yard field goal with nine minutes remaining in the quarter.
The Longhorns took a 20-10 lead when Brown scored on a 4-yard run with 5:41 left in the contest.
At the outset, Texas drove 75 yards on seven plays on the game-opening drive with Brown scoring from the 9.
Tennessee answered with Cooper Ranvier’s 33-yard field goal with 7:40 left in the quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Spetic booted a 22-yard field goal to give Texas a 10-3 lead.
At halftime, the Longhorns had a 147-88 edge in total offense.