Texas escaped Knoxville with a hard-fought road victory over Tennessee on Saturday, but the win came with an ugly side effect: a series of unsportsmanlike penalties that had fans and analysts shaking their heads. The most glaring came from star edge rusher Colin Simmons, who celebrated a second-quarter sack by mimicking a bathroom break — a gesture so crude the referee announced it over the stadium PA as “simulating using the restroom.”
The moment was a gift to the raucous Neyland Stadium crowd and a headache for the Longhorns' sideline. ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit didn't mince words, calling it “an absolute idiotic move,” while his broadcast partner Chris Fowler piled on, saying, “It doesn't get much more vulgar, either.”
Head coach Steve Sarkisian pulled Simmons from the game briefly, then put him back in. After the game, he said, “We took him out. We addressed it, and put him back in. 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.”
But then Sarkisian pivoted, pointing a finger at the wider culture. “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.”
It's a convenient deflection, and it's drawing criticism from those who say the coach should simply own the mistake. Sure, social media amplifies every misstep, but the celebration was a conscious choice by a player, not a product of the digital age. Simmons' bizarre celebration wasn't a viral trend; it was a lapse in judgment that his coach could have addressed without dragging the media into it.
The irony is that Simmons himself later apologized, acknowledging the error without blaming anyone else. The apology showed more accountability than the coach's postgame remarks. That contrast hasn't been lost on fans, many of whom are calling for Sarkisian to set a better example.
Texas still has plenty to clean up beyond the theatrics. The win was far from flawless, and the Tennessee defense made things uncomfortable for most of the afternoon. But the focus now shifts to whether Sarkisian can rein in his team's discipline before the postseason, where a single foolish penalty could cost a game.
In the end, the message from the head coach should have been simple: We made a mistake, we corrected it, and it won't happen again. Instead, he chose to blame society, which does little to inspire confidence that the lesson truly sank in. As the Longhorns move forward, they'd be wise to remember that on the field, it's not about clicks — it's about class.
