Just when you thought the play of the Tennessee offensive line couldn't have gotten any worse from the loss to No. 1 Texas in Week 4, a behind closed doors handshake has helped Colin Simmons make program history. Originally, Simmons finished with five sacks on the day. That was more than enough to have people pulling their hair out.
Fast forward to present time and Texas/Tennessee have agreed to give Simmons an extra half-sack to bring his total to 5.5. With that, Simmons indeed made history for the Longhorns, setting the new mark for most sacks in a single game. Glen Elarbee has even more explaining to do after his group laid an egg in this marquee matchup.
Texas and Tennessee have agreed to a correction for edge rusher Colin Simmons' stats from Saturday's game. Simmons was credited an additional 1/2 sack for a fourth-quarter sack that was given to Hero Kanu. Simmons' 5.5 sacks are now a single-game record for the Longhorns. #HookEm
— Danny Davis (@_dannydavis) September 28, 2026
Colin Simmons took Tennessee's lunch money with a record-breaking performance in Week 4
Face meets palm.
Who knew that just an extra 0.5 sacks would bring back the awful memories from what everyone saw at Neyland Stadium? In total, Texas pass-rushers brought down Faizon Brandon 10 times, which was downright infuriating. With that, countless eyes are now on Elarbee, as he needs to figure some issues out and fast with Auburn heading to town next.
We hate to bash on the guy, but this isn't the first time Elarbee's players have looked overwhelmed. Hey, we even pitched the idea of bringing Sam Pittman out of retirement for another stint with the Vols. Before that happens, though, let's see if Elarbee can figure some stuff out with the heart of the SEC schedule on the way.
If he can't, then some tough decisions will need to be made - Josh Heupel shouldn't care if they're good friends at this point. If he's not getting the job done, then Elarbee needs to be shown the door. Again, however, let's give him a few more games to see if Elarbee will be able to answer the call.
As for Simmons, his confidence has to be sky-high right now and no one can blame him for that. While Steve Sarkisian gave him and Raleek Brown an earful for their crude celebrations in the win over Tennessee, it doesn't take away from the fact that he was a total force and dominated the Tennessee linemen who did their best to slow him down, to no avail.
Simmons has Top 10 NFL Draft pick written all over him, but the Vols sure made him look like the next Myles Garrettt. It's never going to be easy to slow down a player of his caliber, but in-game adjustments simply needed to be made if he was going to keep dominating in the fashion that he did. That's on Elarbee, but it's also on Heupel.
Heupel has said the locker room is ready to flush the loss to the Horns, which is all great. Auburn is next and a convincing win needs to be posted to help set the tone for the rest of the campaign. It's all going to begin with the play in the trenches, as the Vols' line needs to use Simmons' record-breaking day as motivation to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
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