Colin Simmons’ unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from Saturday’s game against Tennessee needs no introduction at this point. The Texas Longhorns‘ star edge rusher, who dominated the Volunteers with five sacks, celebrated one of those takedowns by faking an obscene gesture toward the quarterback he had just put on the ground. The penalty gave Tennessee life in a game the Longhorns otherwise controlled, and it could have been costly had things broken differently after an onside kick.

But this isn’t about the penalty itself. This is about Texas coach Steve Sarkisian’s postgame response, which started reasonably enough before veering into territory that deserves some scrutiny.

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Sark defends Simmons, then pivots to the media

Sarkisian addressed the Simmons situation in his postgame press conference, saying the staff dealt with it at the time and would continue to handle it internally. He also offered a measured defense of his player.

“I’m not gonna give the guy the death penalty over an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty,” Sarkisian said.

Fair enough. Simmons is probably going to be the first edge rusher taken in the 2027 NFL Draft. He single-handedly took Tennessee out of the game with five sacks and was all over the football field. Defending a player like that after a dominant performance is what coaches do.

But it’s what Sarkisian said next that should really catch your attention. Sarkisian continued:

> “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 we live in, so we’ve got to get to where it’s all about the team and focus on the team and not so much look at me. So we’ll try to improve upon that, but 5 sacks was pretty cool today too.”

The problem with Sark’s framing

Part of me says good on Sarkisian for going out there and standing behind his guy. That part of the response makes sense. The problem is the pivot. Spinning the conversation around and turning it on the media when your player fakes pulling out his, well, you know what, and pretends to pee on the quarterback he just sacked? That’s a different thing entirely.

The gesture is objectively hilarious. I’ll give Simmons that. But it’s also an obscene gesture that drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty I have never seen before. That’s not a celebration. I don’t know what you want to call it, but it gave the Volunteers life in the game. Had Tennessee done anything after that onside kick, that penalty could have been the reason Texas lost.

So I understand the instinct to protect your player. I understand that the gesture was relatively harmless in the grand scheme. But I don’t know how much I appreciate Sarkisian trying to gaslight the media and the fans, turning the situation around as if it’s somehow their fault for reacting to what his player did on a football field in front of a national television audience.

Texas stays on top regardless

The wild postgame response aside, the Longhorns got another big-time win on Saturday. Texas is going to remain the No. 1 team in the country, and Simmons’ dominance against the Volunteers only solidified his status as one of the premier defensive players in all of college football. Sarkisian can defend his player without deflecting blame onto the people covering the game — both things can be true at once. Simmons had one of the best individual performances of the college football season, and the gesture was a stupid, selfish penalty that nearly cost his team. Sarkisian chose to acknowledge only one of those realities.