Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Colin Simmons would not face extreme punishment for his vulgar celebration in front of President Donald Trump, insisting: “I’m not going to give the guy the death penalty over an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.”
Trump attended the SEC showdown at Neyland Stadium after making a dramatic arrival aboard Air Force One, which was greeted by loud cheers from the crowd.
However, the atmosphere shifted when Simmons burst into the backfield and sacked Faizon Brandon on third down, a play that should have left Tennessee facing fourth-and-29.
Instead, the Texas sophomore stood over Brandon and mimicked urinating on the field. The celebration immediately prompted the officials to throw a yellow flag.
The referee then announced over the stadium loudspeaker that Simmons had been penalized for “simulating using the restroom,” wiping out the defensive stop.
The incident sparked an immediate backlash during the ABC broadcast, with Kirk Herbstreit strongly criticizing Simmons alongside play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler.
College football fans were stunned Saturday when Texas star Colin Simmons performed a bizarre “peeing” celebration during the SEC clash with Tennessee
Steve Sarkisian said he would not impose the “death penalty” on his player over the controversial celebration
Herbstreit described the move as “absolutely idiotic,” while Fowler agreed, saying: “It doesn’t get much more vulgar, either.”
Although Sarkisian said the offense did not warrant capital punishment, he made clear that Simmons had been warned such behavior could not continue for the remainder of the season.
“We gotta fix it, though, right?” Sarkisian said. “That can’t continue as we move forward.”
“Can’t happen. That’s a bad football play. We had harped and talked about not getting emotional with the crowd, and that was the emotional play.”
“We had a couple others that were close, too. We had a real talk about it at halftime, about how we needed to play the second half, and we needed to celebrate with one another.”
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Sarkisian said the coaching staff removed Simmons from the game, addressed the issue with him and then sent him back onto the field. The defender responded with a dominant performance, sacking the Tennessee quarterback five times.
“But five sacks was pretty cool,” Sarkisian added.
Simmons later apologized to reporters, saying: “I apologize for the celebration. I was definitely in that mode, feeling myself. It happens.”
Simmons was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after “simulating using the restroom”
The crude celebration took place in front of Donald Trump, who traveled to Knoxville on Saturday
Sarkisian also suggested that broader social trends had influenced Simmons’ decision to make the vulgar gesture as he expanded on his criticism.
“Unfortunately, in our society right now, we live in the ‘look at me’ society,” Sarkisian said. “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.’
The game went down to the final play as Texas held on while Simmons’ antics went viral online in the aftermath.
Teammate Justin Cryer saw the incident unfold having also been right on the scene from his position at linebacker.
‘I tried to run over there and grab him,’ Cryer said. ‘I seen where it was going, and I tried to go grab him before we got a penalty, but it was too late.
‘After the play, I just told him, ‘Look, man, we got to just keep our head.’ I know he’s having fun, he’s excited, but at the end of the day, we don’t want to let those plays, those penalties, dictate how the game’s going to go.’
Texas is now 4-0 after handing Tennessee their first loss of the season. The Longhorns head to rivals Oklahoma in Week 6 on October 10 after a bye week.