This article was written by Clay Travis and published on Sport & State, a new media company founded by Clay Travis that is built around sports, culture, original voices, and live conversation.* * * * *
I spent the weekend in Knoxville for the Tennessee–Texas game and if you didn’t see it, that included interviewing President Trump at halftime of the game.
Here is the full interview below.
Full interview with President @realDonaldTrump from Neyland Stadium. pic.twitter.com/wchzibCa9v
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 26, 2026
We discussed the Protect College Sports Act — the president said he expects the Senate to pass the bill early this week and then he expects for the House to also take it up and pass it.
President @realDonaldTrump shares why the Protect College Sports Act is such a huge emphasis for him, and notes that it’s truly a bipartisan effort. pic.twitter.com/inLPmwQQGP
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 26, 2026
The president also said he may get involved in the potential Major League Baseball shutdown if he believes he can be helpful.
President @realDonaldTrump says he would “love to help” the MLB prevent a lockout, that seems to be looming after the 2026 season is over. pic.twitter.com/cFbGmZ3VKU
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 26, 2026
It was part of a packed weekend of content from our Sport & State team, and I’m incredibly proud of everyone.
That started on Friday night with a show from Wagon Wheel in Knoxville’s Old City.
We are live at Wagon Wheel in Knoxville’s Old City for Texas-Tennessee. https://t.co/k8XepaVqTc
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 26, 2026
Leave aside whatever you think about President Trump. I don’t understand how any college football fan couldn’t have loved the scene in Knoxville. Yes, the game kicked off too early, but Air Force One did a flyover! The president was in the stadium. Vol fans checkered Neyland in orange and white. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Texas fans, most of whom had never been in the stadium, were in awe of the big game spectacle and continue to pinch themselves over the fact that they are a part of the SEC now and these are the kinds of road trips they get to take every year.
Yes, I wanted Tennessee to win and I’ll get to the game analysis below, but it was just a perfect Saturday setting for the perfect American sport.
I’ve said this for a long time, but if you told me I only had one Saturday left to live, I’d want to take my family to a big game at Tennessee and spend it with them there. I imagine many of you reading this right now would make the same decision with your favorite teams too.
As an aside, sometimes I have to pinch myself for what I get to do for a living. The President Trump interview was scheduled for halftime, but about a half-hour into the game, we moved to the suite level so we were close by. They came and got us to do the stand up with about five minutes left in the first half. (The president’s staff was fantastic, by the way. Total pros.) So I’m standing there getting a lighting and a mic check and I think I’ve got a couple of minutes to go and Tennessee has the football and I’m trying to duck into the suite to watch the game and then they tell me the president is good to go, earlier than we expected, while the second quarter is still going, so I’m thinking about what plays I’m missing as I’m interviewing the president.
We could hear the crowd reacting to plays, but I couldn’t see them.
So as a huge Tennessee fan, as I’m interviewing the president I’m also thinking in the back of my mind, I wonder what’s happening on these plays.
As part of the interview that my grandfather once played for General Neyland — and lived in the dorms at Neyland Stadium back in the day — and I’m thinking how incredible he would have found it if I’d told him that one day his grandson would interview the president of the United States in a stadium named after a coach he used to play for.
Just an incredible day all around.
And I’m so proud of our very young Sport & State team — I’m the second oldest person at this company, I think — for executing so perfectly on everything all weekend long.
Ultimately we had nine people on the ground in Knoxville working for us to help cover this big game.
For a one-month-old media company to pull this all off is, frankly, pretty incredible.
Okay, with all that in mind, let’s dive into the Starting 11.
1. Texas won, but Arch Manning took way too many big hits.
I expected the Texas offense to look better than it did on Saturday in Neyland.
Let’s run through some of these numbers: Tennessee had 22 first downs to Texas’s 14 and Texas ended with 262 yards of offense to Tennessee’s 221.
The Longhorns couldn’t run the football, notching just 61 yards on 36 carries, turned the ball over twice, and had 11 penalties for 115 yards.
Arch Manning was sacked six times and was frequently on his back taking big hit after big hit.
Now maybe this is a credit to Tennessee’s defense, but while Texas managed to escape with a win, it wasn’t a win that exuded confidence on offense going forward.
Texas survived Neyland…barely.
The No. 1 Longhorns escaped in one of the more chaotic finishes of the young 2026 season.
Here’s what happened in Knoxville, writes @markjburns88 https://t.co/wScfBl3pVs
— Sport & State (@SportNState) September 26, 2026
On the flip side, the defense was incredible, I’ll have more on this below, but they sacked Faizon Brandon 10 times and frequently had him completely lost, double clutching the ball and unsure about what he was seeing. Tennessee couldn’t run the football or throw the football consistently and until the final touchdown drive, basically had produced no offense the entire way.
Texas does get a bye now, should handle Oklahoma in two weeks, and then they have Florida, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State coming to Austin all before November starts.
The season is only one-third over, but you can make the argument that two of the four toughest games Texas has are now complete.
Yes, the Longhorns are 2-0 in those big games, but the pressure Tennessee put on Arch was alarming and so is the lack of consistent offensive playmaking thus far.
2. Tennessee was the worst it has been on offense in the Josh Heupel era.
I think if you had told Tennessee’s staff — and we talked to Josh Heupel for Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff — that his defense would hold Texas to 20 points, he would have been ecstatic and expected to win.
Josh Heupel talks Tennessee-Texas and what it will take to get the Vols a win pic.twitter.com/ZLqY5AqoXr
— Big Noon Kickoff (@BNKonFOX) September 26, 2026
Instead, Tennessee had virtually no offense until five minutes were left in the game.
Faizon Brandon was, frankly, absolutely atrocious. The only thing he didn’t do was turn the ball over, which, to be fair, is a decent achievement for a young quarterback.
Sacked 10 times, he was running around in the backfield absolutely clueless most of the game. He managed to finish with 23 carries for two yards, a stat line you don’t see too often from a quarterback.
He never seemed comfortable the entire game and he double and triple clutched the football multiple times and often took off running with no real plan in place.
Yes, he’s a freshman, but he can’t be this bad going forward.
Now, again, credit to the Texas defense. It may well end up being the case that they are one of the best defensive units in the country, but I don’t think the offensive performance we saw Saturday from Tennessee would have looked very good against anyone in the SEC.
One final note here: when the Vols got the onside kick with around 1:22 left in the game they took over at midfield. The rest of the possession, which ended on a hail mary from the 50, was a cavalcade of failure.
They only ran four plays in that 1:22: a five-yard gain, a sack, a four-yard pass and a broken play hail mary.
Interspersed around those four plays were three penalties.
Let me put it to you this way — I’ve never seen a final drive that started at midfield end because time ran out. The Vols didn’t fail to convert a first down, they didn’t turn the ball over, they didn’t miss a field goal or have a turnover, the clock ran out on them and they ran just four total plays.
I’ve never seen that happen.
The Vols have to get Faizon Brandon much better, find a way to beat Auburn and then Arkansas, which is doable, and then be 5-1 with Alabama coming to Neyland.
3. Florida hung 52 on Ole Miss and Gator fans may have the real deal with Jon Sumrall.
SEC fans are going to have to get used to swings like this.
One week ago Ole Miss beat LSU. Today Rebel fans are waking up wondering how they managed to give up 52 points and lose by 24 in the Swamp.
The answer was Florida ran the ball for 302 yards on Ole Miss. It was pure physical domination.
One week after ecstasy, Rebel fans are back to agony.
I had Ole Miss as my number one team in the country coming into this week — Rebel wins over Louisville and LSU, I think you can fairly argue were the two most impressive of the first three weeks for any team — but this beatdown drops Ole Miss completely out of my top 10.
The Rebels still have Texas, Georgia, and Mississippi State on the schedule and, as I’ve said since we go to 12, the goal is to get to 10-2 overall. That should be enough. (I know, Vandy fans, I know.)
This one hurts because getting to 10-2 looks much tougher now.
As for the Gators, there’s a decent chance Florida at Texas on Oct. 17 will be a match up of two undefeated teams.
And I don’t think even the most diehard Gator fan out there had things turning around this quickly for Florida.
It has been impressive to watch.
4. LSU crushed Texas A&M and the Aggies are now 0-2 in conference and panic has set in for Aggieland.
Let’s start on the Texas A&M side. The Aggies expected to be in the playoffs for a second straight season. Instead they have lost to Kentucky and LSU in back to back weeks and you got outgained 506 yards to 197, your passing game was 10 of 27 for 106 yards and you can’t run the football.
In a playoff or bust era of college football, how do you keep your team motivated when the playoffs are now out the window? (Honestly, NIL may help here because guys are concerned about putting good film out so they continue to play at a high level because they want to get paid in the offseason).
If this is a $40 million+ roster, A&M looks like the New York Mets of the SEC right now because this team looks 6-6 at best.
As for LSU, this was a great response to a tough loss in Oxford. The Tigers have a decent shot of being 7-1 when Alabama comes to town in Baton Rouge and then the Tigers get Texas the next week and then go to Tennessee.
I mean, these schedules are just brutal.
Think about this: LSU goes Alabama, at Texas, and at Tennessee in three straight weeks.
Good luck surviving that trio of games in good health.
But for now, Lane Kiffin appears to have returned LSU’s home field advantage to a real place of prominence. The evisceration of Clemson and now Texas A&M is a phenomenal early sign for the Tigers.
As is, the quick bounce back performance here.
5. Georgia smoked Oklahoma and the Sooners may have the worst offense in the SEC.
I mentioned that Texas A&M may have the worst $40 million+ roster in the SEC, well Oklahoma may be giving them a run.
The Sooners are impossible to watch on offense.
Whatever optimism there used to be from the John Mateer era has long since faded and we are left with this visual representation of the awfulness.
This play is a perfect distillation of Oklahoma’s offense this season. pic.twitter.com/XdFTXZ9deQ
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 26, 2026
Just like I mentioned for Texas A&M, Oklahoma, a playoff team from a year ago, is not going to contend for the playoff this year. So do the wheels come completely off for the Sooners or does the fact that players are competing for their next NIL deal keep them engaged?
I honestly have no idea.
But Oklahoma better hope it does because this Sooner team is really bad. (By the way, having said all of this, wouldn’t it be the most Texas-OU thing possible for the Sooners to somehow win 13-10 against Texas in two weeks?)
And that Texas A&M at Oklahoma game on Nov. 21 has major 3-2 final score vibes.
John Mateer was supposed to elevate Oklahoma.
Instead, turnovers and ugly quarterback play are dragging the Sooners down.
Against Georgia, it got even worse.
✍️: @ByGusWilson https://t.co/PgnFlsKAOa
— Sport & State (@SportNState) September 27, 2026
As for Georgia, Bulldog fans have been chirping me for not ranking their team higher. But the schedule has been soft early in the season.
Now at 4-0, Georgia gets Vandy before the game at Alabama starts the season in earnest.
6. Mississippi State is 4-0 and Kamario Taylor is making a bid to become a household name.
True story, this game ended at roughly 11:30 p.m. ET.
I watched the final seconds of time click off and then hopped in my car and drove back home to Nashville because I wanted to wake up early and write the Starting 11 at home in Nashville before the NFL games kicked off.
But if you want to consider the SEC’s hold on the attention economy, I bet a ton of you reading this right now started your day with Texas-Tennessee at noon eastern and finished it almost 12 hours later with Missouri at Mississippi State.
Yes, Oregon got a big win over USC, also a late night game, and Michigan was upset by Iowa, which we will discuss below, but yesterday was almost entirely an SEC day in college football.
There were nearly five top 25 match-ups in the conference alone.
And you can argue the SEC teams are overrated if you’d like — the conference going 10-2 in out of conference games makes that tougher to do — but next week Alabama at Mississippi State is also a noon ET kickoff and it figures to be the biggest game in Starkville in forever and then you go to Florida at Missouri, which is a pretty solid game too, and then we’re on to another week of the SEC just dominating the college football narrative.
A quick note on Alabama: the Tide dominated South Carolina and now play at Mississippi State, Georgia, and at Tennessee in three straight weeks of brutal SEC slugfest.
For all those sports fans who spent your day watching the SEC on Saturday, now you’re invested in the story arc of the season. And it’s primarily occurring in an SEC and Big Ten bent.
I just think, increasingly, the Big 12 and the ACC are going to struggle to be relevant because they don’t have the scale of big games.
Toss in that College Gameday is basically an SEC road promotion vehicle now and Big Noon is almost exclusively a Big Ten road show production vehicle and you’ve got the two biggest college football partners, ESPN and Fox, advertising their product for a booming audience of diehard fans and how do you cut through that narrative noise to make people care if you’re the Big 12 or the ACC. Or even, frankly, Notre Dame for most of the season.
I just think you can’t.
7. Oregon found early season redemption with a win over USC.
Yes, the Ducks were awful against Oklahoma State, but this was a program win for Dan Lanning and Oregon.
For USC fans, I thought Lincoln Riley had told us the window to win a title was finally open.
Well, that certainly didn’t look to be the case on Saturday night.
Dan Lanning didn’t hold back in his postgame press conference following the Ducks’ win and Dante Moore’s injury.
Consider the Oregon-USC rivalry fully renewed, writes @mattyfoles https://t.co/fup8HNJn5d
— Sport & State (@SportNState) September 27, 2026
We will see whether the Ducks can continue to improve, but the schedule isn’t overwhelming outside of the trip to Ohio State in November.
As for Lincoln Riley, he went 55-10 at Oklahoma, 37-7 in the Big 12, but he’s only 39-19 at USC, 25-13 in conference.
His first year was his best year and this team still has games left at Penn State, at Wisconsin, against Ohio State, at Indiana, and at a 4-0 UCLA team that is starting to steal a bit of buzz in Los Angeles.
8. Iowa upset Michigan in another wild Big House ending.
Michigan had no business losing this game — this is probably the best the offense has looked all season — but perhaps it was karmic justice to help erase the Western Michigan win that it happened on the final play of the game.
Now Michigan will struggle to stay in the playoff mix until late in the season and Iowa is 4-0 with Ohio State coming to town.
Yes, the Buckeyes are big favorites, but Iowa has been a tough destination for the Buckeyes over the years and I would imagine Hawkeye fans will be juiced for a monster campus game.
Michigan Survived In Week 1, But Iowa Broke Its Heart At The Big House In Week 4
✍️: @markjburns88 https://t.co/2SNgJDZwj7
— Sport & State (@SportNState) September 27, 2026
Back to the attention economy — I’m invested now in this Iowa team as a result of their big win over Michigan and the way it happened and I’m curious to see how Jeremiah Smith performs on the road too.
So I’ll be watching this game on Saturday.
9. UCLA is 4-0 and Bob Chesney’s team is firing on all cylinders.
I’m giving them the attention they deserve here because UCLA beat Maryland 54-3 on the road.
54-3!
I’m not sure how Maryland can keep Mike Locksley in charge after this game.
On the positive side: the first-year head coach impact is pretty phenomenal for UCLA’s Bob Chesney, Florida’s Jon Sumrall, Virginia Tech’s James Franklin, and Utah’s Morgan Scalley are a combined 16-0 so far.
10. The Perfect 10 Mortgage Top 10
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As a reminder, I only rank teams based on on-field results. That is, what we actually see on the field, not what we expect to see.
With that in mind, here we go:
1. Texas
2. Ohio State
3. Florida
4. Georgia
5. Miami
6. Notre Dame
7. Alabama
8. UCLA
9. Mississippi State
10. Iowa
11. My SEC power rankings 1-16
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1. Texas
2. Florida
3. Georgia
4. Alabama
5. Mississippi State
6. Ole Miss
7. LSU
8. Tennessee
9. Missouri
10. Kentucky
11. Texas A&M
12. Auburn
13. Vanderbilt
14. Oklahoma
15. South Carolina
16. Arkansas
As always thanks for all your support of our new company.
And we’ll be back with the Starting 11 next Sunday morning as we are every week all season long. Even when I have to drive super late night to make sure and get the article up.
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