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Ivory CoastSarkisian Prepares for Headset Silence With Trump Attending Texas vs Tennessee
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is preparing for sudden headset blackouts when President Donald Trump attends Saturday's game against Tennessee.
Silence in the Stadium
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian is preparing his team for a unique challenge this weekend. When the top-ranked Longhorns play the No. 14 Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday, President Donald Trump will be in attendance. This means the coaches might suddenly lose the ability to speak to each other and their players.
Sarkisian explained on a Thursday Zoom call that security measures will affect their technology. Whenever the president moves around the stadium, all communication lines are temporarily shut down. This happens without any warning.
"They cut your headsets," Sarkisian said. "They cut the headsets to coaches. They cut headsets for coach-to-player communication. So you have to have a plan for that, if and when it happens, and you get no warning. It just gets cut out."
Preparing for the Unexpected
This is not the first time Sarkisian has dealt with presidential security. He was the offensive coordinator for Alabama in 2019 when Trump attended a game against LSU. He knows that the staff must be ready to adapt instantly.
Sarkisian noted that the cuts can happen at any moment. He said teams must have a plan to adjust whether the president arrives in the middle of the first quarter or leaves in the fourth quarter. He added that coaches must be prepared to have no communication for a short amount of time.
The matchup already has plenty of storylines. It will be the first game at Neyland Stadium for Texas quarterback Arch Manning. His uncle, Peyton Manning, was a star player for Tennessee.
Real Game Consequences
Sudden communication losses have impacted major games before. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti recalled a similar situation during a national title game.
Cignetti said the headsets went out with about six minutes and 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter. During that exact blackout, Miami scored a touchdown on a fly sweep to Malachi Toney with six minutes and 37 seconds remaining.
"We couldn't hear, then it came back," Cignetti said. The communication returned before the following kickoff, but it showed how a brief outage can happen during a critical play. Texas will need to be ready to call plays without technology if the silence hits.
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