Texas coach Steve Sarkisian had a problem to plan for before Saturday’s game at Tennessee: President Donald Trump was coming, and the coach believed his movements around the stadium could interrupt the teams’ radio communications without warning. By the time the No. 1 Longhorns escaped with a 20–17 win on September 26, the feared interruption on the field had not been apparent. The television audience, though, heard a very different audio problem.

Why the coaches were concerned

In comments on September 24, Sarkisian said a president entering, leaving or changing locations inside a stadium could cut the links between coaches, as well as the communication from the sideline to a player’s helmet. Teams needed a backup plan because, he said, “you get no warning.” Raw Story also covered Trump’s football visit ahead of the game.

Sarkisian also brought up January’s College Football Playoff title game, which Trump attended. He said Miami coach Mario Cristobal had told him a communications loss affected the Hurricanes’ final possession against Indiana. CBS Sports spoke to multiple Miami sources who confirmed a brief outage but disagreed about when it happened; two said it was not on the final drive. They said it lasted only a couple of plays and did not decide the result. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti separately described a brief loss of audio earlier in the fourth quarter. The White House denied that Trump’s departure had caused the January outage.

What happened when Trump arrived in Knoxville

The schools worked with the Secret Service to coordinate radio channels before kickoff, ABC sideline reporter Laura Rutledge said during the September 26 broadcast. An Associated Press account after the game found no apparent interruption to coach and player communications during Trump’s visit. Trump arrived shortly before the noon Eastern kickoff and his motorcade left at 2:07 p.m., while play was still in the second half.

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Almost immediately after Rutledge explained the precautions, ABC’s commentary became distorted by static. Play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler apologized on air. The problems came and went during the first half and had cleared by halftime, as documented by Awful Announcing. The broadcast fault and the teams’ headset links were separate systems; there is no established evidence that Trump’s presence caused ABC’s glitch.

Texas held on after Trump left

Tennessee’s official game report recorded 101,915 spectators, including Trump, at Neyland Stadium. The Volunteers cut a 20–10 deficit to three points with 1:22 left and recovered the ensuing onside kick, but Texas broke up a pass into the end zone on the final play. The result moved the Longhorns to 4–0. The communication scare had provided an unusual subplot; the decisive action took place on the field.

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