President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend Saturday’s game between No. 1 Texas and No. 14 Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn., the White House Press Office confirmed to The Athletic. When Trump arrives at Neyland Stadium, both the Longhorns and Volunteers could face an inconvenient snag in their internal communication operations.
Whenever the president enters, exits or changes location within the stadium, coach-to-coach and coach-to-player communication over headsets get cut briefly, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian explained at a press conference.
“The one thing that you have to be aware of when the president goes to any game is that any time he enters the stadium or leaves the stadium, or changes locations within the stadium, they cut all communication,” Sarkisian said, via The Athletic. “They cut headsets to coaches. They cut headsets to coach-to-player communication. So you have to have a plan for that if and/or when, and you get no warning. So that just gets cut out.”
Sarkisian elaborated on the situation based on some intel from his friend and Miami coach Mario Cristobal, who allegedly said he experienced an on-field snafu during the national championship game in January (which Trump attended).
“In the fourth quarter, if he decides to leave early, your communication gets cut off and shuts down,” Sarkisian said. “So, a good friend of mine is Mario Cristobal. Last year when they’re playing Indiana in the national championship, they had that drive at the end of that game, they had no communications because he was leaving early before the game ended. And so you get no warning. It just cuts out. And so you’ve got to be prepared for that. That is definitely something that is unique that could come up in this ball game.”
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said his team’s headsets were, indeed, cut off late in the Hoosiers’ national title win over Miami, but the timing was different from Sarkisian’s claims. Cignetti told ESPN that the headsets went out around the 6:45 mark—around that moment in time, the Hurricanes were able to score on a fly sweep to Malachi Toney.
“We couldn’t hear [on the TD], then it came back,” Cignetti said, via ESPN. “It came back before kickoff. We both had communication from that point on.”
In any case, both Sarkisian and Tennessee coach Josh Heupel will likely be preparing for any unforeseen logistical communication problems at one of the biggest college football games of the year, set to kickoff at noon ET. Both teams enter their SEC opener undefeated (3-0), with the Longhorns notably notching a thrilling comeback win over Ohio State earlier this month.
President Trump has attended several sporting events during his second term in office, including the Daytona 500, Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs ,and the FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. He has no connection to Texas nor Tennessee (he attended Fordham before transferring to Penn in his junior year.) He has, however, attended a handful of regular-season college football games over the years, from Iowa-Iowa State in 2023 to Army-Navy tilts during both of his presidencies. Trump’s choice to attend Saturday’s marquee Tennessee-Texas matchup comes as his approval rating has fallen to a record low of 32%, according to a recent poll by Reuters.
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