President Donald Trump used a Saturday at Neyland Stadium to make news on two fronts, telling Sport & State founder Clay Travis that he expects the Senate to pass the Protect College Sports Act early this week and that he may step into a potential Major League Baseball shutdown.
Travis, whose outlet published his “Starting 11” column on the weekend that included the interview, said the halftime conversation took place during No. 1 Texas’s chaotic road win over Tennessee. Trump told Travis he anticipates the Senate will act on the college sports bill in the coming days before the House takes it up and passes it as well. The president framed the measure as a genuinely bipartisan effort, according to the interview.
On baseball, Trump said he would “love to help” prevent a lockout that appears to be looming once the 2026 season ends, and that he may get involved if he believes he can be useful.
A packed weekend in Knoxville
The interview was the centerpiece of a busy stretch for Sport & State, the outlet Travis launched as a new media company built around sports, culture, original voices, and live conversation. Travis wrote that the operation had nine people on the ground in Knoxville, starting with a Friday night show from Wagon Wheel in the city’s Old City. For a company barely a month old, he called pulling off the weekend “pretty incredible.”
The logistics of the Trump sit-down were anything but relaxed. Travis recounted standing in the suite level for a mic check about a half-hour into the game, then being told earlier than expected — while the second quarter was still running — that the president was ready. Even as he conducted the interview, Travis could hear the crowd reacting to plays he couldn’t see.
He also drew a personal connection to the setting: his grandfather once played for General Neyland and lived in the dorms at the stadium that now bears the coach’s name. Travis described wondering what his grandfather would have made of his grandson interviewing a sitting president inside that building.
Setting aside politics, Travis argued the scene itself was one any college football fan should have savored — Air Force One performing a flyover, the president in the stadium, Tennessee fans checkerboarding Neyland in orange and white, and Texas supporters still marveling at life in the SEC and the road trips that come with it.
Texas wins ugly
The game itself was far less polished than the pageantry. Texas left Knoxville with a victory, but the Longhorns’ offense generated just 262 yards to Tennessee’s 221, managed only 61 rushing yards on 36 carries, turned the ball over twice, and committed 11 penalties for 115 yards. Quarterback Arch Manning was sacked six times and spent much of the afternoon on his back.
Travis wrote that while Texas survived, the performance offered little confidence about the offense going forward. The Longhorns now get a bye, should handle Oklahoma in two weeks, and then host Florida, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State in Austin before November arrives. Two of what figured to be their four toughest games are already behind them, and they are 2-0 in those matchups — but the pressure Tennessee applied to Manning stood out as a concern.
On the other side, the Texas defense sacked Tennessee quarterback Faizon Brandon 10 times and kept him guessing all afternoon. Travis described Brandon as overwhelmed, double- and triple-clutching the ball and scrambling without a clear plan. The freshman finished with 23 carries for two yards, a line rarely seen from a quarterback. The Volunteers produced almost nothing offensively until a late touchdown drive.
Travis noted that if Tennessee coach Josh Heupel — who spoke with Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff — had been told beforehand his defense would hold Texas to 20 points, he would have expected to win.
The finish was a particular lowlight. After recovering an onside kick with roughly 1:22 left, Tennessee took over at midfield and ran just four plays — a five-yard gain, a sack, a four-yard pass, and a broken-play Hail Mary from the 50 — with three penalties mixed in. Travis wrote that he had never seen a final drive starting at midfield simply run out of time without a first down, turnover, or missed kick deciding it.
The path forward for the Vols, in his view, is to develop Brandon quickly, beat Auburn and Arkansas, and arrive at 5-1 before Alabama visits Neyland.
SEC whiplash
Tennessee’s struggles fit a broader theme Travis flagged: the volatility of SEC play this season. A week after Ole Miss beat LSU, the Rebels surrendered 52 points and lost by 24 at Florida, where the Gators ran for 302 yards in what he called pure physical domination. Travis had ranked Ole Miss No. 1 in the country entering the week, citing impressive wins over Louisville and LSU, but dropped the Rebels entirely out of his top 10 after the loss.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/clay-travis-starting-11-texas-outlasts-tennessee-with-president-trump-attending