President Trump's presence at Texas vs. Tennessee will impact coaches headset communication

When the President attends a college football game, the security plan reaches well past the metal detectors at the gates. It reaches the headsets.

The White House confirmed Wednesday that President Trump will attend Saturday's noon kickoff between No. 1 Texas and No. 14 Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. Both teams are 3-0, the game airs on ABC, and ESPN's College GameDay is in Knoxville for the occasion. On Thursday, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked whether the visit changes anything for his program.

"It won't. It won't change anything for us from a logistic standpoint," Sarkisian said before sharing a rather interesting nugget.

"The one thing 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 communications," Sarkisian said, per Yahoo Sports.

That includes the coach-to-coach headsets and the coach-to-player communication that goes into the helmet. Sarkisian said teams have to "have a plan for that," because "you get no warning, so that just gets cut out."

Sarkisian coached through this once before. He was Alabama's offensive coordinator in 2019 when President Trump attended the LSU game in Tuscaloosa. "It was 2019, Alabama. We hosted LSU," he said. LSU won that one 46-41 and went on to win the national title behind Joe Burrow.

FBS staffs have leaned on helmet communication since the NCAA approved it for the 2024 season, allowing one player per side of the ball to wear a speaker. Take that away in the middle of a drive and a staff is back to what everybody ran for decades: signal boards, wristbands, hand signals and a backup signal caller on the sideline. Most programs keep those systems ready for equipment failures anyway. Saturday could be the day both staffs actually need them.

The press box takes a hit too. If the coach-to-coach headsets go dark, the play caller loses his eyes upstairs, and any adjustment from the booth waits until the line comes back.

No doubt both staffs have a plan for that scenario, but a blackout on second-and-8 in the first quarter is a mild inconvenience, whereas a blackout during a two-minute drive at the end of the half is a significant problem.

This is the ninth college football game President Trump has attended across his two terms, according to WVLT, with the most recent being January's national championship game, where Indiana beat Miami 27-21. Tennessee has urged fans to arrive early because of expanded security, and gates open at 9 a.m.

Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.