Texas's win over the Tennessee Volunteers came down to the wire, and while the Longhorns walked away with the win, it never should have come down to a Hail Mary attempt.
Yes, the Vols scored a touchdown with just 1 minute and 22 seconds remaining in the game, but their onside kick attempt should have been called back, and the fact that the Horns broke up Tennessee's Hail Mary saved the game's officials from a complete catastrophe.
The drop-kick attempt was illegal. Making matters worse, the refs threw a flag on the first attempt, seemingly recognizing the illegality of the play, but then they picked up the flag and allowed the Volunteers to try the illegal kick again.
You could see the confusion across the board, both on the field and online, as fans took to the internet to share their disbelief that the drop-kick was an allowable play.
According to the college football rulebook, a team must place the ball on its own "restraining line" on a free kick. In other words, the ball has to be placed on the ground at some point along the line on kickoffs following a score, which was the exact scenario Tennessee found itself in.
The SEC officials completely missed the mark on this play, and if Tennessee had scored on the Hail Mary, handing Texas its first loss of the year, then there would have been an upheaval.
This is illegal on a kickoff. The ball must be kicked on the restraining line, the 35 yard line here.
— Terry McAulay (@tjmcaulay) September 26, 2026
There is an exception for safety kicks, but not a kickoff. https://t.co/uIgR9jrYVL pic.twitter.com/wMyPQjLNK5
Sure, one could argue that the Horns committed pass interference on the Hail Mary before defensive back Jelani McDonald knocked the pass attempt out of play. However, the Hail Mary never should have been in play because the Volunteers should not have been able to attempt the drop-kick in the way that they did.
So, really, the officials should be thanking the Longhorns' defensive secondary for preventing the game from ending with a different result, because those refs would have a lot to answer for this week if Tennessee had won (illegally), instead of Texas still walking away with the victory.
The illegal onside kick made Texas-Tennessee look significantly closer
Obviously, when a game comes down to a Hail Mary attempt, it makes it look like the winning team was mere seconds or inches away from losing, taking a little shine off of the victory.
While the game still went into Texas's win column, the win might not look as impressive to those who didn't watch every play of the matchup because the Vols were allowed to get the ball back after the illegal kick.
It ended as a three-point victory for the Horns, and most likely, that score wouldn't have changed if Tennessee had simply kicked off legally and Texas had recovered the ball. However, it would have ended with the Horns in possession, not the Volunteers mere inches from pulling off the upset.
In other words, when the College Football Playoff committee looks at this game, they have to keep in mind that the Hail Mary never should have happened, and it should have been the Longhorns with an opportunity to tack on more points at the end of the game, not Tennessee.
Yes, Texas is still undefeated, and yes, it is still the No. 1 team in the nation, but the biggest win from Week 4 may have actually been a gift from the Horns to the SEC officials.
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