Tennessee football almost pulled off a miraculous comeback in the closing minutes of its Sept. 26 loss to No. 1 Texas with special teams.

Trailing 20-17 with 1:22 left in the fourth quarter at Neyland Stadium, the No. 13 Vols sent punter Jackson Ross on to attempt the onside kick. Ross used a drop kick to sneak the ball past Texas wide receiver Ryan Wingo and linebacker Arion Carter recovered the critical possession for UT.

ONSIDE DROP KICK ALERT 🚨🤯@Vol_Football x 📺 ABC pic.twitter.com/9BDWSe9Zyv

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) September 26, 2026

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said postgame that he'd never seen an onside kick executed like that before and he will ask the SEC to review UT's onside kick tactics.

"We need to get a ruling on how they kicked it because there’s a lot of gray area in that and obviously, one of the officials thought it was a foul and threw it." Sarkisian said. "They ended up picking it up. We’ve got to get a ruling on that because that was a bit unique, walking into a drop kick like that."

Mike Matthews scored on a 30-yard touchdown reception to make it 20-17 with 1:22 left in the fourth quarter. With dwindling time remaining, UT opted for an onside kick. After Ross' unconventional drop kick, one official threw a flag. But after discussion with the other referees, the flag was rescinded.

Ross said the Vols had worked behind the scenes to perfect the drop kick.

"That’s the first onside kick I’ve ever done but we put hours of time into little things like that, getting our alignment and assignment and things like that," Ross said. "To execute on my first time and for AC to recover was awesome. I’m so proud of him. Just gave us a chance to claw the game back."

Ultimately, the well-executed onside kick was inconsequential. The Vols failed to capitalize on the extra possession and suffered their first loss of the season.

Stephen Thompson covers Tennessee Volunteers men's basketball. Email him at stephen.thompson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @stephenethom.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Texas' Steve Sarkisian wants SEC to review onside kick by Tennessee football

Source: Yahoo Sports