In the end, Texas football‘s postseason plans for the months of December and January may be dictated by 15 minutes in November.
Texas unraveled in the fourth quarter Saturday of a 35-10 loss at No. 5 Georgia. With its season on the line, UT made several key mistakes at Sanford Stadium and was outscored 21-0 in the fourth quarter.
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Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) leaves the field after the loss to Georgia at Sanford Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 in Athens, Georgia.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
The 25-point loss wasn’t just the Longhorns’ most-lopsided since TCU beat Texas 50-7 during the Charlie Strong era, but it also was their third defeat this season. That could very well leave Texas on the outside of the College Football Playoff picture.
NO. 10 TEXAS VS. ARKANSAS
When/where: 2:30 p.m. at Royal-Memorial Coliseum.
TV/radio: ABC; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM (Spanish)
“We played hard, but the fourth quarter was, for lack of better terms, a disaster,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said.
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MORE: Three reasons why Longhorns’ pursuit of College Football Playoff failed in 2025
A disaster? That bad, huh?
“It was a disaster. We didn’t finish,” UT edge rusher Colin Simmons later reiterated.
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What was so disastrous about Texas’ fourth quarter?
For the Longhorns, the disaster at Sanford Stadium technically started just after Ryan Wingo hauled in a 7-yard touchdown pass from Arch Manning with 5:27 left in the third quarter. That pulled Texas to a 14-10 deficit.
On the ensuing drive, Texas stopped Georgia short of the marker on third down, and the Bulldogs sent out their punt team on a fourth-and-1 play from their own 36-yard line. But after the officials took time to review the spot, Georgia’s offense was sent back onto the field and a play-action pass to running back Chauncey Bowens gained 10 yards for the first down.
Four plays later, Georgia picked up another first down when Simmons jumped offside on a fourth-and-5 near midfield.
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Texas Longhorns defensive backs Michael Taaffe (16) and Jaylon Guilbeau (3) tackle Georgia receiver Zachariah Branch (1) during the game at Sanford Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 in Athens, Georgia.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Those conversions led Georgia into the fourth quarter, and the Bulldogs soon took a 21-10 lead on Gunner Stockton’s 30-yard touchdown pass. Following that score, Georgia caught Texas off-guard with an onside kick. The Bulldogs scored again to go up 28-10, and the Longhorns were suddenly looking at an 18-point hole instead of a four-point deficit.
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With 4:43 left, Georgia added an exclamation mark when Stockton scored on a short touchdown run. In the final frame, Georgia outscored Texas 21-0 and outgained the Longhorns by 55 yards.
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“That’s not our standard,” Texas safety Michael Taaffe said. “Our standard’s to win the fourth quarter. That’s what we preach, and we lost it 21-nothing.”
Sarkisian said Texas had practiced for that fourth-down Georgia pass play as well as the onside kick, but that the team just failed to execute. As for Simmons’ offsides call?
“I ain’t going to point fingers or nothing like that,’ Simmons said. “Somebody was calling my name, and I heard the clap, jumped. I wasn’t even looking at the player in front of me or nothing like that.”
Texas has now been outscored 21-0 in each of the fourth quarters in its last two games. Vanderbilt posted that final-period score Nov. 1 as it attempted to rally past the Longhorns at Royal-Memorial Stadium, but Texas held on for a 34-21 win. Before the Vanderbilt game, Texas had last been outscored by 21 points in a fourth quarter back in 2014 against TCU.
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A Georgia fan shows the horns down symbol during the game against the Texas Longhorns at Sanford Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 in Athens, Georgia.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
What’s next for the Texas football team?
The Longhorns only have Arkansas and No. 3 Texas A&M on their schedule. But what happens next for Texas will be determined over the next few days.
On Tuesday, the newest CFP rankings will be released. If Texas slips just a few spots from the No. 10 slot it filled this week, then perhaps hope can remain. But if the Longhorns plummet — a scenario that seems more plausible than possible since each of the nine teams ranked behind Texas either won or were idle Saturday and the highest-ranked three-loss team last week was No. 21 Iowa — Texas will soon find out about the bowl ties the SEC has.
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Golden: Texas Longhorns did not look like CFP quality in bludgeoning loss to Georgia
By the way, the Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31 in Orlando gets the first pick among the SEC’s nonplayoff qualifiers. The conference also has ties to the following bowls: the Texas Bowl (Houston, Dec. 27); the Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, Fla., Dec. 27); the Music City Bowl (Nashville, Dec. 30), the ReliaQuest Bowl (Tampa, Fla., Dec. 31); the Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Jan. 2); and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Charlotte, N.C., Jan. 2).
SEC Commisioner Greg Sankey told a group of reporters before Saturday’s game that he believed a three-loss team could get into this year’s playoff, but he conceded that Alabama, with its three losses and No. 11 ranking, were left off last year’s 12-team bracket because the committee needed to seed two lower-ranked conference champions (the top-five conference champions earn automatic bids).
A similar situation could present itself this year — the projected ACC champion and best Group of Five team were ranked 15th and 24th last week — so teams eyeing at-large bids won’t want to stray too far from that No. 10 ranking.
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Various pundits also argued last week that Texas deserved to make the cut if it at least split its games against Georgia and Texas A&M. But that was also before the Longhorns lost by 25 points (No. 12 BYU and No. 13 Utah, which currently boast 9-1 and 8-2 records, respectively, are the only other top-20 teams to have suffered a 20-point loss this season).
After the loss in Athens, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian declined to do much campaigning to the CFP committee.
“We’ve got a two-week season in front of us,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got to get up off the mat, we’ve got to go compete and we’ve got to find a way to go win the next two ballgames and see what happens.”
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Texas has qualified for the last two CFPs. But when he was again asked in his postgame press conference about the playoff, Sarkisian repeated a version of his earlier line.
“We’ve got a two-week season in front of us,” he said. “We’ve got to go play. We’ve got two games. It’s two weeks. Let’s go play. Let’s put our best foot forward and see what happens.”