{"id":47053,"date":"2025-11-12T22:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/47053\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T22:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:31:07","slug":"texas-boogeyman-georgia-stands-between-longhorns-and-third-straight-cfp-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/47053\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas\u2019 boogeyman Georgia stands between Longhorns and third straight CFP appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent bye week offered Texas<\/a> an opportunity to rest up before its stretch run that they hope coincided with a postseason push. It offered head coach Steve Sarkisian an opportunity to channel surf. <\/p>\n

He watched Indiana sustain its undefeated season with a miraculous back-of-the-end-zone catch. He watched Oregon orchestrate a game-winning drive that ended in a last-second field goal. He watched, in his words, \u201cteams that are trying to compete for a championship find a way to win.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe cream is kind of rising to the top right now,\u201d Sarkisian said Monday at his weekly news conference. \u201cYou\u2019re starting to see the teams that are getting better throughout the season and starting to play that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The No. 10 Longhorns (7-2, 4-1 SEC) consider that to be an apt self description. They\u2019ve revived their season after a brief detour outside of the AP Top 25 entirely and might\u2019ve played their most complete game yet vs. a ranked Vanderbilt team two weeks ago<\/a>. Their prodigious sophomore quarterback Arch Manning<\/a> has started to gel with his wide receivers, his offensive line is no longer an outright liability and decrees of maturation now populate each of Sarkisian\u2019s news conferences. <\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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They\u2019d be a College Football Playoff team, per Tuesday night\u2019s bracket reveal<\/a>, if the tournament began this week. That\u2019s nothing more than projection, though, until the Longhorns can certifiably punch their tickets. <\/p>\n

Their boogeyman \u2014 a program which Sarkisian believes is still pretty darn close to a dynasty in a college football era which limits them \u2014 stands in the way of that. <\/p>\n

Texas plays Georgia at Athens\u2019 Sanford Stadium Saturday night in the first of several late-season games that will shape the conference\u2019s postseason outlook. The No. 5 Bulldogs (8-1, 6-1) are one of five teams that still have a legitimate chance to qualify for the SEC championship game. They, like the Longhorns, can ill afford a loss with Alabama and Texas A&M still undefeated in league play. <\/p>\n

The Longhorns lost to Georgia twice last year \u2014 once in the regular season and again in the SEC championship game<\/a> \u2014 and still qualified for the 12-team postseason field. That same fate may not await them if they lose to the Bulldogs for a third time in a year Saturday night given the fragility of a three-loss team\u2019s playoff chances. An automatic bid by way of an SEC championship game win remains the safest point of entry. The Longhorns must all but certainly win out to qualify for it and have adopted that mindset since a loss to Florida in their first conference game last month<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis week\u2019s not different that way,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re putting more into it than that. It is what it is. If we want to play in the SEC championship game, we\u2019ve got to win Saturday night, it just is what it is. Let\u2019s focus on what we need to do today to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, well, about that. <\/p>\n

The Bulldogs are 51-2 in their last 53 home games and own college football\u2019s best overall record since the start of the 2020 season. Their lone loss this season was to an Alabama team that\u2019s likely postseason bound and in the driver\u2019s seat for a SEC championship game berth. The Longhorns haven\u2019t beaten Georgia since quarterback Sam Ehlinger declared that they were \u201cback\u201d<\/a> after a Sugar Bowl win six years ago. Their last regular season win against the Bulldogs \u2014 which derives from an admittedly minute three-game sample size \u2014 was 66 years ago. <\/p>\n

The single largest difference between both teams in last year\u2019s two games was each offense\u2019s ability to run the football against a stout defense. The Bulldogs won twice despite subpar performances from quarterbacks Carson Beck and Gunnar Stockton in large part because they were able to average 3.7 yards per carry and score five combined touchdowns on the ground over the eight-plus quarters of play. <\/p>\n

The Longhorns averaged 1.1 yards per carry, didn\u2019t score a rushing touchdown and forced quarterback Quinn Ewers to throw nearly 100 combined passes against a defense that produced three first-round picks in this spring\u2019s NFL draft. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a formula that behooves Texas, even if Georgia\u2019s pass rush and coverage defense has been below average for its and the SEC\u2019s standards, even if its run defense remains a premier unit and even if Manning (who\u2019s thrown for 300-plus yards in two consecutive games) has played with greater poise and command<\/a> in the second half of this season. Manning mastered a quick-play offense vs. the Commodores but benefited from a rushing offense that averaged 3.7 yards per carry and created manageable third-down opportunities. <\/p>\n

The Texas ground game \u2014 and the offensive line it runs behind \u2014 still remains a work in progress and is statistically worse than last year\u2019s unit. Georgia\u2019s ability to stop the run has been the strength of its defense. Manning and company may struggle to exploit an average-for-Georgia-standards pass defense if it becomes their only method of attack. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the SEC, you have to run the ball efficiently to win games, it\u2019s no secret,\u201d running back CJ Baxter said. \u201cYou have to be able to run the football well to win a football game. Running is a pivotal part of football. I know that the run game is going to be big this week. We want to be able to run the ball against a great defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might be their best chance to win. <\/p>\n

The championship-caliber teams find ways to do that. <\/p>\n

Week 12 college football predictions: Oklahoma-Alabama, Texas-Georgia and more<\/a>Podcast: Fired Nico, Cowboys\u2019 grief and what will Texas do in Georgia?<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recent bye week offered Texas an opportunity to rest up before its stretch run that they hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3230,3688,3231,27,29,537,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-47053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-arch-manning","9":"tag-colleges","10":"tag-steve-sarkisian","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-longhorns","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}