ATHENS, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Georgia fans finally will have their chance to see Arch Manning play at Sanford Stadium.<\/p>\n
He won’t be wearing Georgia’s red and black, though.<\/p>\n
No. 5 Georgia (8-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference, No. 5 College Football Playoff) will face Manning and No. 10 Texas<\/a> (7-2, 4-1, No. 10 CFP) on Saturday night. Each team will be looking to protect its hopes of making a repeat trip to the SEC championship game.<\/p>\n Gunner Stockton replaced the injured Carson Beck and led the Bulldogs to a 22-19 overtime win<\/a> over Texas in last year\u2019s SEC championship game in Atlanta. Beck transferred to Miami and Stockton has kept the starting job this season, using his dual-threat talents to win over fans who once dreamed Manning would make Athens his home.<\/p>\n Manning acknowledged this week he came close to signing with Georgia.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a good team. I was considering them until the end,\u201d Manning said Monday.<\/p>\n Manning, the preseason Heisman Trophy favorite, and the Longhorns, who were No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25,<\/a> have a four-game winning streak after a 3-2 start.<\/p>\n Manning claimed his first SEC offensive player of the week honor after Texas\u2019s win over Vanderbilt<\/a>. He has passed for 674 yards with six touchdowns and one interception over the past two games.<\/p>\n It’s the kind of production Georgia coach Kirby Smart anticipated when he recruited Manning, the latest in the line of Manning football players that includes his father, Cooper, grandfather Archie and uncles Peyton and Eli.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really wasn\u2019t about the celebrity nature,\u201d Smart said Monday, adding \u201cthe tape\u201d was his motivation to recruit Manning.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a good relationship with their family,” Smart said. “I\u2019ve known his dad for a while, his uncle for a long time, and his grandfather. They\u2019ve got a wonderful family, but it has nothing to do with his recruitment. His recruitment was based on he\u2019s athletic, he\u2019s fast, he\u2019s tall, he\u2019s intelligent, he\u2019s got composure, he\u2019s got an arm. He can do it all. He can run the ball, he can throw the ball. In this day and age, you got to have a quarterback that can do both and he can.\u201d<\/p>\n Smart added Manning has \u201cgreat composure\u201d and is \u201cnot really affected by many things, even the way he\u2019s managed the hype and expectations of what he was supposed to be this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Return visit<\/p>\n This won’t be Manning’s first visit to Sanford Stadium. He said he attended a Georgia home game against South Carolina when he was a recruit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big-time atmosphere,\u201d Manning said. \u201cI\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n Thanks to that visit, Manning says he knows what to expect to hear on Saturday night.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my first time preparing for barking,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Ancient history<\/p>\n Georgia won two games against Texas last season. In addition to the SEC championship game victory, the Bulldogs beat then-No. 1 Texas 30-15<\/a> in Austin.<\/p>\n Players from each team agree last year’s games will have no effect on Saturday night’s contest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll have no carryover,\u201d Georgia safety KJ Bolden said. \u201cThose are two different teams, a lot of different players on each team. You know it\u2019s going to be a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n SEC hopes<\/p>\n Texas and Georgia do not control their hopes of returning to the SEC title game. No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 4 Alabama have no SEC losses. The Bulldogs and Longhorns are playing to remain in position to enter a possible tiebreaker scenario if either Alabama or Texas A&M lose.<\/p>\n CFP hopes<\/p>\n Georgia and Texas also will be playing to protect their playoff hopes. The Bulldogs are motivated to play for a first-round bye.<\/p>\n With two losses, the Longhorns may have a greater sense of urgency. Texas defensive end Ethan Burke says that’s nothing new.<\/p>\n \u201cI think every week we know what we\u2019ve got to do,\u201d Burke said. \u201cWe know how much has been on the line the last five games or so. Every game has been huge and it\u2019s critical to where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas pass rush<\/p>\n The Longhorns have been on a tear getting to the quarterback. Texas ranks No. 1 nationally in sacks per game at 3.78 and has 34 overall. The leaders are edge rushers Colin Simmons and Burke. Simmons has eight sacks.<\/p>\n \u201cHe draws a lot of attention, it\u2019s a benefit for the whole front,\u201d Burke said of Simmons. \u201cThe quarterbacks have to keep him in their vision.\u201d<\/p>\n AP Sports Writer Jim Vertuno contributed to this report.<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n \n Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.\n <\/p>\n \n Error! There was an error processing your request.\n <\/p>\n Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATHENS, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Georgia fans finally will have their chance to see Arch Manning play at Sanford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,261,416,300,154,28163],"class_list":["post-49333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-texas-georgia-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49333","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=49333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}