Underdogs in Athens, Texas faces a crucial SEC showdown. Can the Longhorns challenge the Bulldogs and boost their playoff hopes?
It's the week many Texas fans have waited on for since the offseason. It's Georgia week.
The Texas Longhorns face the Georgia Bulldogs in a matchup with SEC title and College Football Playoff implications. For Texas, it's a potential elimination game. For Georgia, it's a chance to solidify Top 5 status in the playoff standings.
An early betting line has been released for the game. It has Texas pinned as 6.5-point underdogs. And while many probably expect Georgia to win the home game, the line is interesting given how Texas, and Georgia, have played of late.
On paper, Georgia made quick work of the Mississippi State Bulldogs winning the game, 41-21. Yet the game still showed potential weaknesses for the Texas offense to exploit.
We had noted that Georgia has not had much success reaching the quarterback this season. The Bulldogs entered Saturday with just eight sacks on the season. They added three more on Saturday. Even so, the number pales in comparison to Texas' sack total (34). Add to that the high expectation many have for a Georgia team led by head coach Kirby Smart, and the Bulldogs have severely underperformed this season.
Smart seems at ease about the matchup publicly. Supposedly, Smart texted Sarkisian on Saturday. The Georgia head coach provided context, adding, "I wanted to see what he was doing."
Obviously, it's easy to assume Sarkisian was doing what he has been doing for the last week: overpreparing for the Georgia Bulldogs. Even so, Smart's ease around joking about that presumption could indicate he's not too concerned with Texas' extra preparation time for the game.
Texas dropped two games to the Georgia Bulldogs last season, one in Austin and the other in the SEC title game in Atlanta. Now, it will face Georgia in the Bulldogs' own building with likely a bigger home field advantage than in the SEC Championship game.
It's a big game for Texas in 2025 and in the big picture. Sarkisian and company have their season on the line in the game, with a third loss putting playoff hopes in jeopardy. Even so, the game has implications for how Sarkisian, Manning and Texas are viewed in SEC circles.
Many have forgotten that Sarkisian defeated Alabama head coach Nick Saban and the 2023 SEC title winners by 10 points on the road two years ago, 34-24. Instead, they fixate on Sarkisian's 4-8 record vs. Top 4 teams. Four of the eight losses have come against Georgia and Ohio State the last two seasons.
A win over Georgia means Sarkisian is undisputedly in the upper echelon of coaches like Smart, Ryan Day, Kalen DeBoer, Dabo Swinney and Dan Lanning. Adding a road win over Smart to his dominant win over Saban all but cements that. But the win does more than help Sarkisian. It changes everything for his team.
For starters, it sends a warning shot to the SEC that Texas is still the competitor that knocked off Alabama two years ago and that went to the SEC title last year. It says the Longhorns aren't going away. But it helps one Texas player in particular.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning has taken a lot of flack the past two months, but has been outstanding in three of his last four games. Manning led Texas to then Top 10 victories over Oklahoma and Vanderbilt playing near perfect games in each contest. He added a 346-yard, three touchdown performance against Mississippi State.
A win Saturday gives Manning a five-game winning streak and effectively buries all legitimate criticism of the former five-star quarterback prospect.
It's a huge game, and one that Texas will enter with two weeks of preparation. The team will have the chance to make another statement with a third Top 10 win in five games.