A year ago, Texas’ loss this past weekend to Georgia would have been a massive gut punch.
Sure, it still had to hurt the Longhorns, losing 30-15 to UGA in Austin. But this is still a 6-1 team, ranked No. 5 in the nation, with plenty to play for. In the four-team College Football Playoff era, this would have been a devastating loss. Now that the CFP is at 12 teams, though, Texas still has more than a fair shot to make the CFP and win it all.
That’s not lost on UT head coach Steve Sarkisian.
“The beauty of this format, losing a game like this doesn’t kill you. Everything we want is still in front of us,” Sarkisian said in his postgame news conference (h/t On3).
Sarkisian pointed out that Texas has no reason to fold and give up at this juncture of the season, but he’s wise enough to respect an upcoming Vanderbilt opponent that has been more than competitive in 2024. Ranked No. 25 in the latest AP poll, Vandy is riding a three-game winning streak that started with a victory over then-No. 1 Alabama.
Led by quarterback Diego Pavia, this is a Commodores team that could absolutely beat Texas if the Longhorns aren’t able to bounce back from the loss to the Bulldogs.
“The challenge for us is to be able to regroup and get ourselves back up off the mat and prepare for a Vanderbilt team next week that’s going to be hungry for us coming to town,” Sarkisian said. “And get our momentum back going in the right direction, and finish out this second phase of the season, trying to get a W, and kind of work ourselves back in the direction of where we want to go.”
After Vanderbilt, Texas’ remaining schedule is against Florida, at Arkansas, against Kentucky and at No. 14 Texas A&M.
