-
Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
ATLANTA — Texas lost two games this season, both to Georgia. The latest, a 22-19 overtime loss Saturday to the Bulldogs in the SEC championship game, means there won’t be a first-round bye for the Longhorns in the College Football Playoff.
As gut-wrenching as the loss was for coach Steve Sarkisian and his players, he said it changes nothing in his mind.
“We’re going to go compete for a national championship. That’s where my mind’s at,” Sarkisian said.
Texas (11-2) will find out how far it drops Sunday when the CFP committee unveils its final rankings. The Longhorns were No. 2 last week, and while there’s a feeling that the committee won’t penalize a team that made its conference championship game too severely, Texas doesn’t own any wins over an opponent ranked in the panel’s top 25 a week ago.
“The level of the culture coach Sark created here, we know we’re still in it and still have the opportunity to make things right,” Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron said. “It can’t just be ‘poor me’s’ for the next two weeks. You’ve got to get back to work. We’ll fix what we need to fix.”
The Bulldogs rallied for the win Saturday with their starting quarterback out of the game for all but one play in the second half. Gunner Stockton replaced Carson Beck, who injured his right (throwing) arm just before halftime.
The Longhorns dominated the stat sheet in the first half, but couldn’t finish drives, missed two field goals in the game and had 11 penalties — eight in the first half. Quarterback Quinn Ewers passed for 358 yards and a touchdown, but also threw two interceptions and was sacked six times. Ewers attempted 46 passes. He threw it 43 times in the first game, a 30-15 loss, and Arch Manning attempted six more passes. In the loss Saturday, Manning came in for only one snap, a running play.
The common denominator in both games was that Texas was unable to run the ball against Georgia’s defense. The Longhorns managed just 31 rushing yards Saturday and 29 on Oct. 19 in Austin after falling behind 23-0.
“We just didn’t capitalize at the end of the day,” Ewers said Saturday. “I think it was all on us. We had plenty of opportunities to go capitalize. Some games go that way. We’re definitely going to take a long look at it and go from here. … but with the new 12-team playoff, we get to keep playing ball.”
Ewers had 149 passing yards by the end of the first quarter, but all Texas could manage in the first half was two field goals. The Longhorns led 6-3, but it could have easily been 17-3.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, got in some third-and-longs down there that are hard to get out of,” Ewers said.
The Longhorns, in falling outside the top four seeds, will now be faced with having to play 17 total games this season if they’re going to win the national title. The CFP first-round matchups are Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, which means conference championship game losers won’t get nearly the downtime that the top four seeds will.
Texas played Saturday without star left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., who was out with an ankle injury.
“Hey, I really value this game. I think this game means a ton to the Southeastern Conference,” Sarkisian said of playing an extra game for the SEC championship. “I was fortunate to be part of this conference as an assistant and coached in it twice. This is a heck of a game and it’s an honor to play in it. It was an honor to play in it today. We didn’t come out on top, and especially the way it’s structured where not everybody gets to play everybody, I think it’s probably the right thing to do to have a championship game.
“Now, it’s our job to kind of regroup and get ourselves as healthy as we can to go compete in a playoff. We have time. We essentially have a bye to get ready for that game, and so we will do the best we can. I know our players will, from a rehab and a recovery standpoint, and we’ll find out who we’re playing and put together a plan and go to work.”
Sarkisian said his team has bounced back each of the past two seasons with its back to the wall and added that he has no doubt that same thing will happen to close this season, the Longhorns’ first in the SEC.
“The beauty for us is this stings. It’s hard,” Sarkisian said. “But we get a chance to regroup in a couple of weeks and get in the College Football Playoff.
“I think we’re plenty good enough to go win it.”