A clash of powerhouses will occur Oct. 19, as the Texas Longhorns will play hosts to the Georgia Bulldogs. Both teams will meet for the first time since the 2019 Sugar Bowl, where Texas came out victorious.
Both the Longhorns and Bulldogs are coming off mildly successful seasons with disappointing endings, with Texas falling to Washington in the College Football Semifinals and Georgia losing the SEC Championship to Alabama and falling short of the College Football Playoffs.
Texas and Georgia will both be suffering from losing many key players to the NFL draft, with Texas having 11 players drafted and Georgia having eight. Luckily, an issue both teams won’t encounter is losing their starting quarterbacks.
Texas’ junior quarterback Quinn Ewers and Georgia’s senior quarterback Carson Beck will be prominent players in this matchup and, based on the season, are both contenders for the coveted Heisman Trophy. Both quarterbacks rank among the top at their position in all of college football.
Both coaches share similar stops in their journeys in becoming head coaches at their respective schools. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was an offensive coordinator at Alabama for two years, winning a national championship under Nick Saban in 2020. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was a defensive coordinator at Alabama for seven years and won four national titles in that position.
A point of emphasis in this game will be down in the trenches. With Georgia bringing in four returning starters on its offensive line, the team will be matching up against a Texas defensive front that lost two impactful defensive linemen in T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II, who have both moved on to the NFL.
Returning players, such as senior defensive lineman Alfred Collins, senior defensive edge Barryn Sorrell and junior defensive edge Ethan Burke will have to make jumps in their play. Georgia will have to focus on new players, like junior defensive edge Trey Moore, who transferred from UTSA, senior defensive lineman Tiaoalii Savea, who transferred from Arizona, and Colin Simmons, a five-star freshman defensive edge.
Another important factor in this game will be between the Longhorn receivers and the Bulldogs’ secondary.
It will be up to young returning players, like sophomores Johntay Cook II and DeAndre Moore Jr. to step into more impactful roles. Transfer players, such as Alabama transfer junior Isaiah Bond and Houston transfer junior Matthew Golden, will have to come in and become instant impact players. Incoming freshmen like five-star Ryan Wingo will have much to learn under the leadership of the older receivers to live up to the SEC standard.
Ewers’ connections with this revamped receiving core will be crucial when facing Georgia’s returning junior All-American defensive back Malaki Starks, who was a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, which is given to the best defensive back in college football. Georgia has also garnered potential impact players in five-star freshmen defensive backs Ellis Robinson IV and KJ Bolden, two highly sought-after recruits who are certain to find a role early in Georgia’s defense.
A win for either team could send a message to the rest of the SEC and the rest of college football. This is a game that is projected to be a battle that may become a pivotal point in the season for the Texas Longhorns.
