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ATLANTA — The palpable buzz Texas created at SEC Media Days on Tuesday doesn’t guarantee anything regarding the outcome of the 2025 season.
Still, coach Steve Sarkisian, quarterback Arch Manning and the Longhorns dominated the conversation before, during and after they made their way through the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Texas hype reached a fever pitch before OTF 5-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson (Loganville, Ga./Grayson) went live on ESPN and committed to Texas on the “Pat McAfee Show." James Johnson’s (Cape Coral, Fla./Miami Northwestern) flip from Georgia to the Longhorns a few hours later punctuated a day when Sarkisian’s program went into Kirby Smart’s backyard, planted a flag with authority and headed home with two elite future defensive pieces — the No. 1 recruit in Georgia and a blue-chip defensive lineman previously bound for Smart’s Bulldogs — in the fold.
The rivalry between Texas and Georgia is currently a one-sided affair on the field. The Longhorns didn’t find their footing in time to make a 30-15 regular-season loss to the Bulldogs more competitive, and Georgia emerged victorious from a slugfest at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the SEC title.
“To be honest, they out-physicalled us in that first game,” All-American safety Michael Taaffe said Tuesday. “We’ve got to come with a physical nature and a sense of pride knowing that if we want to get to where we want to go in December, we’ve got to beat those guys.”
Smart once girded his loins and aimed at supplanting Nick Saban’s Alabama dynasty as college football's new gold standard. With 105 wins, three conference championships and two national titles through nine seasons at his alma mater, Smart’s program is the top dog in the SEC.
Sarkisian’s 38 wins are tied with Mack Brown for the most of any Longhorn coach through their first four seasons. Consecutive trips to the College Football Playoff prove Sarkisian has Texas on the verge of entering another golden era on the Forty Acres.
Smart and the Bulldogs are the biggest obstacles to Sarkisian and the Longhorns getting over the hump.
The schools combined to produce 25 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, including six first-rounders. With Sarkisian and Smart leading the way, Texas and Georgia are positioned to duke it out head-to-head in a climb for the summit for the foreseeable future.
“I think those are the two premier programs and premier coaches in college football,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said Monday.
Between his time with Sarkisian under Pete Carroll at USC (2001-03; 2005-06) and on Saban's Crimson Tide staff (2016), Kiffin’s offense went against Smart's defense on the practice field in Tuscaloosa during the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Touting Sarkisian and Smart as “really good friends and really good people,” Kiffin isn’t surprised to see two "phenomenal coaches” guiding organizations that are thriving against the sport's chaotic, uncertain backdrop.
“I feel like both these guys really run their program truly as a CEO and know everything that's going on,” Kiffin said. “They're very creative in their ideas and how to navigate through this world we're in now.”
Saban once transitioned from the hunter to the hunted when Alabama ended Urban Meyer’s phenomenal Florida run; a 32-13 triumph in the 2009 SEC Championship Game opened the door for Saban to win his first national championship with the Crimson Tide. The target every SEC coach currently has in their crosshairs is the one on Smart’s back, a reality from which the Longhorns aren’t shying away.
“We want to play against the best teams in the world,” All-American linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. said Tuesday. “Going against them is a great test for us throughout the season.”
After squaring off in Austin and Atlanta, the third meeting between Texas and Georgia in a 392-day window will be the Longhorns’ first-ever game between Sanford Stadium’s hedges. The Bulldogs own college football’s longest active home winning streak, which could reach 37 games by the time the Longhorns make their way to Athens on Nov. 15.
“Playing them in the regular season is going to be a really good game,” Hill said. “We know we have to play them at their house, so we're looking forward to that test. I know it's going to be a really tough game for us, but we're ready.”
Sarkisian's red-and-black tinted roadblock isn’t unprecedented. He's not the first Texas coach who had to slay a dragon while pursuing championship glory.
While an early-season road win over Ohio State established the Longhorns as bona fide title contenders in 2005, Brown had to wait until an October trip to Dallas for the Red River Shootout for a chance to get the monkey off his back. He shed it, snapping a five-game losing streak against Bob Stoops emphatically, with a 45-12 thrashing of Oklahoma, which fast-tracked Texas to the Rose Bowl and a date with destiny against USC.
The Longhorns are locked in on their Cotton Bowl rematch with the Buckeyes in Columbus, a chance to make a statement out of the gate in the season opener on Aug. 30.
Nevertheless, game No. 10 on the schedule will judge whether Texas is ready for the next step in its journey under Sarkisian or not.
For his part, Smart downplayed his budding rivalry with Sarkisian while tipping his cap, ever so slightly, to the Longhorns when he addressed Georgia’s recent success against Texas.
“Tremendous respect for him and his program, the job they do,” he said. “To beat good teams, you've got to be a good team. We had a good football team last year. So did they. It's not about us as coaches. It's really about the players and what you believe in.”
Hours later, Sarkisian departed the Peach State with two players coveted by Smart, who started the day by mentioning that the Bulldogs value “relationships over transactions” in recruiting. Texas isn’t going away, with Sarkisian running down a laundry list of everything the Longhorns have to offer before declaring Texas to be “an attractive school for players to want to come take a look at.”
Whether it’s in recruiting, the NFL draft or between the chalked lines, the newest rivalry in the fight for SEC supremacy is afoot.
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