Steve Sarkisian credits Texas players for ‘emptying tank’ in SEC Championship

For the first time in the history of the SEC Championship Game overtime was needed to sort out a winner. Georgia and Texas assured that with a back-and-forth battle through the first 60 minutes.

That jived with what Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian had envisioned for the game.

“This was a heck of a football game,” Sarkisian said after the fact. “And they’re, like I said, I have a ton of respect for their program and their team, what Kirby (Smart)‘s done here for seven, eight years now. So we knew it was going to take 60 minutes. I didn’t know it was going to take 60 minutes plus overtime.”

Texas led in the early going, taking a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter before Georgia began to find its footing.

The Bulldogs owned the third quarter, scoring twice to take a 13-6 lead. The Longhorns answered with a 41-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Quinn Ewers to DeAndre Moore Jr., knotting it right back up.

Then Georgia took the lead with a Peyton Woodring 21-yard field goal with 4:32 to play. The clock began ticking.

If Texas was going to make a move, it would have to deliver with all the pressure on and time winding down.

“We knew that’s what this game would take,” Sarkisian said. “And so we challenged them on Monday about, ‘whatever you’ve got in your tank we’ve got to empty the tank Saturday.’ We’ll have plenty of time to recharge our batteries and refuel our tank. But I think every guy that was out there battling, competing, left it all out there. And that’s all you can ask of as a coach.”

Texas ultimately fell, but not before pushing the game to overtime. It likely gave players a taste for the postseason, one that’ll be a war of attrition of sorts.

Now the Longhorns will have to find a way to replicate that ’empty the tank’ type effort in a couple weeks.

Next up is a first-round showdown with 12-seed Clemson on Dec. 21 at 4 p.m. ET on TNT.