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Steve Sarkisian: 'Losing a game like this doesn't kill you'

Screen Shot 2024-05-28 at 9.09.17 AMby:Kaiden Smith•10/21/24•

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Steve Sarkisian via Jay Janner (American-Statesman) / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Texas lost their first game of the season this weekend when Georgia came to Austin and defeated the Longhorns 30-15. Dropping from the top-ranked team in the country to No. 5 in the latest AP Poll following a disappointing loss in DKR.

In years past, a loss like Texas’ this weekend would seem a lot more devastating given the format of the postseason. But because of the expansion of the 12-team College Football Playoff, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian understands it’s not the end of the world for his team. Even directly after Saturday’s loss.

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“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 press conference. “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.

“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.”

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There’s no question that the Longhorns started Saturday’s game in the wrong direction, finding themselves down 23-0 heading into halftime. Highlighted by three first half turnovers that directly led to 17 points for the Bulldogs.

Texas showed improvement in the second half, but the damage had already been done by Georgia. A program that Sarkisian called the standard in college football for the last five to seven years.

“Like I told the team, when you’re playing good teams you gotta fight for 60 minutes. But you have to play well as well, and we just weren’t able to get the recipe right,” Sarkisian explained. “We had the fight, we just didn’t play well enough tonight. So we gotta coach better, we gotta play better.”

With just one loss and a high likelihood of being favored in the remainder of their games, there’s no doubt that the Longhorns could still compete for an SEC title and a spot in the College Football Playoff. But there’s no question that their margin for error is a little bit thinner now moving forward during the regular season.