The Reheat: Texas misses its shot against UGA in the SEC title

Welcome to The Reheat, a weekly recap of the previous day’s game, just popped out of the microwave. Look for it every Sunday, rain or shine.

In the words of Omar from The Wire: “You come at the King, you best not miss.” The Longhorns missed their shot at Georgia—again. Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs know the feeling, as they were winless in their first four tries against Nick Saban and Alabama before finally slaying the dragon in the National Championship. Steve Sarkisian and Texas have already climbed the proverbial mountain of contention in college football, but their struggle to get over the top of it is laid bare in their inability to knock Georgia off the summit. 

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The game was almost the inverse of the October matchup. In Austin, everything went wrong fast. In this one, almost everything went right early. Texas had the better game plan and was gashing Georgia down the field while punishing Carson Beck, eventually taking him out of the game. Honestly, had Beck stayed in, I think we’re discussing an ugly 17-6 win. But after all that went right, the Longhorns were only up 6–3 at halftime, and that was an omen. I think back to the moments now, and the missed opportunities appear like gaping wounds on a dying patient. A dropped touchdown pass by Matthew Golden on a perfectly placed ball by Quinn Ewers; the waste of Arch Manning as a decoy, the inability to advance further in the red zone once they were in it; the fumbles that bounced out of bounds or into Georgia players’ arms; the failure to secure ONE block on what would have been a game-sealing pick-six. Those were just the bad breaks. But those simply unlucky moments that occur in every football game were compounded by things that have plagued Texas all season.

For most of the season, I looked at things like offensive playmaking, penalties, special teams, or poor situational awareness as bugs in the team’s system. But it’s now apparent that it’s just who this team is. When the offense needed to make a play on the 14-yard line at the end of the game, they didn’t—just like overtime. It was painfully reminiscent of the Sugar Bowl versus Washington, and I wanted that moment of glory for Ewers. Texas is penalty-prone, point blank. Some of it might be unfair, but it’s who they are. Worst of all, the awful kicking, return game, and punting underscore what Longhorn fans have known all season: the special teams are putrid and unworthy of a top-three team in the country. Concerning trends from the tenures of Steve Sarkisian and Pete Kwiatkowski reappeared, as the team can be horribly situationally unaware. When you have a chance to get off the field with almost the entire fourth quarter left, with the game tied and your opponent using their backup punter, do not let the game change on a fake punt attempt. When you take the lead in overtime and the opponent is playing their backup quarterback, go after him and end it.

Early in Sarkisian’s tenure, it seemed as if his teams lacked killer instinct if the knockout didn’t land early in the fight. Over the last two and a half seasons, they seemed past that—but not yesterday.

Steve Sarkisian had a dozen or more chances to usurp the king of the SEC and knock him off his throne. They missed. The End.

Except it somehow isn’t. There are more games. The fan in me, conditioned by 34 years of college football experience, feels like yesterday was all she wrote. It should have been. I’m programmed to treat it as such, and throughout my entire life, it would’ve been. But Steve Sarkisian, Quinn Ewers, and company will have a shot at redemption yet again through the playoff. A home playoff game against a three-loss Clemson and a quarterfinals matchup against Arizona State await before a possible game against Oregon in Dallas. The theoretical three-match for everything against the Dawgs wouldn’t come until the finals. My brain isn’t ready for that. Neither is my stomach nor my heart.

Fire the Cannon for: Jahdae Barron and his late interception. Though the soon-to-be Thorpe Award winner didn’t get the game-winning highlight he deserves, he put together quite the game in front of the whole country.

Horns Up on Offense for: I’m not sure if Isaiah Bond recently read The Four Hour Work Week, but thank goodness he didn’t share a copy with DeAndre Moore and Matthew Golden, who had great games. Quinn Ewers didn’t make the throws at the end of the game to win it, but he made plenty of throws early that would have put the game out of reach if the balls had been caught, better effort made by the receivers, or his teammates hadn’t been penalized for holding after holding.

Horns Up on Defense for: It was a disjointed effort by the defense for the most part, reverting to PK’s worst bend-but-don’t-break tendencies in the second half against Georgia’s backup QB. Andrew Mukuba was flying around the field with relentless aggression. He’ll get a chance to take out whatever of that is left against his former Clemson teammates in Austin.

Bevo’s Bucket for: The cowards who wouldn’t let Bevo make the trip to Atlanta.

Schadenfreude of the Week: No schadenfreude when all there is to do is look at yourself in the mirror in disgust and scream, then punch the glass and break it. But then you have to do the work to clean up the mess, buy a new mirror, and start over—hopefully you are better this time.

This Piping Hot Take Burned the Roof of My Mouth: Penn State will be a whiteout as they host SMU in Happy Valley, but their fans will be blacked out after the Ponies roll James Franklin’s Nittany Lions.

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Hype Train Level: On first glance and in the shadow of yesterday’s loss, I don’t love the initial draw against Clemson, even if the game is in Austin and Dabo Swinney treats NIL and the transfer portal as if he is my son and they are vegetables. The Tigers have athletic upside that Boise State, Arizona State, or SMU wouldn’t have brought to Austin. Perhaps I’m giving the logo too much respect, people did that for years with Texas. But regardless, this isn’t supposed to be easy. If Texas is who I believed them to be all season—and not who I’m anxiously fearing they are today—they’ll start the playoffs fresh and then move to Round Two.