Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian should expect his streak of College Football Playoff appearances to end at two after a 35-10 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in Week 12 moved his team to 7-3.
Regardless of whether Texas can win its final two games against the Arkansas Razorbacks and TAMU Aggies, CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli makes the case that the lack of dignity in the loss against UGA Between the Hedges should disqualify the Longhorns.
“(Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, TAMU) are three impressive wins that help negate those three losses,” Fornelli prefaced before saying, “The argument against is the losses. Nobody will give Texas the side eye for a 14-7 loss at Ohio State to begin the season. However, that loss to Florida looks even worse after the Gators fell to 3-7 after losing to Ole Miss. There's also the 25-point loss to Georgia.
“It's one thing to lose to Georgia; it's another to lose by 25. Should a team with three losses really get an at-large bid when one of the losses was by 25 points and the other was to a team that might finish 3-9?”
Texas has not been in serious CFP conversations since the Florida loss
Arch Manning couldn’t find his magic until too late. The skill positions and defense had been ravaged by the toughest stretch of the schedule by the time they made it to Athens, Georgia. By the last week of October, Texas was already a fringe playoff contender. Beating the Bulldogs and Aggies was seen as the longest of shots for the Longhorns.
Georgia answered the question definitively of whether or not Texas can hang with the best teams in the country. TAMU might also answer that question and force uncomfortable questions about the preseason No. 1 team going 8-4. Assuming they handle Arkansas.
Sarkisian came up short in a big way this season, failing Manning in the eyes of many. While some now see why Quinn Ewers started for two seasons despite calls for Manning to get a chance, everyone is seeing a supposedly generational quarterback look good, but not great.
This season may as well be over already for the Longhorns’ playoff hopes. Playing for pride against two historical rivals is reason enough why there’s still plenty of juice left in Austin, though.