When Kirby Smart left Alabama to take over as Georgia football coach in 2016, Steve Sarkisian joined Nick Saban’s staff in an off-field role and after two years running the Atlanta Falcons offense as offensive coordinator.
Now he’s built a powerhouse program of his own at Texas just like Smart did at Georgia.
A year after taking Texas to the College Football Playoff, Sarkisian’s fourth Longhorns team is 6-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation.
No. 4 Georgia, in Smart’s ninth season, represents Texas’ biggest test yet against one of the programs Sarkisian looked at in trying to build a championship-caliber program of his own.
“Our job is to hopefully play one of our best games,” said Smart, whose team is 5-1 but didn’t look close to top form in wins over Auburn and Mississippi State the last two weeks. “That’s what we’d like to do is continue to get better and put things together and play a more complete game.”
Texas is the only unbeaten SEC team and has looked as good as anyone this season with marquee wins at Michigan and last week against Oklahoma. It has outscored opponents 259-38.
Smart and Sarkisian are friends who have spent time together at Nike-sponsored trips in the offseason. Asked what they have in common, Sarkisian said: “We’re both average golfers.”
Why Georgia will beat Texas
Carson Beck threw for 439 yards against Alabama and 459 against Mississippi State, but Georgia has a better chance to win if Beck doesn’t have to throw 50 and 48 passes like he did in those games. The big numbers came with 5 interceptions along with 6 touchdown passes.
Georgia put up 605 total yards last week and is third in the nation in pass plays of 30 or more yards with 17, according to cfbstats.com.
“It’s kind of hard to confuse guys when they’ve played that much football,” Sarkisian said of Beck, the fifth-year senior in his second season as starter. “That’s going to be our challenge. How do we disrupt him in the pocket? How can we create a little bit of hesitation in him from a coverage standpoint? We’re going to have play really well in tight coverage.”
Georgia’s defense had a rough day against Mississippi State, giving up 306 passing yards and 3 touchdowns in a 41-31 win.
Texas has scored 31 points in every game, but quarterback Quinn Ewers showed some rust against Oklahoma after missing two games with an oblique injury.
Ewers doesn’t bring the run threat that can give Georgia’s defense issues, but he has no shortage of weapons including Alabama transfer wideout Isiah Bond (5 catches for 49 yards against Georgia last year), tight end Gunner Helm (21 catches for 311 yards, 2 TDs) and freshman Ryan Wingo (22.8 avg., 2 TDs).
“They have a very explosive offense,” Georgia safety Dan Jackson said. “Great skill players, great quarterback, great running back, but thankfully so do we. We say that every week in practice.”
Why Texas will beat Georgia
Smart had a telling answer this week when asked how he feels about Georgia’s run game that ranks 92nd in the nation at 135 yards per game.
“Who am I playing?” he said.“I think you take the opponent out of it and say, we set the standard. We should be able to do this, but I also think it's unrealistic in this league to find many teams that are just dominating in the run game. If they are, they probably are doing it some with a quarterback run.”
Texas is 22nd in the nation in run defense, giving up 103.7 yards per game and 11th in yards per carry at 2.99.
Linebacker David Gbenda has 32 tackles and 4 ½ tackles for loss,
Texas is tied for third in the SEC with 19 sacks led by linebacker Anthony Hill with 4.5 and freshman edge Collin Simmons with 4. They’ve combined for 16 TFL.
If Georgia can’t slow down Texas’ run game, it will have a hard time winning. Despite preseason injuries at running back, the Longhorns are still averaging 5.1 yards per carry with 16 rushing touchowns behind Quintrevion Wisner, Jaydon Blue and Jerrick Gibson and an offensive line that features projected NFL first-round draft pick Kelvin Banks at left tackle.
“You rarely see the combination of offensive and defensive lines with that depth and that size,” Smart said. “It starts up front in our conference and they are able to protect the quarterback, run the ball and stop the run and rush the passer.”
Prediction
Georgia 27, Texas 26
Texas is off to its first 6-0 start since 2009, but it hasn’t played a team currently in the top 20 of the ESPN SP+ rankings. The Bulldogs are the more desperate team after stumbling at Alabama, but that could work both ways. Going with Texas is probably the smart move, but this pick is made mostly in faith that Georgia will summon its best game with some of its top playmakers rising up. Smart has squeezed that out of his team too often in the past.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football vs. Texas: Score prediction, scouting report
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