‘Enamored with us’: Ahead of huge Georgia matchup, Longhorns need elite focus

AUSTIN (KXAN) — According to statistics, the Texas Longhorns have the best defense in college football seven weeks into the season. The eighth week of the season will present the biggest threat to skewing those numbers.

The No. 1 Longhorns face off in primetime against the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, and armed with the nation’s best scoring defense (6.33 points per game) and the lowest yards per game allowed (229.7), Texas will be tested.

Coming off a 34-3 win over Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry , Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian said his defense has been able to put together an impressive season so far by being well-rounded.

“We’re not a one-dimensional defense,” he said. “You think, where are the holes? We’re playing really well across the board. We’re balanced that way.”

The Longhorns sacked Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. five times, didn’t allow a touchdown and held the Sooners to 237 yards of offense. Texas was also great on third down, allowing the Sooners to convert 4 of 15 tries, adding to its No. 7-ranked third down defense in the country.

The numbers tell a lot of the story for the Longhorns this season, but when 6:30 p.m. at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium rolls around, they don’t mean a thing against a program that’s played in six out of the last seven Southeastern Conference championship games.

“The moment won’t be too big for them,” Sarkisian said. “We need to make sure that we have a home-field advantage. We’ve got a heck of a challenge against Georgia and Coach (Kirby) Smart. They’ve somewhat been the standard of college football for the past seven, eight years. They’ve recruited well and they have great schemes.”

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Texas’ pass defense has been particularly outstanding this season, and that was something Sarkisian emphasized improving from last year during training camp. The Longhorns are No. 2 in FBS against the pass, allowing 126 yards per game. Georgia quarterback Carson Beck is No. 8 in passing yards per game with 303, so it seems like something will have to give. An improved pass rush from earlier in the season has helped lately, but they’ll be a little shorthanded in the back end with Derek Williams Jr. lost for the remainder of the season due to an injury he’ll need surgery to repair.

Sarkisian said he knows Beck well, having recruited him while at Alabama. Georgia’s play-action passing scheme and vertical passing game fit Beck’s strengths, so the Longhorns will have to play a similar style they did against the Sooners: put pressure on the quarterback and speed Beck up. That’s easier said than done given Beck’s experience and Georgia’s stout offensive line.

“It’s hard to confuse guys who have played that much football,” Sarkisian said. “That’s going to be our challenge. How can we disrupt him in the pocket? How do we create a little hesitation in him? They have elite speed on the perimeter, too.”

Sarkisian said it will take razor focus from the players this week to prepare for the biggest game of the season. Austin will be busy this weekend with the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas and ESPN’s College Gameday broadcasting live from campus, and Sarkisian said the players “need to be enamored with us.”

“We can’t get caught up with what people are talking about. It’s not about what other people say, it’s about what we do,” he said. “It’s about our action and to control what we can control. That was the message during the walkthrough.”

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