Two of college football’s most storied programs square off Saturday night, as the Georgia Bulldogs take on the Texas Longhorns. It’s a Southeastern Conference mega showdown with major stakes for both teams.
Georgia is 8-1 on the season, 6-1 in Southeastern Conference play. The Bulldogs are coming off an impressive 41-21 victory at Mississippi State. Under the watch of future Hall of Fame head coach Kirby Smart, the Bulldogs are now 65-6 in their last 71 games, and 39-3 in the Bulldogs 42 most recent SEC contests. The victory in Starkville was Georgia’s 900th all-time, as the Bulldogs are now one of just nine major college football programs to reach that milestone.
Texas heads to Athens with a record of 7-2, 4-1 in the SEC. The Longhorns have posted 968 wins all-time, the fifth most in college football annals.
Both teams have been involved in a slew of razor thin, tight games, par for the course this season in the toughest league in the land. The Bulldogs and Longhorns are still in the mix for everything, and for the winner of this one, it’s a huge step towards college football’s ultimate destination.
Texas is hunting a third straight trip to the College Football Playoff. The Longhorns opened the season with a 14-7 loss to Ohio State in Columbus. It was a second straight meeting with the Buckeyes, who topped Texas 28-21 in the semifinals of the CFP last season. The lone league loss was at Florida. The Longhorns followed that up with their best performance of the season, a 23-6 victory over arch-rival Oklahoma, ranked sixth at the time, in Dallas.
That triumph over the Sooners has been followed up by three thrilling nail-biter victories. In a low scoring affair in Lexington, the Longhorns topped Kentucky 16-13 in overtime. In the fourth quarter a week later in Starkville, the ‘Horns trailed Mississippi State by 17. But Texas came back and prevailed 45-38 in an overtime shootout. Last time out, two Saturdays ago, the Burnt Orange and White raced to a 34-10 lead over Vanderbilt and hung on for a 34-31 victory over the then ninth ranked Commodores.
This will be the eighth all-time meeting between the two, with Texas leading the series 4-3. Last season, Georgia and Texas played twice. The Bulldogs won 30-15 in Austin, then came out on top 22-19 in overtime in one of the greatest SEC Championship Games ever. The Longhorns took four of the first five meetings, including a 28-21 win in the 2019 Sugar Bowl. Georgia’s other victory came in the Cotton Bowl on January 2, 1984.