Expensive lesson for Longhorns and their fans
A night that was supposed to legitimize them as the No. 1 team was compromised by Georgia, which knows something about handling that.
The average ticket price in Austin Saturday night was $746. Some were a little less, some a whole lot more, but that’s how it worked out. Things have changed in what used to be Armadillo World Headquarters, and things have changed quite a bit in college football, but the passion of Texas football fans can still curdle into hemlock at a moment’s notice. They thought they were coming to Memorial Stadium to watch the peaceful transfer of power, and when they didn’t get it and also got a pass interference call they didn’t want, they began hurling bottles onto the field, or at least the student section did.
It was late in the third quarter, and Texas had recovered from an unsightly first half to close to within 23-8 of Georgia. Jahdee Barron then appeared to dispel the clouds of doubt with an interception of Georgia’s Carson Beck, who threw three, and a 36-yard return to the Georgia 10 yard line. But Barron was whistled for pass interference. That’s when the field became more carbonated and fermented, and it took 10 minutes to get everything calmed down and analyzed. At the end of it, the arbiters ruled in favor of the Longhorns’ appeal and said Georgia receiver Arian Smith was the interferer. Texas took advantage, scored, and now the Bulldogs only led 23-15.
Surely this marked a return to the days of James Street, Tommy Nobis and Darrell K. Royal himself. The Longhorns came into the game leading the wire-service rankings, with wins over Michigan and Oklahoma. Georgia was No. 5. Since this was Texas’ first year in the SEC, obviously this game would be the booster rocket to a regular-season championship and, for those who believe in divine right, the first national championship since Mack Brown, Vince Young and the Longhorns upset USC in 2005.
But this was also the moment when Texas fans realized that SEC membership does not have a rewards program. It brings a bruise-laden initiation, particularly on the soul.
On third-and-10, Beck smoothly hit Smith for 21 yards. Then he hit tight end Oscar Delp for 43 yards. Before the Longhorn fans could refill their solo cups, it was fourth-and-goal from the one yard line and Trevor Etienne was scoring his third TD of the night. That made it 30-15, and two late Texas drives fizzled in Georgia territory, and the scoring ended there. Kirby Smart coached his 117th game at Georgia and won his 100th, and the Bulldogs are 6-1 with only the loss to Alabama counting against them, and wouldn’t they love a rematch? Alabama blundered its way to a loss at Tennessee after they had come up small against Vanderbilt, and Kalen deBoer’s chances of getting into the Diluted Dozen, also known as the new College Football Playoff, are about as robust as his chances of getting a statue next to Nick Saban’s.
The officials appeared to Get Things Right when they reversed the pass interference call, which didn’t deter Smart from saying they “tried to rob us.” No, the conference is already trying to do that. With 16 teams and only 12 regular-season dates overall, it’s impossible to make a schedule that doesn’t shaft somebody. Georgia has already played Texas and Alabama and still has to go to Tennessee and Mississippi. It’s also the only team that has beaten Clemson. Texas doesn’t play Alabama and has only one really ominous game left, at Texas A&M at the end, although it should tread lightly when it goes into Vanderbilt next week. Six SEC teams are 6-1 overall, and A&M and LSU are undefeated within the league.
It’s important because the SEC champion is guaranteed a bye in the playoff. That team will heal up while Teams 5 through 12 play first-round games on Dec. 20 and 21. Since the SEC championship game will match the top two teams in the league — no more East and West Divisions — this is important for positioning.
But the Bulldogs tend to shrug off inconvenience. Since 2022, they have had 33 players drafted. That’s much more than half of an NFL game-day roster. Ten of those players were first-round picks. Alabama and Michigan are somewhat down right now because they were heavily plundered, and Georgia has had difficulty replacing the likes of tight end Brock Bowers, but Smart believes in refining, not reloading. The strength of the Bulldogs has generally been its endless river of mountainous linemen with wings on their ankles, and that river flowed all over Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers on Saturday. The Bulldogs sacked him six times and rarely gave him a moment’s rest, and also downed Arch Manning when Texas coach Steve Sarkisian gave Ewers a chance to exhale.
The decisive play came at the end of the first quarter, when Daylen Everette saw the back of Ewers’ jersey and no one in between him and it. Before you could say, “What was the name of that football movie with Sandra Bullock and that big tackle?”, Everette blindsided Ewers, who lost the football, and everyone watched big men on both sides try to jump on it like a runaway piglet at the county fair, and finally Everette did it himself, on the Texas 13. Georgia scored and the rules of engagement were clear to everyone. Texas’ future NFL stars on the offensive line could not restrain the Bulldogs. Ewers was 25 for 43 for 211 yards.
Three of those sacks belonged to Jalon Walker, from Salisbury, N.C., home of Catawba College, where Jalon’s dad Curtis was the head coach for 10 years. Everette, who also had an interception, was the cornerback on the opposite side of Kamari Lassiter, who is now a Houston Texas’ rookie and was the 42nd player taken in the 2024 draft. Since no one threw at Lassiter, everyone threw at Everette, who made some plays and didn’t make others. Thus he was known as a “target.” That might be changing, not as fast as Austin is, but faster than the Bulldogs will.
Other Saturday confetti:
Navy 51, Charlotte 27: The only thing that the undefeated Midshipmen lost on Saturday was their remarkable red-zone streak. They had scored 20 touchdowns in their 20 incursions before they had to kick a field goal, but by then their sixth win was booked. Navy got two pick-six touchdowns from Dashaun Peele and another big games from Blake Horvath, who threw three touchdown passes. Navy plays Notre Dame Saturday in the Meadowlands. It is 6-0 for the first time since 1979.
Army 45, East Carolina 28: The Cadets (7–0) are the only cloud on Navy’s horizon. They have the nation’s longest win streak (11) and have scored a touchdown on the game-opening drive for the 11th consecutive game. Their equivalent to Horvath is Bryson Daily, a running QB in the best Army tradition. He hit 7 of 10 passes but he also ran 31 times for 171 yards and five touchdowns, which means he has the Army record with 19 rushing scores.
Western Carolina 52, Furman 20: The school in Cullowhee, N.C. was uncommonly lucky during Hurricane Helene, because it never lost water or power. It already was fortunate to have quarterback Cole Gonzales, who threw for a Southern Conference-record 620 yards in this one, with five touchdowns and no interceptions. Gonzales’ father Billy is a veteran college assistant coach, now in charge of receivers at Florida. The WCU coach is former NFL quarterback Kerwin Bell, who has won a Division II national championship at Valdosta State.
Indiana 56, Nebraska 7: The Hoosiers have gone from a nice, amusing story to a bloodthirsty powerhouse, now 7-0 and sharing the Big 10 lead with Oregon. This is their best start since they were 8-0 in 1967, and wound up in the Rose Bowl opposite USC and O.J. Simpson. They haven’t won a Big 10 game by this many points since a 45-0 win over Minnesota in 1945. Nebraska, which had only lost once, gave Indiana five turnovers, and the Hoosiers proved they knew how to handle them by scoring touchdowns on four of their first five possessions. Justice Ellison had only nine carries but scored twice and gained 105 yards.
Miami 52, Louisville 45: The Hurricanes are 7-0 and have a reasonable chance to go 12-0, since they don’t meet Clemson, Pittsburgh or SMU in ACC play. Cam Ward has an even better chance to win the Heisman thanks to games like this, where he went 21 for 32 for 319 yards and four scores. Miami was nine for 12 in third down situations, and Ward led the Canes on a 80-yard, five-play drive after home-standing Louisville had wiped out a 14-point deficit. Ward has thrown for 300 yards in seven consecutive seasons, a record at a school that has enjoyed the services of Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Gino Torretta and Vinny Testaverde.