ESPN College Gameday Picks are in for UGA Football vs. Texas Longhorns
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AUSTIN - Kirby Smart and UGA Football made the trip to Texas to take on Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns on Saturday in a huge top-5 matchup, and GameDay is here to watch the Dawgs and Horns.
ESPN’s College Gameday is in Austin this weekend for the huge showdown between Georgia and Texas. Here is what the scene looked like on College GameDay as the guys made picks for the game.
The entire crew took the Texas Longhorns to win the game, just as they all took Alabama to beat Georgia last month.
Aiming To Be Elite Against One Tough Slate
The Bulldogs opened the 2024 season ranked No. 1 in the AP and US LBM Coaches poll for the
third time in school history (2008, 2023). Georgia dropped to No. 2 in the AP poll after its 13-12 road
win over Kentucky on Sept. 14 and remained there for another week before falling to No. 4 Alabama
on Sept 28. In this week’s AP poll, the Bulldogs are at No. 5 for the third straight week. Georgia was
No. 1 in the US LBM Coaches poll until its first loss when it dropped to No. 5. For the second week in
a row, Georgia occupies the No. 4 spot. This week’s opponent, Texas, is in the top spot in both polls.
The Bulldogs have the longest active streak of being ranked in the AP top 10 (57 straight polls).
Last Saturday in Athens, Georgia used an aerial attack of 459 yards (3rd most in school history and
most since 1994) to defeat Miss. State 41-31 while Texas dispatched Oklahoma 34-3 in Dallas. UT now leads the nation in Scoring Defense at 6.3 ppg and is seventh in Scoring Offense at 43.2 ppg.
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Georgia-Texas Tidbits
*First Meeting: Georgia entered the 1949 Orange Bowl on an eight-game winning streak and No.
8 AP ranking. Texas was 6-3-1 and playing in its first Orange Bowl and posted a 41-28 win. UT ran
58 times for 324 yards and five TDs, including 107 yards and a score by Tom Landry (eventual Dallas
Cowboys Hall of Fame coach) in his final game.
*Second Meeting: The 1957 contest came at Grant Field in Atlanta in front of a crowd of 33,000
and was the first game of 33-year-old Darrell Royal’s tenure at UT as the Longhorns won 26-7.
*Third Meeting: In 1958 in Austin, Georgia was trailing 6-0 early in the 4th quarter when future
Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton put himself in (coaches had planned to redshirt him as the 3rd-string QB) when he saw starting QB Charlie Britt still sitting on the bench as the team took the field. He ran in and told his teammates, “I’ve come to win this game.” He directed a 21-play, 95-yard TD drive along with a two-point conversion for an 8-6 edge. UT answered with a 17-play, 72-yard TD drive capped by a 1-yard run by Bobby Gurwitz to lift 11th-ranked Texas to a 13-8 win.
*Fourth Meeting: Ask a Georgia fan what time it is in Texas and you’ll likely hear it’s Ten to Nine!
In the 1984 Cotton Bowl, UT entered 11-0 and ranked No. 2 with a shot at its fifth national championship if it beat No. 7 Georgia (9-1-1). Down 9-3 with less than five minutes left, the Bulldogs took advantage of a muffed punt return by Craig Curry at the UT 24. Gary Moss recovered it and Georgia later scored on a 17-yard scamper by QB John Lastinger with 3:22 remaining for a 10-9 lead as Vince Dooley’s Dogs claimed the upset and finished with a No. 4 ranking.
*Fifth Meeting: Sam Ehlinger finished with three rushing TDs and 169 passing yards to lead Tom
Herman’s UT squad to a 28-21 upset of No. 6 Georgia in the 2019 Sugar Bowl. The Bulldogs finished
11-3 and ranked No. 7 while UT ended the season 10-4 and No. 9
SMART Football: Streaks ‘n Stuff
*The 2024 Senior Class is an FBS-leading 47-3 (41-1 in the regular season) since 2021. The next best
marks in this span belong to Michigan (44-5) and Alabama (41-7). Georgia’s only three losses since
2021 have come to Alabama. Georgia’s 2023 Senior Class set the school record at 50-4 with two national titles, an SEC crown plus went 6-0 in bowl/CFP games.
*Georgia is 51-3 in its last 54 games. A school record streak of 42 consecutive regular season victories ended Sept. 28 this year with a 41-34 defeat at No. 4 Alabama. Also, Georgia had an SEC and school record streak of 28 consecutive SEC regular season wins snap that night.
*Georgia is the only team to have finished in the top 7 of the final AP poll in each of the past 7 seasons.
*Head coach Kirby Smart is unbeaten against all active head coaches over the past five years except
Kalen DeBoer (Alabama). Georgia is 67-7 in that span. The coaches no longer active who have wins over Georgia during this stretch: Nick Saban (3) along with Will Muschamp, Ed Orgeron and Dan Mullen.
*Georgia is riding a school record 28-game home winning streak dating to 2019, which leads in FBS.
*Georgia owns the nation’s longest active bowl streak at 27 seasons and has won its last seven matchups.
*In the Smart era, the Georgia defense has ended the year ranked in the top five nationally in Scoring Defense five times including leading the nation twice (2019 at 12.6 ppg & 2021 at 10.2 ppg). Also, Georgia has been ranked in the final top 10 in Scoring Offense from 2021-23.
*The Bulldogs were the only FBS team to finish the 2023 season nationally ranked in the top five in
both Scoring Offense (40.1 ppg/5th) and Scoring Defense (15.6 ppg/5th).