Texas wide receiver Cam Coleman has already delivered one of the flashiest plays of the college football season, and somehow it happened in the first week of fall camp. The catch itself was ridiculous.
The reaction around it? Even more so.
Instead of just admiring the play, plenty of fans and media members immediately turned it into a Texas title coronation. That kind of runaway hype is exactly the sort of thing Kirby Smart and Georgia can file away and use as fuel.
Yup, Texas is winning the National Championship this year.
Calling it now. pic.twitter.com/44HHqBowFZ
- Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) August 8, 2026
Texas is the SEC favorite this season, but Georgia knows what that comes with. The Longhorns were picked as the conference favorite heading into both the 2024 and 2025 seasons, and Georgia used that status to sharpen its edge. This year, if Texas keeps soaking up the spotlight, Smart may have another easy motivational tool in his pocket.
The noise got even louder after Coleman’s catch. Some voices didn’t stop at a championship prediction. They went all the way to saying Texas might have seven first-round draft picks on the roster.
Texas might have 7 first round draft picks
- Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) August 8, 2026
That kind of praise can become a burden fast. Being the team everyone talks about creates pressure, and Georgia has seen that dynamic up close. The Bulldogs felt it when they were the SEC favorite at SEC Media Days, but Texas is the program absorbing that attention now.
And Texas has not exactly handled the hype well since entering the SEC. The Longhorns were the favorite in the conference the last two years and didn’t win it once. Last season, they entered as the preseason No. 1 team in the country and still missed the College Football Playoff.
Georgia, meanwhile, has kept winning while Texas has lived under the microscope. The Bulldogs may not be in Texas’ shadow as much this year, but the more the Longhorns get propped up, the better it is for Smart’s team.
Coleman’s path to Texas also adds another layer for Georgia fans. He transferred from Auburn after two seasons with the Tigers, and those years were rough. Auburn went 5-7 in both seasons, Hugh Freeze was fired, and Coleman moved on.
Auburn also never seemed to get the most out of him. Even in a disappointing 2025 season, Coleman posted 56 catches for 708 yards and five touchdowns, and it’s easy to imagine those numbers being much bigger if he had been featured more heavily. He is talented enough to have put up over 1,000 yards and double-digit touchdowns.
Auburn’s loss is Texas’ gain, and from Georgia’s point of view, that is fine. The Longhorns are preferable to the Tigers as a destination for Coleman, since Auburn is a rival and Texas is not on Georgia’s regular-season schedule this year. Unless the two teams meet in the SEC Championship Game or the playoff, Georgia won’t have to deal with Coleman directly.
That doesn’t make him harmless. Coleman is still a real threat, and he could be one of the best players in college football this season. But compared with the version of him that would have stayed at Auburn, this is a much easier outcome for Georgia to live with.
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