Steve Sarkisian spent SEC Media Days revisiting the same sore spot Texas fans have been chewing on for months: the Longhorns’ 2025 College Football Playoff miss.
Texas went 9-3 last season and ended up as one of the first teams out after entering the year as SEC favorites. The debate around their omission has centered on the Week 1 loss at Ohio State, with many Texas fans arguing the committee didn’t give enough weight to the challenge of that game and that the Longhorns would have been better served scheduling a smaller opponent instead.
Sarkisian made that point himself this week, saying Texas would have been in a much better position had it not played Ohio State. As Brett McMurphy reported, Sarkisian said: "If we beat Ohio State (last year), we're surely in much better place for the playoffs.
If I don't play Ohio State & play Jones Jr. High, we're 10-2 & our losses are to Georgia & Florida & we're a playoff team."
The problem for Texas is that the schedule was their choice, and the Ohio State loss wasn’t the only blemish on the resume. The Longhorns also fell to Florida, a team that finished 4-8. Had Texas handled that game, the 10-2 record Sarkisian referenced would have been enough to put them squarely in the playoff conversation even with the Ohio State defeat.
Instead, the conversation has turned into a year-later explanation for a missed opportunity.
That’s where the comparison to Kirby Smart comes in. Georgia faced its own playoff disappointment in 2023 after winning back-to-back national titles and finishing the regular season 12-0 before losing to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Smart and the Bulldogs were unhappy with the result, but they didn’t keep dragging it into the next season.
Georgia moved on, hammered Florida State 63-3 in its bowl game, then won the SEC in 2024 and 2025 to punch its ticket to the playoff in those seasons.
Sarkisian’s comments at SEC Media Days also included another revealing detail: he said he pushed some players out to make room for incoming transfers. That’s not the kind of message that helps build a locker room, especially when paired with public excuses about a playoff miss that’s already in the past.
Smart has handled similar moments differently, and that approach has helped make him the winningest coach in college football this decade. Sarkisian, meanwhile, is still explaining what went wrong instead of simply fixing it.
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Georgias receiver room is once again one of the more interesting questions around Athens, and the timing makes the Anthony Evans story sting a little more. After leaving for Mississippi State following a quiet stretch at Georgia, the former Bulldog has turned into a much more productive target in Starkville, the kind of development that naturally invites second-guessing when a team is trying to replace proven pass catchers and sort out its own depth chart.
For Georgia, the issue is less about one departed player than the broader uncertainty at the position after losing top receivers to the NFL. The Bulldogs are counting on younger options to grow up quickly, but Evans rise elsewhere is a reminder of how thin the margin can be when talent leaves before it fully blossoms, and how much more complicated the position becomes when the answers are still being sorted out. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Finally Addressed The Andrew Buzz Georgia Fans Saw Coming
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Kirby Smart was asked about it at SEC Media Days, where the conversation turned from family pride to the realities of modern recruiting. The Georgia coach made it clear he wants the spotlight dialed back on Andrew for now, which makes sense given how early this all is and how much runway remains before any real decision-making begins. For the Bulldogs, it is another reminder that even a coachs family can get swept into the recruiting machine long before the process should really be going anywhere. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Nears Massive Recruiting Swing With Top DB Decision Looming
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Williams had originally been expected to come off the board earlier in July before pushing his commitment back, a delay that has only sharpened the suspense around where this one is headed. Georgias 2027 group already has just one defensive back committed, so the outcome here carries extra weight for both the class makeup and the way the Bulldogs recruiting haul is viewed heading into the fall. [Read more 🡒]