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ATLANTA — Texas lost two games this season, both to Georgia. The latest, a 22-19 overtime loss Saturday to the Bulldogs in the SEC championship game, means there won’t be a first-round bye for the Longhorns in the College Football Playoff.

As gut-wrenching as the loss was for coach Steve Sarkisian and his players, he said it changes nothing in his mind.

“We’re going to go compete for a national championship. That’s where my mind’s at,” Sarkisian said.

Texas (11-2) will find out how far it drops Sunday when the CFP committee unveils its final rankings. The Longhorns were No. 2 last week, and while there’s a feeling that the committee won’t penalize a team that made its conference championship game too severely, Texas doesn’t own any wins over an opponent ranked in the panel’s top 25 a week ago.

“The level of the culture coach Sark created here, we know we’re still in it and still have the opportunity to make things right,” Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron said. “It can’t just be ‘poor me’s’ for the next two weeks. You’ve got to get back to work. We’ll fix what we need to fix.”

The Bulldogs rallied for the win Saturday with their starting quarterback out of the game for all but one play in the second half. Gunner Stockton replaced Carson Beck, who injured his right (throwing) arm just before halftime.

The Longhorns dominated the stat sheet in the first half, but couldn’t finish drives, missed two field goals in the game and had 11 penalties — eight in the first half. Quarterback Quinn Ewers passed for 358 yards and a touchdown, but also threw two interceptions and was sacked six times. Ewers attempted 46 passes. He threw it 43 times in the first game, a 30-15 loss, and Arch Manning attempted six more passes. In the loss Saturday, Manning got one carry in the game.

The common denominator in both games was that Texas was unable to run the ball against Georgia’s defense. The Longhorns managed just 31 rushing yards Saturday and 29 on Oct. 19 in Austin after falling behind 23-0.

“We just didn’t capitalize at the end of the day,” Ewers said Saturday. “I think it was all on us. We had plenty of opportunities to go capitalize. Some games go that way. We’re definitely going to take a long look at it and go from here. … but with the new 12-team playoff, we get to keep playing ball.”

Ewers had 149 passing yards by the end of the first quarter, but all Texas could manage in the first half was two field goals. The Longhorns led 6-3, but it could have easily been 17-3.

“We just shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, got in some third-and-longs down there that are hard to get out of,” Ewers said.

The Longhorns, in falling outside the top four seeds, will now be faced with having to play 17 total games this season if they’re going to win the national title. The CFP first-round matchups are Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, which means conference championship game losers won’t get nearly the downtime that the top four seeds will.

Texas played Saturday without star left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., who was out with an ankle injury.

“Hey, I really value this game. I think this game means a ton to the Southeastern Conference,” Sarkisian said of playing an extra game for the SEC championship. “I was fortunate to be part of this conference as an assistant and coached in it twice. This is a heck of a game and it’s an honor to play in it. It was an honor to play in it today. We didn’t come out on top, and especially the way it’s structured where not everybody gets to play everybody, I think it’s probably the right thing to do to have a championship game.

“Now, it’s our job to kind of regroup and get ourselves as healthy as we can to go compete in a playoff. We have time. We essentially have a bye to get ready for that game, and so we will do the best we can. I know our players will, from a rehab and a recovery standpoint, and we’ll find out who we’re playing and put together a plan and go to work.”

Sarkisian said his team has bounced back each of the past two seasons with its back to the wall and added that he has no doubt that same thing will happen to close this season, the Longhorns’ first in the SEC.

“The beauty for us is this stings. It’s hard,” Sarkisian said. “But we get a chance to regroup in a couple of weeks and get in the College Football Playoff.

“I think we’re plenty good enough to go win it.”

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Florida freshman WR Wilson to debut vs. Texas

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Florida freshman WR Wilson to debut vs. Texas

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has offensive help on the way with a freshman receiver who just might make a difference against No. 9 Texas on Saturday.

Dallas Wilson is practicing for the first time since injuring his left foot in training camp and is scheduled to make his collegiate debut against the Longhorns, coach Billy Napier said Monday.

Napier called Wilson’s availability “a big deal.”

“Three good days of work last week, and I thought he handled the load well,” Napier said. “He feels really good. So far, so good.”

Wilson, a 6-foot-3, 213-pound newcomer from Tampa, was the star of Florida’s spring game in April. He caught 10 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns, and all indications in fall practice pointed to it not being a fluke.

But Wilson injured his foot late in camp, spent weeks in a protective boot and watched from afar as the Gators (1-3, 0-1 SEC) struggled to move the ball and find the end zone. Florida scored 16, 10 and 7 points, respectively, in consecutive losses to South Florida, LSU and Miami, raising speculation about Napier’s future in Gainesville.

Quarterback DJ Lagway has been the focus of the team’s offensive woes. The sophomore who went 6-1 as a starter last season missed most of the year dealing with injuries and looked rusty when the season began.

Although Lagway’s mechanics seemed improved in the team’s 26-7 setback at Miami on Sept. 20, his offensive line got manhandled and allowed way too much pressure for anyone to notice. Lagway completed 12 of 23 passes for 61 yards against the Hurricanes.

Napier used the off week to get Lagway more live-action reps in hopes of getting him “caught up.” But he also reiterated the need to “play better around him.”

“Each position group needs to step up,” Napier said. “More detail, eliminate errors, eliminate penalties, whatever the case may be. I just think more detail and better overall play around him. And, obviously, he needs to continue to get back closer to being himself.”

Adding Wilson to the mix should help.

The Gators haven’t shown much depth at receiver. Freshman Vernell Brown III has been Lagway’s go-to guy, catching 18 passes for 219 yards. But Eugene Wilson III, J. Michael Sturdivant and Aidan Mizell have been mostly underwhelming.

Dallas Wilson has been unable to help — until now. The Gators are confident he will change the narrative against the No. 1 scoring defense in the SEC.

“Just having him out is going to be amazing for us,” Lagway said. “His ability to go deep, his ability to make plays underneath and be able to make miraculous plays with the ball in his hands, it’s going to be great to have him back.”

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Finebaum mulls leaving ESPN for U.S. Senate run

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Finebaum mulls leaving ESPN for U.S. Senate run

SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said Monday that he would consider leaving ESPN to run for the U.S. Senate, representing Alabama.

The 70-year-old Finebaum said during a recent interview with Outkick that he’d run as a Republican to fill the seat vacated by former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who has said he’ll run for Alabama governor in the 2026 elections. Tuberville’s current Senate term ends in 2027.

The qualifying deadline to run for Senate is Jan. 26, 2026. Finebaum said he would likely have to leave his hosting and analyst duties if he decided to run. He told Outkick he’d make a decision within the next 30-45 days.

Finebaum said he hadn’t seriously considered politics, but the assassination of Charlie Kirk was the impetus to give a run at politics further thought. He noted that he had received a “text” from “one or two people in Washington” gauging his interest in politics.

“[It was] something I never thought about before,” Finebaum told Outkick.

Finebaum is currently registered as a Republican in North Carolina, where he works for the SEC Network. He told Outkick he recently moved to Alabama, where he hosted a radio show for years, and would re-register there.

Finebaum hosted radio shows in Alabama for almost 30 years before joining ESPN and the SEC Network. He started his media career as a newspaper writer and columnist.

“Alabama has always been the place I’ve felt the most welcome, that I’ve cared the most about the people,” he said. “I’ve spoken to people from Alabama for 35 years, and I feel there is a connection that is hard to explain.”

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Petrino overhauls staff, fires defensive assistants

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Petrino overhauls staff, fires defensive assistants

Bobby Petrino has fired three defensive assistants just one day after being named interim head coach at Arkansas as part of an overhaul of the Razorbacks’ coaching staff.

Petrino dismissed defensive coordinator Travis Williams, defensive line coach Deke Adams and defensive assistant Marcus Woodson in the latest moves after being appointed interim coach for the rest of the season to replace Sam Pittman, who was fired Sunday following five-plus seasons as Arkansas’ head coach.

“I just felt like how we performed on Saturday gave me an indication that maybe Sam had lost the team a little bit because they generally had played really hard for him throughout his tenure,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said of the move, which came on the heels of a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame.

Petrino, 64, returned to Arkansas in 2023 as offensive coordinator after serving in a number of jobs. In four years as the Razorbacks’ head coach, he went 34-17, including consecutive seasons with double-digit victories in 2010 and 2011.

“Coach Petrino, as we met yesterday, he accepted this opportunity with the understanding that he also wanted an opportunity to formally be a candidate for our head coaching position, and he will have that opportunity, but we’ll also subsequently run a search for our next head coach at the same time,” Yurachek said.

Pittman’s dismissal, Petrino’s temporary promotion and the defensive assistant dismissals weren’t the only changes. Chris Wilson was named the team’s interim defensive coordinator.

Petrino had high praise for Wilson, who was in his first year with the Razorbacks as an assistant defensive line coach.

“My experience [with Wilson] goes way back to having to battle against him when he had all the great defensive linemen at Mississippi State,” Petrino said. “Very, very impressed with what he’s done throughout his career. Guy’s got a Super Bowl ring. He brings a lot of credibility into the room.”

Several defensive players posted cryptic messages on social media following the firing of Williams, who had served as the team’s defensive coordinator since 2023. Yurachek and Petrino encouraged players to welcome change amid a 2-3 start to the season.

“The No. 1 thing is, you have to get used to change. You know, your whole life there’s going to be change. So how we handle that, our attitude on how we handle that, will determine how quickly we improve,” Petrino said.

Petrino was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in April 2012 that left him with four broken ribs. At first, he said he was riding alone, but a police report revealed a woman was riding with him. The woman turned out to be a former Arkansas athlete who was in a romantic relationship with the married Petrino. The coach had given her a job in the football program and a $20,000 gift.

Petrino was fired by then-athletic director Jeff Long for misleading his bosses about what happened with the accident and his relationship with the football staffer.

Pittman, 63, went 32-34 with the Razorbacks.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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