Texas began last season as the preseason No. 1 in the AP Poll for the first time in school history. The Horns ended last year on the outside looking in, missing the College Football Playoffs for the first time since 2022 despite knocking off Texas A&M and Oklahoma – two teams that did make the field.
Head coach Steve Sarkisian, now entering Year 6 on the Forty Acres, says that he can identify four or five plays from all three losses that could’ve not only changed the outcome of those games, but also propelled his program back into the CFP. He brings up the two failed fourth-down conversions deep in Ohio State territory and the two fourth-down conversions that Georgia used to distance themselves in a game that was 14-10 in the third quarter as examples.