Bowl season is predictably unpredictable, but we can with absolute certainty predict one thing following No. 15 Texas' 28-21 win over No. 5 Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl: the Longhorns are going to be one of the most hyped teams heading into the 2019 season. Without a doubt, Year 3 for coach Tom Herman will have playoff aspirations and if I'm a betting man, I'm guessing the Longhorns will be somewhere in the preseason top 10 next year, maybe even the top five.
All things considered, the 10-4 Horns overachieved some this season after being picked fourth in the preseason media poll. That will no longer be the case moving forward for a program that finally wants to consider itself, you know, "back." Seriously: quarterback Sam Ehlinger said it himself.
But that hype can wait. It has eight months to percolate. For now, this is the first 10-win season for Texas since 2009, nearly 10 years ago. It was a thoroughly dominating effort even if the final score didn't quite reflect that. Then again, that's distinctly on-brand for the Horns, who have won seven games this season by one possession -- more than any other team in the country, per ESPN Stats and and Info -- and lost three more by less than a touchdown.
Here's what else we learned ...
Ehlinger will be a Heisman Trophy candidate next year. Ehlinger finished his strong sophomore season with three rushing touchdowns, putting him at 16 total for the year. That's more than any other quarterback in program history. He also finished the game with 260 yards of offense and will undoubtedly be in the Heisman conversation going into next season. Ehlinger totaled 41 touchdowns this season along with just over 3,800 yards. He's a one-man production machine and Heisman voters love their numbers. While many will draw comparisons to former Florida great Tim Tebow, Ehlinger has more going for him as a passer. He has a stronger arm than Tebow along with better pocket presence, awareness and decision-making, but his patience as a runner and effectiveness in third down and/or short yardage situations makes him a tough weapon to stop.
Someone needs to hire Texas defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. Like, I don't know, maybe Temple, which as of a week ago had a former defensive coordinator, Manny Diaz, as its head coach before Diaz bolted back to Miami to succeed Mark Richt. Orlando called a hell of a game against the Bulldogs, who averaged just 4.44 yards per play and had merely three scoring drives on 11 attempts -- and one of them, for all intents and purposes, was in garbage time. Texas' blitzes were effective against quarterback Jake Fromm, who was off for most of the night and took a number of hits. Texas finished the game with a pair of sacks, but seven tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. The Longhorns were everywhere and Georgia had no answers. Orlando has done his time, climbed up the ladder and put in the work. Now it's his turn to be a head coach. Temple could do a lot worse than Orlando, but even if this time it doesn't work out, his chance is coming soon.
Georgia never gave itself a chance. Falling behind 17-0 against a team that likes to run the ball and grind out the game is a bad way to try to get a W. Georgia, for whatever reason, was simply off for the first quarter or so of the game. Running back D'Andre Swift had two fumbles, losing one, and the punting team had a couple of miscues that gave Texas excellent field position. Honestly, it was amazing that Georgia didn't find itself in a bigger deficit. And the Bulldogs never quite got on track the rest of the evening. Outside of three scoring drives, Georgia had 95 yards of offense on 41 plays. That's 2.3 yards per play. Miscues -- be it penalties, turnovers or misfires on offense -- doomed the Bulldogs from the start and they were never quite able to consistently get back on track.
Say what you want about Georgia and whether they belonged in the College Football Playoff. It's a tired, moot talking point and it's only your breath that you'd be wasting. The decisions were made and the Bulldogs didn't do enough along its path in the regular season to be selected. The reality is they were probably a pretty good, top-five-ish group that simply didn't do enough in the regular season to be selected among the final four. Those shortcomings that led to being left out of the final four were on display tonight.
CBS Sports was with you the entire way Tuesday updating this story with the latest scores, analysis and highlights from the 2019 Sugar Bowl. If you are unable to view the live updates below, please click here.
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