The Texas Longhorns take on the Georgia Bulldogs in this year’s Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
Both teams are coming off disappointing losses in their respective conference championship games and will be looking to erase the memories with a sweet victory at the Sugar Bowl.
The Texas Longhorns’ college football program had one of its best seasons in recent memory. After losing to West Virginia with one month left to play in the season, they racked up three straight wins to make it to the Big 12 championship game. However, the Longhorns came a little short and were beaten by Oklahoma in a close game where the team played hard until the end. Nevertheless, Tom Herman has built a winning culture in Texas and that should be on display in the Sugar Bowl.
Sam Ehlinger has thrown for a total of 3,123 passing yards with 25 touchdowns and just 5 interceptions while completing 64.3% of his passes. Ehlinger has also rushed for 418 yards with 13 rushing touchdowns. Lil’ Jordan Humphrey has made 79 catches for 1,109 receiving yards with 9 touchdowns while running backs Keaontay Ingram and Trae Watson have rushed for a combined 1,378 yards with 6 touchdowns.
The Georgia Bulldogs played an excellent season and set themselves up for a College Football Playoff appearance this season by controlling the Alabama Crimson Tide nearly the entire game when Jalen Hurts came and delivered the hurt. With their loss to the Crimson Tide, the Bulldogs were bounced off from the NCAA Committee’s rankings and now they should be disheartened heading to the Sugar Bowl.
Jake Fromm has thrown for a total of 2,537 passing yards with 27 touchdowns and 5 interceptions while completing 68.4% of his passes. Mecole Hardman has caught a total of 540 receiving yards with 6 touchdowns while Elijah Holyfield and D’Andre Swift have combined for a total of 1,993 rushing yards with 17 rushing touchdowns.
Texas finished the regular season with a 9-4 SU record. The Longhorns are 3-2 SU in their last five games played. Georgia had an 11-2 SU season and the Bulldogs are 4-1 SU in their last five games played.
Prior to the SEC championship game, the Georgia Bulldogs were on a roll with five straight wins with a winning margin of 23.2 points. Then in that championship game, the Bulldogs were in good shape for most of the game before that questionable fake punt gave the game away to the Alabama Crimson Tide who notched a come from behind 35-28 win. The loss dropped Georgia to 11-2 on the season and out of the College Football Playoffs.
Without even talking about Texas, with all due respect to them, the Georgia Bulldogs are the much superior team. But given how their last game played out and how they were lost their CFP bid, I’m not sure how they will approach this game. I think the Bulldogs will be flat to open this game and Texas’ offense is going to keep it close. But despite being disheartened, I still think that the Bulldogs are the much better team overall here and talent is going to be enough to win this game. It also helps that Georgia is 18-0 SU in their last 18 games as double digit favorites and 6-2 SU in their last 8 games against the Big 12 conference. We’re picking the Georgia Bulldogs to beat the Texas Longhorns on 1/1/19.
The Longhorns were 5-7-1 ATS in their 13 games during the regular season. Texas is 2-4-1 ATS in their last seven games played. The Bulldogs had an 8-5 ATS record during the regular season. Georgia is 5-1 ATS in their last six games played.
The Bulldogs are 4-0-1 in their last five bowl games played and are 7-0 ATS in their last seven games played at a neutral venue. The Longhorns are 5-2 ATS in their last seven games at a neutral site and 13-6-2 ATS in their last 21 games against teams with winning records. Texas is also 6-2-1 ATS in their last nine games following an SU loss. No doubt that Georgia is the better team here and I think they have a much better chance at winning this game. However, I’m not keen on giving them the plus 12 points here because after being snubbed in the playoffs, I’m not sure how they play 100% enough to cover the spread. I’ll take my chance on the underdogs and the plus points. Prediction: Texas +12
The under was 7-6 in the Longhorns’ 13 games played this season. The total has gone under in 17 out of the last 25 games played by Texas. The over was 8-4-1 in the Bulldogs’ 13 regular season games played. Georgia has seen the over go 6-1 in their last seven games played.
The total has gone under in Texas’ last three games played with a total combined score of 47.0. The under is also 4-1 in the Longhorns’ last five bowl games played. Likewise the total has also gone under in 7 out of the last 10 bowl games played by the Bulldogs. I think the Bulldogs aren’t going to be themselves in this game, especially offensively. Prediction: Under 58
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