Texas hired Steve Sarkisian on Jan. 2, 2021, but his tenure truly began the weekend of Dec. 11-12 later that year. That's the weekend that Quinn Ewers committed to UT after leaving Ohio State (after an aggressive pitch from a Joey McGuire-led Texas Tech), and its the weekend Texas secured the commitments of Kelvin Banks and Cameron Williams, 5- and 3-star offensive tackles who originally committed to Oregon but opened their recruitments after Mario Cristobal took the Miami job. Banks and Williams were the crown jewels of a 7-man offensive line group among a 28-player, fifth-ranked 2022 recruiting class. To secure that haul, Texas's NIL arm founded the Pancake Factory, which paid each of its offensive linemen an eye-popping-at-the-time sum of $50,000. Sark and offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Kyle Flood were going to put acquiring and developing "large humans" at the forefront of their rebuild strategy.
Three seasons later, Banks and Williams are now in the NFL but four members of the 2022 class remain, and the destiny of the preseason No. 1 team rests on their shoulders.
The story of the Texas season began with Arch Manning falling woefully short of his immense preseason hype throughout September, because his offensive line was a complete mess. When 2022er and presumed starter at left guard Neto Umeozulu was not, in fact, ready to start, Flood tried two options through early and mid parts of the seasons: sophomore Connor Stroh -- a 6-foot-7, 341-pound large human who struggles to move laterally -- and true freshman Nick Brooks -- who also wasn't ready, because he is a true freshman recruited to play tackle. It took until Game 9 against Vanderbilt to start the most obvious lineup: moving Cole Hutson from center to his natural position at guard, and starting backup center Connor Robertson. Both Hutson and Robertson are 2022ers, starting next to fellow 2022er DJ Campbell at right guard. Lo and behold, Vanderbilt was Texas's best offensive game of the season, rolling up 428 yards on 7.13 a play, while Manning hit 75 percent of his passes for 9.9 an attempt with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
"I think there's a real sense of trust in the five that are out there right now that they're going to be able to execute at a little higher level than we were executing earlier in the season," Sarkisian said this week.
Because it took so long for Flood and Sarkisian to identify their five best offensive linemen, Texas is now facing a win-or-else game at Georgia, the team that tormented them a year ago, at a venue where the home team has won 51 of its last 53 games.
In two tries against the Bulldogs a year ago, Texas ran for 60 total yards on 55 credited carries. Removing sack yardage, the number "jumps" to 146 yards on 42 traditional runs, but that almost makes it worse: it means Texas scratched out 3.47 yards a carry on runs, and was sacked a combined 13 times for 86 yards.
Gulp.
Now, Georgia's pass rush wasn't what it was a year ago. After ranking in the top 20 nationally in sacks a year ago, the Dawgs are 122nd today. They sacked Joey Aguilar, Ty Simpson and Trinidad Chambliss just once, total. Texas's new/old offensive line didn't allow a sack against Vanderbilt, for what that's worth.
Is any of that enough to feel confident the Texas offensive line will hold up better between the hedges than it did in Austin or Atlanta last year? In the end, it doesn't matter. The preseason No. 1 team's season hangs in the balance, and the wheels to Saturday night started turning four years ago.
Additional Games:
-- Troy at Old Dominion (7:30 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN): Troy (4-1 in Sun Belt play) needs to win here and next week against Georgia State to set up a Sun Belt West championship game against 5-0 Southern Miss.
-- Clemson at No. 20 Louisville (7:30 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN): Clemson did the impossible last week -- it won a home game against a Power 4 opponent. Assuming a win over Furman, the preseason No. 4 team in the country needs to win here or at South Carolina to avoid missing its first bowl game since 2004, and its first sub-.500 regular season since 1998. Louisville needs a win to keep pace in an ACC race its losing, the 4-2 Cards are looking up at five teams in the 17-team table.
-- Minnesota at No. 8 Oregon (9 p.m. ET Friday, Fox): Minnesota and Oregon have met four times previously, twice in Minneapolis and twice in the Sun Bowl. Minnesota has not beaten a top-10 team on the road since 2000.
-- Wisconsin at No. 2 Indiana (noon ET, BTN): Indiana has survived two close calls on the road, but they've been a juggernaut at home, with an average margin of victory of 43.5. One can retort that they haven't played any good teams at home, I have two rebuttals: 1) They beat Illinois 63-10, and 2) What do you think Wisconsin is?
-- South Carolina at No. 3 Texas A&M (noon ET, ESPN): In one of the most vaunted home venues in college football, Texas A&M is playing for its first undefeated home season (assuming they don't have a home CFP game) since 2020, and its first undefeated season before a non-socially-distanced crowd since 1999.
-- No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 22 Pittsburgh (noon ET, ABC): Pat Narduzzi already told us this game means nothing.
-- No. 24 South Florida at Navy (noon ET, ESPN2): Memphis was in the first set of mock CFP brackets last week and immediately lost to Tulane, now it's USF's turn in the barrel. Five AAC teams have one loss in league play, and the Bulls and Middies are two of them.
-- Air Force at UConn (noon ET, CBS Sports Network): There was a time when Renschlter Field was a black hole in the American -- teams would go visit UConn and disappear. Those times ended when UConn's fortunes faded, but Jim Mora has revived a home field advantage in Connecticut; the Huskies have won seven straight home games.
-- Arkansas at LSU (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network): Arkansas and LSU have played 68 times previously, and it's possible none of those have meant less than this. They're going to play the Golden Boot pseudo-rivalry anyway; LSU has won three in a row and eight of nine.
-- West Virginia at Arizona State (1 p.m. ET, TNT): West Virginia needs a win to avoid missing its first bowl game since 2022.
-- Tennessee Tech at Kentucky (1:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+): When SEC teams line up their November scrimmages against FCS patsies, the idea is to not bring in a 10-0 team that ranks in the top 10 nationally. But that's the straw Kentucky draws on Saturday.
-- No. 11 Oklahoma at No. 4 Alabama (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC): We did the Brent Venables on the brink thing last week, so if the Tennessee game was everything, the Alabama game can't be everything, too. The trip to Tuscaloosa is mostly upside for the Sooners. John Mateer did John Mateer things in Knoxville, and the SEC's second-ranked rushing defense will defend its 14th rushing offense when Alabama has the ball. Oklahoma doesn't need to win this game to have a successful season, but losing here would feel like giving up a 75-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes while up 21-17 in a game where you entered as a 10-point underdog.
-- UCF at No. 6 Texas Tech (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox): Texas Tech hasn't been in this exact position since Nov. 8, 2008, when the Red Raiders dethroned No. 1 Texas at home, and then had to turn around and play again the next week; they turned around and hammered No. 8 Oklahoma State, 56-20. This week's challenge won't be as steep.
-- NC State at No. 15 Miami (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): In the eyes of the committee, Miami is the best team in the ACC. In the law of the standings, Miami is seventh-best team in the ACC, sitting behind five 1-loss teams at 3-2.
-- No. 21 Iowa at No. 17 USC (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN)
-- Penn State at Michigan State (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): CBS gets the game where Penn State and Michigan State decide who among them moves to 1-6 in B1G play and who falls to 0-7, while the top-25 matchup is relegated to BTN. Makes total sense.
-- No. 19 Virginia at Duke (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2): The CFP nightmare scenarios all center around the ACC missing the Playoff entirely because Duke, currently 5-4, controls its destiny to win the conference. (Remember, the CFP takes the five highest-rated conference champs, not necessarily the P4 champs plus one G5 champ.) However, to win the ACC, Duke would have to beat No. 19 Virginia, plus another ranked team in the title game. Still, the ACC would rather Virginia win this game.
-- Memphis at East Carolina (4 p.m. ET, ESPNU): Among the cluster of 1-loss teams atop the AAC sits East Carolina, sneaking up on the rest of the conference with black sails and a 4-1 league record. Blake Harrell's Pirates lost to Tulane and their four wins are against clubs that are a collective 6-18 in AAC play but, hey, they're in the race.
-- Florida Atlantic at Tulane (4 p.m. ET, ESPN+): Tulane hasn't beaten anyone by more than a touchdown since a 31-14 win over Tulsa on Sept. 27, and in fact only two of their seven wins have come by more than seven points.
-- Coastal Carolina at Georgia Southern (6 p.m. ET, ESPN+): A similar dynamic to the Sun Belt West, where 5-1 Coastal needs a win to set up a winner-to-the-title-game showdown with 6-0 James Madison on the season's final weekend.
-- Florida at No. 7 Ole Miss (7 p.m. ET, ESPN): They're obviously hunting for more, but Lane Kiffin's bunch can clinch its third straight 10-win season and fourth such campaign in their last five tries, along with their second undefeated home season (Playoff pending) in three years. Ole Miss has not beaten Florida since 2008, the game that inspired The Speech.
-- No. 13 Utah at Baylor (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2): There was speculation Dave Aranda would be fired had Baylor lost its homecoming game to UCF a couple weeks ago. Aranda rendered that speculation moot by winning 30-3. He's also unlikely to be fired after this game, no matter the result, due to Baylor not currently having an AD.
-- UCLA at No. 1 Ohio State (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): Nico Iamaleava has been to the Horseshoe before, for a game that was 11 months and several lifetimes ago. In his belated swan song for Tennessee, the future Bruin went 14-of-31 for 104 yards, while adding 47 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. He returns Saturday as the quarterback of a 3-6 team that's a 31.5-point underdog.
-- TCU at No. 12 BYU (10:15 p.m. ET, ESPN): In TCU's first visit to Provo since 2009, BYU is looking to end a 5-game losing streak to the Horned Frogs.
-- Boise State at San Diego State (10:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network): If the season ended last week, this would be your Mountain West Championship. But, it doesn't, so the 4-1 Broncos and 4-1 Aztecs will fight for first place. SDSU owns a win over 3-2 Fresno State, was blown out at 4-2 Hawaii last week and closes the year at 3-2 New Mexico, while Boise State lost to Fresno and beat 3-2 UNLV earlier in the year.