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Anthony Hill is ready for opportunities against Ohio State and Georgia, the only teams that beat Texas in 2024

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook07/17/25josephcook89
Anthony Hill
Anthony Hill (Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images)

The 2025 Texas Longhorns have the opportunity to avenge all three losses from the 2024 campaign.

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Their ability to do so comes from various forms of evolution for the sport of college football. Some old, like conference championship games. Some new, like Texas’ membership in the Southeastern Conference. And some even newer, like the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Texas went 13-3 in 2024. The Longhorns lost to Georgia during the regular season, falling in Austin 30-15. Then in a rematch in the SEC Championship game, Texas once again was defeated. This time, it wasn’t a convincing win for Georgia but rather an exciting overtime affair. The Longhorns’ third loss was to Ohio State in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff.

Guess who is on Texas’ schedule? Both Georgia and Ohio State. The Longhorns open the season against the Buckeyes on August 30. Texas linebacker Anthony Hill, speaking at SEC Media Days, said there is some motivation to get one over on Ohio State after last season’s 28-14 loss. But the main motivation is victory, not specifically victory over Ohio State.

“We think about the game, but that’s not our focus,” Hill said Tuesday. “We’re coming out to be 1-0 next year. They’re a great football team. We’re going to have to prepare well and just get ready to roll.”

The Longhorns hope to start their season with a win in Ohio. If they keep up their winning ways week-to-week and don’t falter along the way, then they could arrive in Athens 9-0.

There, the Longhorns could battle a team that Hill said featured the most complicated offense his team faced in 2024.

“I mean, it’s fun,” Hill said. “I feel like they have a really good football team. We want to play against the best teams in the world. Going against them is a great test for us throughout the season. And playing them in the regular season is going to be a really good game. And we know we have to play them at their house. We’re looking forward for that test. I know it’s going to be a really tough game for us, but we’re ready.”

After a 7-1 record SEC play and a run to the CFP semifinals, the rest of the league respects Texas’ standing in the sport. So too does Georgia head coach Kirby Smart even though his team twice came out on top against the Longhorns.

And while he didn’t want to give Texas too much praise, he noted Steve Sarkisian is bringing one of the more high-quality teams in the nation to Athens.

“To beat good teams, you’ve got to be a good team,” Smart said. “We had a good football team last year. So did they. It’s not about us as coaches. It’s really about the players and what you believe in. We got a lot of really good football teams to play next year besides just Texas, so we’re preparing for all of them.”

Beating any team is tough. But beating Ohio State and Georgia? It’s one of the biggest challenges in college football. Hill believes he knows what the Longhorns need to emphasize in order to notch wins over the teams that put the only blemishes on Texas’ 2024 season.

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“If we go out there and communicate, execute like the level we’ve been doing and even exceed it a little bit more,” Hill said on what was needed to win. “I feel like we have to communicate better than we did throughout the years. And we have to execute in some of the big moments like we had last year.”

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