Steve Sarkisian's Longhorns are fully aware of how tough it is to win at Georgia

When Steve Sarkisian‘s 2023 Texas team walked into Bryant-Denny Stadium and dealt the Alabama Crimson Tide a 34-24 loss, Sarkisian knew the specific magnitude of his program’s accomplishment and described it postgame.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and ONE MONTH for $1!]

“They were 52-1 in their last 53 (home) games,” Sarkisian said to ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “I guess they’re 52-2 now.”

That was a major victory as it spurred Texas’ into championship contender status and eventually was a big reason why the Longhorns earned a spot in the final iteration of the four-team College Football Playoff.

So when Sarkisian started talking about records and numbers on Monday ahead of his 2025 team’s matchup with Georgia in Athens, it harkened back to the last time wins and losses in opposing territory were on his mind.

“Obviously this week is a heck of a challenge going to play at Georgia and the respect we have for that program and the job they’ve done not only this season but over the years,” Sarkisian said Monday. “What (Kirby) Smart has done. Think they’ve been to four consecutive SEC championship games. They’ve got a couple of national titles.

“They’re a very tough team to play at home. They’re 51-2 in their last 53 games at home.”

One of those losses occurred earlier this year when Alabama went into Sanford Stadium and topped the Dawgs for the second straight year. The other? It was in 2019 when the Bulldogs lost to South Carolina.

Playing Georgia in Athens is difficult for the obvious reason: the Bulldogs are talented across the board. But Sanford Stadium is also a tough environment. Over 93,000 barking fans pack into the building, giving stout teams the additional motivation needed to successfully defend Uga’s home turf.

But when asked if he was using Georgia’s sparkling home record as motivation in a way similar to how he described Alabama’s great mark in Tuscaloosa, Sarkisian pushed back on the idea of looking back to 2023.

“I think we need to focus on this team and this game,” Sarkisian said. “We’re a different football team than we were then. This is a different environment, a different team we’re playing. Different stadium. We’ve got to focus on what we need to do to play really well this Saturday night at 7:30.”

This Georgia team is great, to no surprise. In games played between the hedges this year on Dooley Field, here’s how the Bulldogs have fared:

• Marshall – August 30 – 45-7 W
• Austin Peay – September 6 – 28-6 W
• Alabama – September 27 – 24-21 L
• Kentucky – October 4 – 35-14 W
• Ole Miss – October 18 – 43-35 W

All that in mind, it’s going to be tough for Texas. While Sarkisian didn’t want to explicitly cite the 2023 Alabama game in his media session on Monday, he did mention there are some aspects of preparation that do look similar no matter the opponent, location, or season.

Sarkisian then explained the month on the road in October helped the team to understand the importance of each game and each bit of preparation for those games. Texas has little to no margin for error the rest of the way, and Sarkisian made it sound like the Longhorns are preparing with that type of urgency on a daily basis after not fully getting that earlier this year.

“I think early on, we were a little focused on what was down the road, and I think we’ve gotten the maturity of a team that now is focused on the task at hand and what’s right in front of us,” Sarkisian said. “That’s what this game requires. This game against Georgia requires all of its attention that it deserves. That attention isn’t just Saturday night at 7:30, it’s the attention that it deserves today at 7:15 this morning at our first team meeting.”

That’s all part of an effort to put another tick in the loss column and turn Georgia into a team that’s 51-3 in its last 54 home games.