That changed in 2023, when Texas went 12-2 in coach Steve Sarkisian’s third season and appeared in the College Football Playoff for the first time. Like Texas, Georgia spent much of the last 30 years boasting a past national championship and a campus in a recruiting-rich part of the country, with little modern success to show for it. The quarterback of the Bulldogs’ back-to-back championship teams was not a former high-star recruit but he did grow up in Georgia. In the decade before Sarkisian’s hiring, Texas recruiting classes finished with an average rank of 10.8 in the country; in three recruiting classes under Sarkisian, Texas has averaged a ranking of 4.6. In the eyes of Texas fans, the Longhorns won’t qualify as fully back until they win the program’s first football national championship since 2006.

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Persons: Steve Sarkisian’s, Quinn Ewers, Arch Manning, Peyton, Eli Manning, Kirby Smart, Nick Saban Organizations: Longhorns, College Football, SEC, Bulldogs, Georgia, USA Today, Saban, Southeastern, Mississippi State Locations: Texas, Georgia, Alabama, When Texas, , Texas