Georgia coach Kirby Smart didn’t want to give Texas a chance to hang around. No. 5 Georgia perfectly executed a fourth-quarter onside kick in its 35-10 win over No. 10 Texas to move to 9-1 overall and become a virtual lock for the College Football Playoff.
After Gunner Stockton hit London Humphreys for a 30-yard touchdown and a 21-10 lead with 14:20 to go, the Bulldogs lined up for what seemed to be a routine kickoff. It was not. Kicker Peyton Woodring perfectly bounced a ball to running back Cash Jones against an unsuspecting Texas return team, and Georgia retained possession.
Nine plays later, Stockton rolled to his right and found Lawson Luckie for a 6-yard touchdown, pushing the Bulldogs’ lead to an insurmountable 18 points.
Just like it was a year ago, Texas’ offense was hamstrung by Georgia’s defense all night. The Longhorns trailed 14-3 at halftime and had little chance of getting back into the game after Georgia effectively put the game away early in the fourth quarter.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning didn’t have the best game of his career, but he also didn’t get much help from his receivers. In the first half, Texas went three-and-out thanks to three consecutive drops on well-thrown passes. Manning’s lone interception of the game was not close to his intended receiver, and the Texas running game failed to provide a credible threat.
Meanwhile, Stockton showed why he could be a Heisman finalist by the end of the season. He finished with five total touchdowns after a rushing score extended the Bulldogs’ lead to 25 points. To put it another way, Stockton had as many total touchdowns as he had incompletions. He completed 24-of-29 passes for 229 yards and four touchdowns with one interception, while rushing six times for 29 yards and a touchdown.
Stockton threw two first-half touchdowns to Noah Thomas. The Texas A&M transfer entered the game with just eight catches all season after recording 39 grabs for 574 yards and eight scores for the Aggies in 2023. Saturday night, Thomas doubled his season touchdown total in just 30 minutes.
Thomas’ relative lack of production in 2025 is a great example of the receiving depth that Georgia accumulated after the 2024 season. The Bulldogs desperately needed better receivers a season ago and addressed that by adding Thomas and USC’s Zachariah Branch through the transfer portal, while bringing back Colbie Young and Humphreys after they had transferred ahead of the 2024 season.
Georgia is a national title contender. Texas is not. The Longhorns should miss the College Football Playoff even if they beat Texas A&M in the final week of the season.
Saturday night’s game exposed flaws that Texas was never able to correct all season. The Longhorns have struggled to put together a consistent game due to an offensive line that has never been excellent. Manning has shown flashes in his first year as a starter, but he’s still prone to an errant throw or two, and the running game hasn’t been as reliable as it was in 2024.
A year ago, Texas averaged 4.3 yards per carry. This season, the Longhorns are averaging fewer than 4 yards per rush attempt. That has put more pressure on Manning, especially as the offense replaced its top two receivers from the previous season.
There is a slim chance the Longhorns could sneak into the playoff at 9-3 if they beat the Aggies. But that would require many losses by teams ahead of them in the CFP rankings. While Texas can boast losses to both No. 1 Ohio State and No. 5 Georgia, it also needed overtime to beat Kentucky and Mississippi State—two of the worst teams in the SEC—and lost at Florida.
That’s a résumé that’s simply not playoff-worthy when compared to other at-large teams with 11-1 or 10-2 records.
https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/breaking-news/article/no-5-georgia-perfectly-utilizes-onside-kick-to-put-no-10-texas-away-in-35-10-win-over-longhorns-040535458.html