Texas Longhorns Had 'Come to Jesus Meeting' After SEC Championship

The Texas Longhorns looked themselves in the mirror after losing to the Georgia Bulldogs again.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian disputes a call during the game against Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoffs at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. | Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Texas Longhorns and head coach Steve Sarkisian said enough was enough after losing to the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship.

When speaking to the media Sunday, Sarkisian said that the Longhorns had a "come-to-Jesus moment" following the loss. Texas shot itself in the foot one too many times in multiple ways, but it was the penalties that appears to be the biggest motivator.

"We had a real come to Jesus meeting after the SEC Championship game when we essentially lost that game because of the penalties," Sarkisian said, we just said we're not going to do that anymore, and we're going to play as clean football as we can play, as fundamentally-sound football as we can play. Still be aggressive. We never want to lose our stinger, we never want to lose our aggressiveness, but we can play smarter."

The Longhorns have since put that behind them and are now focused on the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Peach Bowl against the Arizona State Sun Devils. Still, the team's discussion needed to be had, even after the 38-24 win over the Clemson Tigers in the first round of the CFP.

"I critiqued one of the penalties that we got today, you can't hit the quarterback late, and that was one of our two penalties Saturday," Sarkisian said. "So we are continually trying to preach playing smarter football as well as playing hard and playing tough and playing physical. But quite frankly, that just came out of a come to Jesus meeting coming out of the SEC championship game."

Penalties have been an issue at times for Texas this season, but had just two penalties for 10 yards in the win over Clemson. The Longhorns will need to keep their discipline tight when they kick off against Arizona State in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan 1 at 12 p.m. CT.

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