NASHVILLE — The Texas Longhorns and the Vanderbilt Commodores are finally about to meet on the football field for the first time in nearly a century.
The stakes are high for both Southeastern Conference programs.
The fifth-ranked Longhorns (6-1, 2-1) visit Music City on Saturday trying to avoid consecutive losses in their new league. Last year’s Big 12 champions come in tied with No. 25 Vanderbilt (5-2, 2-1) in the SEC standings — along with three other teams with one league loss — and needing a win to keep pace in the chase for a berth in the conference championship game and the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Texas, which reached the national semifinals last season, is coming off a 30-15 home loss to Georgia that knocked it out of the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25.
“It really feels like from here on out, we’re kind of in the SEC championship game,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Every game matters, and we have to put ourselves in Atlanta.”
Texas safety Michael Taaffe said the Longhorns remain confident with everything they want still in front of them.
“If we were worried about that, then we would be taking our focus off of Vanderbilt, and they deserve our focus,” Taaffe said.
The Commodores certainly do. The program best known as the SEC’s perennial cellar dweller also can see a spot in Atlanta in December. Coach Clark Lea wants his players to embrace what’s possible thanks to Vanderbilt’s 40-35 upset then-No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 5, which marked the program’s first ever-win against a top-five team in 61 tries.
Texas would be another big-time takedown for Vanderbilt.
“We’re going to fight together to to take this as far as we can,” Lea said.
Now in his fourth year as head coach at his alma mater, the former Commodores fullback took advantage of the NCAA transfer portal to revamp both his roster and coaching staff in the offseason. The biggest addition has been quarterback Diego Pavia. The graduate transfer from New Mexico State is why Vanderbilt leads the SEC and is 11th nationally in time of possession, holding the ball for an average of 33 minutes a game.
The Commodores also lead the SEC in third-down conversions at 52.1%, and Pavia has been picked off just once. That has Vanderbilt tied for first among power conference programs this season, and the Commodores lead the SEC by having lost only two turnovers.
“He is definitely the straw that stirs the drink for them in the run game and in the pass game,” Sarkisian said of Pavia. “He’s definitely infused a competitive, winning mentality into that team. We’ve got our work cut out defending him.”
As for Texas, Sarkisian insists there no quarterback controversy, but he clearly has a conundrum at the position. Questions about starter Quinn Ewers’ nagging abdomen strain, poor play the past two games and when to go to backup Arch Manning hang over the offense.
Ewers was briefly benched in last week’s loss to Georgia. Manning was in for just two series, but the redshirt freshman has two previous wins as a starter when Ewers was sidelined by injury, including the SEC opener against Mississippi State. Manning also has nine touchdown passes this season, so how quickly would Sarkisian pull Ewers if he struggles again?
“I think Quinn definitely can play better. We’ve got to continue to work on his pocket presence,” Sarkisian said. “But I also think we need to play better around him. You know, our offense isn’t about one player playing well.”
The Longhorns have been slow out of the gate lately, scoring just one touchdown in the first quarter over the past three games and getting shut out in first quarter of the last two. Texas was also just 2-of-14 on third down against Georgia, and 1-of-5 on fourth down.
Texas has one of the most experienced offensive lines, with left tackle Kelvin Banks considered a likely early pick in the NFL draft next April. However, the whole unit struggled against Georgia’s pass rush, giving up seven sacks, two of which led to fumbles. Banks gave up his first sack since the first game of 2023.
Vanderbilt doesn’t have the same defensive talent up front as Georgia, but Lea, a former defensive coordinator at Notre Dame who is running this defense, no doubt picked up ideas on how to pressure Texas quarterbacks.
After splitting home games against the SEC’s two sets of Bulldogs — Mississippi State and Georgia — and topping Red River rival Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas will play its first true SEC road game at the league’s smallest stadium, with capacity limited even more due to the south end zone still being under construction as part of Vanderbilt’s first major renovation since 1981.
Vanderbilt usually provides a home-field advantage for the visitors, but the Commodores are 4-0 at home this season, including an overtime win against Atlantic Coast Conference member Virginia Tech in the Aug. 31 opener. The Commodores are coming off last week’s nonconference home win against Ball State, but with this their first SEC home game since taking down Alabama, fans should be out in force.