Sugar Bowl

85th Annual
Allstate Sugar Bowl
January 1, 2019

---

#14 Texas 28 (Final: 10-4)
#6 Georgia 21 (Final: 11-3)

---

---

---

---

Sam Ehlinger and a Stout Defense Lift Texas Over Georgia, 28-21 

Even in the playoff era, bowl games still matter. At least winning bowl games still matters.

Case in point: Texas, whose not-as-close-as-it-sounds 28-21 upset of No. 5 Georgia in the 85th Allstate Sugar Bowl Classic provided a definitive statement about the subject, punctuated by Miller-Digby Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s postgame proclamation - “Longhorn Nation – We’re baaaaaaaak!”

The “We,” Texas coach Tom Herman emphasized, meant, “This was a team win – offense, defense, special teams, coaches, staff and fans. It was exactly what we needed to have happen to have a chance to win.”

Even Bevo got in the act. When approached by Uga, in a planned pregame meeting of two of college football’s most iconic mascots, the ornery Longhorns’ longhorn let it be known that he did not appreciate his space being invaded, charging at the unwary Bulldogs’ bulldog. “I’m sorry I missed seeing it happen,” Herman said. “But they made me aware of it before the game. I was definitely proud of our mascot.”

Bevo’s unwillingness to back down was symbolic of the effort put forth by Texas, which was a 12-point underdog.
 
Foremost, going against the SEC’s best rushing offense, 251.6 yards-per-game, the Longhorns held the Bulldogs to a season low 72 yards. It was the only time all season Georgia had less than 100 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, Texas netted 178 rushing yards, a number exceeded only once by Georgia’s first 13 foes.

“We didn’t think Texas was more physical than we were,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “But they definitely were that night. They dominated the line of scrimmage, especially their defensive line. They weren’t just more powerful; they played with more desire to win the game.”

Herman was particularly proud of the defensive effort. “To be able to do that against one of the most-dominant running games in college football meant establishing our mentality early and keeping it throughout the game,” he said. “That’s something special.”

Desire and motivation definitely were on the side of Texas, which was making its first Sugar Bowl appearance since the 1957 season. The Longhorns needed it because they were just the second team to come into the Sugar Bowl with four losses.

But the largest margin in those losses was to the playoff participant Oklahoma, 39-27, in the Big 12 championship game. In the regular season, the Longhorns had handed the Sooners their only defeat in, 48-45, Red River Shootout. Texas’ other three losses were by a combined nine points. It was a sign of respect for the resurgent Longhorns that they were ranked No. 15 nationally, highest of any four-loss team.

And, by virtue of making the conference championship game. Texas was assured of claiming the Big 12’s spot in the Sugar Bowl, win or lose in the rematch.

So the disappointment over losing to Oklahoma, while obviously understandable, was mitigated by the fact that a once-dominant program which had gone 23-27 over the previous four seasons was on its way back and that the school’s 55th bowl appearance was the perfect way to show it.

“We’d had some ups-and-downs,” Herman said. “But we had an opportunity to play in a New Year’s Six game, and, as it turned out, to win it. For us to take the next chapter in the development of our program was huge.”

On the other side, Georgia was coming off an enormous disappointment – a 35-28 loss to Alabama in the SEC title game that kept the Bulldogs out of the playoffs. Georgia, which had lost to the Crimson Tide in overtime in the 2017 national championship game, had led 28-14 late in the third quarter of the latest one before giving up three straight touchdowns.

Moreover, Jim Thorpe Award-winning cornerback Deandre Baker elected to sit out the game (He would go to the New York Giants with the No. 30 pick in the draft) and All-SEC D’Andre Walker was out with an injury. Additionally, defensive coordinator had Mel Tucker left the program in early December after being named the head coach at Colorado.

Like Texas, Georgia was in its 55th bowl game. But the Bulldogs seemed to have little to gain from it. So from the time the CFP field was announced, with Smart saying his team should have been in, to their arrival in New Orleans the Bulldogs were having to answer questions about their level of motivation. It was one Smart was still having to answer after it was over.

“When you’re playing with 18-22 year-olds, motivation is always a factor,” he said. “Your players should be motivated, and that falls on the coaches. Our motivation was to prove that we were one of the top four teams and should have gotten in. We didn’t do it.”

Not that Smart wanted to shortchange Texas. “They had more passion and energy than we did,” he said. “They had a better game plan. They also had very good players who did a good job of outplaying ours. That’s why they won the game.”

Preparation was a key factor. On offense, Texas ran its plays from different formations and motions from earlier in the season, including lining up in the pistol. The Longhorns also switched offensive linemen around along with the tight ends sometimes lining up wide and motioned wide receivers into the backfield.

“When you’ve got a month to prepare, especially as good as their defensive staff is, if you let them diagnose exactly what’s going on, they’re going to do pretty dang good against you,” Herman explained. “So we ran our base plays, but disguised a lot of stuff. And then we wanted to play with tempo. We felt we could wear them out a little bit. We wanted to make sure we could keep them on the field, and I thought we executed that plan.”

On defense, Texas concentrated on stopping the run on first and second downs, trusting that the perimeter players could handle the passing game despite Georgia having one of the nation’s top quarterbacks in Jake Fromm.

Having eight senior starters on defense didn’t hurt either, although a freshman, linebacker Joseph Ossai, wound up as the team’s leading tackler with eight.

“We didn’t leave any bullets in the chamber,” Herman said. “For our seniors, this was the last time they were going to put on shoulder pads as Texas Longhorns. You saw how they felt in the effort and toughness they displayed.”

Texas was in command from the start – going 75 yards in 10 plays after the opening kickoff with Ehlinger, a sophomore who grew up in Austin dreaming to quarterbacking the Longhorns, completing all five of his passes before keeping it himself for the final two yards.

But perhaps the deciive moment of the game came on the next series with Georgia preparing to punt from its 41. The ball came back low to punter Jake Camarda, who knelt to field, inadvertently touching the turf with his right knee. He went ahead and punted 53 yards to the Texas 6. But a review revealed Camarda’s knee touching, the Longhorns had the ball at the Georgia 27, a 67-yard swing.

The Longhorns only got a 37-yard field goal by Cameron Dicker out of their break. But it meant Texas had a double-digit lead less than nine minutes into the game. Georgia would not get back to within one score until its final touchdown with only 14 seconds left.

“To know that you’re ahead 10-0 and your opponent has only one first down generates a lot of confidence,” Herman said. “We had a long way to go, but looking up at that scoreboard made us feel pretty good.”

Smart, while pointing out that one play that early shouldn’t determine the outcome, didn’t downplay its significance either. “It was a tough turn of events,” he said. “But those are things that happen. The great teams overcome them. But we made too many unforced errors like that during the game.”

Another key sequence came at the end of the second quarter and beginning of the third.

Trailing 20-7, Georgia drove to the Texas 31. But Fromm twice threw incomplete before being sacked for a nine-yard loss by Anthony Wheeler on third down, forcing a punt.

“We had a chance to get back in the game by putting some points on the board, and we didn’t,” Smart said. “That one hurt for sure, because it was a lost opportunity.”

Georgia did get the ball to start the second half, and, thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct call on the kickoff and Elijah Holyfield’s 11-yard gain on the first play, quickly crossed midfield.

But two plays later, P.J. Locke intercepted Fromm at the Texas 39. Georgia would not get deeper than the Longhorns’ 47 until the fourth quarter, by which time the Bulldogs trailed 28-7.

“We had a chance to gain some momentum there at the start of the second half,” Smart said. “But we could just never flip the momentum all night. Give Texas credit. They did a tremendous job of keeping momentum on their side.”

Herman agreed. “Playing well at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second is something we pride ourselves on,” he said. “Not letting them chip away at our lead was critical.”

The victory was the 10th of the season for Texas, the first time the Longhorns had won that many games since 2009. And it was their first in three Sugar Bowl appearances.

Ehlinger finished 19-27 passing for 177 yards. But he also rushed for all three of his team’s touchdowns and passed for a two-point conversion.

“Sam plays with a toughness you have to love,” Herman said. “He was banged up going into the game, but his attitude helped give us the competitive edge we needed. Nothing was going to stand in his way of our winning a championship.”

Note that Herman said “championship” and not “the game.”

That’s because of the way the Longhorns approached the Sugar Bowl.

“We considered ourselves not the Sugar Bowl winners but the Sugar Bowl champions,” Herman said. “We were able to send our seniors out as champions along with giving a boost for the future for our program. It’s a tremendous honor to be the Sugar Bowl champions. That’s something nobody can ever take away from us.”

Game Story by Ted Lewis.

 

Texas	10	10	0	8	–	28
Georgia	0	7	0	14	–	21

SCORING SUMMARY
UT: Sam Ehlinger 2 yd run (Cameron Dicker kick), 10:35 (1st) – 10-75, 4:25
UT: Cameron Dicker 37 yd field goal, 6:05 (1st) – 4-6, 1:29
UT: Sam Ehlinger 9 yd run (Dicker kick), 14:53 (2nd) – 3-12, 0:59
UG: Brian Herrien 17 yd pass from Jake Fromm (Rodrigo Blankenship kick), 9:03 (2nd) – 12-75, 5:50
UT: Dicker 30 yd field goal, 4:37 (2nd) – 11-62, 4:26
UT: Ehlinger 1 yd run (Collin Johnson pass from Ehlinger), 11:49 (4th) – 14-70, 5:37
UG: Mecole Hardman 3 yd pass from Fromm (Blankenship kick), 10:25 (4th) – 6-67, 1:15
UG: D’Andre Swift 5 yd pass from Fromm (Blankenship kick), 0:14 (4th) – 5-72, 0:56

Texas	Team Stats	Georgia
20	First Downs	20
49-178	Rushing	30-72
20-28-0	Comp-Att-Int	20-34-1
177	Passing Yards	212
77-355	Total Offense	64-284
22	Return Yards	28
5-41.4	Punting	5-37.6
1-0	Fumbles-Lost	2-1
6-60	Penalties-Yds	3-35
35:00	Times of Poss.	25:00

Rushing
Texas: Tre Watson 18-91; Sam Ehlinger 21-64 3 TDs; Keontay Ingram 9-25.
Georgia: Elijah Holyfield 12-62; Brian herrien 4-17; D’Andre Swift 8-12; Jake Fromm 5-(-5).

Passing
Texas: Sam Ehlinger 19-27-0, 169 yards, 0 TDs, 2 sacks; Lil’ Jordan Humphrey 1-1-0, 8 yards, 0 sacks.
Georgia: Jake Fromm 20-34-1, 212 yards, 3 TDs, 2 sacks.

Receiving
Texas: Lil’Jordan Humphrey 7-67; Collin Johnson 3-40; Keontay Ingram 3-24; Devin Duvernay 2-22; Tre Watson 2-6; Sam Ehlinger 1-8; Andrew Beck 1-5; Jerrod Heard 1-5.
Georgia: Riley Ridley 5-61; D’Andre Swift 5-30 TD; Terry Godwin 2-33; Charlie Woerner 2-27; Brian Herrien 2-20 TD; Jeremiah Holloman 1-31; Elijah Holyfield 1-4; Mecole Hardman 1-3 TD; Isaac Nauta 1-3.

Miller-Digby Award Recipient: Sam Ehlinger, Texas quarterback