5 things to know about the Bulldogs

Before the 2025 season, many believed that Texas’ football game against Georgia would be a preview of the Southeastern Conference championship. But the reality is, as the regular season draws to a close, the Longhorns and Bulldogs are battling this weekend to stay in the title race.

No. 11 Texas (7-2, 4-1) heads to No. 5 Georgia (8-1, 6-1) on Saturday for a big showdown. Because Texas and Georgia each have one conference loss and No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 4 Alabama are undefeated in SEC play, neither the Longhorns nor the Bulldogs can afford a loss at Sanford Stadium.

In July, Texas and Georgia were picked to finish first and second in the SEC preseason poll which was voted on by members of the league’s media. Georgia has won two of the last three SEC titles.

Here are five things to know about the Bulldogs:

Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton has emerged as a fringe contender for the Heisman Trophy. In nine games, he totaled 2,040 yards and 15 touchdowns while scoring seven scores. Perhaps most notably, Stockton doesn’t make many mistakes. He completed 69.4% of his passes and only two of his 258 attempts were intercepted.

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This is Stockton’s first season as a starter for Georgia. But Texas already knows its game. The Longhorns were introduced to Stockton in last year’s SEC championship game when then-sophomore relieved injured Carson Beck and helped guide the Bulldogs to an overtime victory.

Georgia did a lot of shuffling on its offensive line; the Bulldogs threw six different combinations up front. However, it appears Georgia has found some continuity in tackles Monroe Freeling and Earnest Greene III, guards Micah Morris and Dontrell Glover and center Drew Bobo. This quintet has started in each of Georgia’s last three games.

The Georgia line is coached by Stacy Searels, who worked at Texas under Mack Brown from 2011 to 2013. Searels’ daughter, Taylor, is currently UT’s director of recruiting.

Georgia is coming off a 41-21 victory at Mississippi State. Georgia didn’t have to sweat as much in Starkville as Texas did on Oct. 25, but the Bulldogs found themselves trailing 7-3 late in the first quarter. Georgia has actually trailed in all but one of its SEC games this season. The Bulldogs ultimately lost to Alabama on September 27, but Georgia rallied successfully in the fourth quarter in victories over Tennessee, Ole Miss and Florida.

For some time now, Georgia has enjoyed home-field advantage at Sanford Stadium. Since the start of the 2020 season, Georgia is 32-1 at home. That loss, however, came in September against Alabama.

Texas has never visited Georgia’s campus before. Technically, Georgia hosted Texas once, but the 1957 season opener was in Atlanta. The Texas football program has a reason to remember that 26-7 victory at Grant Field fondly, but not because of the venue: Darrell Royal made his UT coaching debut in that game.

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Texas has won four of the seven games it has played against Georgia, and the Longhorns had a memorable victory against the Bulldogs in the 2019 Sugar Bowl. Georgia, however, has recently had the last laughs in this series. In addition to beating Texas in last year’s SEC championship game, Georgia also topped Texas by 15 points in Austin earlier last season.