Hooked: UT Football through a UK lens.

Happy SEC Championship day to all who celebrate, commiserate, and capitulate.

I don’t remember too much of the A&M game having come out of surgery 5 hours prior. The game from what I remember in my codeine-induced haze and drifting in and out of sleep was a relatively ugly affair, with a few glimmers of brilliance.

The Texas fanbase is done with Quinn Ewers. The final scoreline of 17 – 7 could have arguably been 35 – 0. Quinn isn’t untalented by any stretch of the imagination, he’s just as capable of firing darts as the next guy but you can’t, on the biggest of stages, try and throw games away. Second half execution from Ewers was horribly forced, resulting in a pick six and fumbling in the redzone. It’s not good enough. This fanbase is more ruthless than Aunt Moira after a bottle of chardonnay at Thanksgiving and you’ve gained a couple pounds since you last saw her.

The human side of me in some way does feel sorry for Quinn. What’s set to be his final year at UT before declaring for the draft has been cast in a shadow of a prodigy that’s not to be denied. Arch Manning’s first touch in the game was a touchdown, dripping in swagger afterwards reminiscent of Joe Burrow in his final year at LSU.

I think the dual threat element of Sarkisian’s play calling, bringing Arch in in the redzone through the first half was quite good. A&M weren’t prepared for that and it paid off. Sarkisian’s mistake lay in leaving Quinn on the field.

Wisner chewed up what felt like a billion hard yards in this game and deserves his big-ass bouquet of flowers. And once again the Longhorns defense invited their opponents to fuck around and find out. The raw talent on this roster should be a team so dominant that no game is ever in question, but multiple times this season down the stretch of big games it has been a question. And that’s what the fans remember. They remember the frustration, they remember the disbelief they feel when a potentially generational talent is sidelined and watching on.

Something that I’ve not expected before as a fan of this team is more excitement for the future, rather than appreciating where we’re at in the here and now. At the end of the day we’re 11-1. We got here. It might not be how we’d have liked, but we’re still here. We have the opportunity to do what no team has done since Alabama did it in in the 1933 founding season; win an SEC Championship in our conference debut. I think that’s something to be damn proud of.

And so, eyes turn to Atlanta and Mercedes Benz Stadium. The SEC Championship game. Redemption time vs. the Georgia Bulldogs. Our 11-1 record marred by the one loss Georgia put on us at home. And now we run it back in their back yard. We’ve felt the bite of the Bulldogs, it’s time to take that pain and use it as a catalyst for greatness.

Losing to Georgia in-season won’t mean diddly if we bring the hardware home and plonk it proudly on our mantlepiece ready for Santa to admire when he arrives in a few weeks. We’ll be kings. A loss here, however, and we’ll be labelled frauds. Georgia lost to Ole Miss and Alabama, and they should have lost to us.

It’s time for the boys in burnt orange to cowboy up and leave it all on the field. An SEC Championship win here and I’ll forgive whatever happens in the playoffs. A loss and nothing but a Natty will matter. An SEC Championship is breathing room. An SEC Championship is glory.

Let’s celebrate, leaving the commiseration and capitulation to the Bulldogs.

Hook ’em.