AUSTIN (KXAN) — With Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian set to speak Wednesday for the first time at SEC Football Media Days, one of the conference’s premier coaches chimed in on his team’s meeting with the newcomers this season.
Kirby Smart, head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, said the Longhorns “are built like an SEC football team.”
“I have a ton of respect for (Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian) Sark and the job he does,” Smart said. “Got to watch them play last year against several common opponents, got to watch them play in the playoffs. They have a tremendous recruiting base. They do a tremendous job in recruiting, that includes NIL and everything included in that.”
Texas and Georgia face off Oct. 19 at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in one of the most highly-anticipated games on the SEC slate. Smart said he’s “looking forward to an opportunity to come play them,” but in the same vein, he’s looking forward to playing everyone.
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“Every team we play is the best that week. In the SEC, humility is a week away,” he said. “What a tremendous matchup it will be.”
Of course, Oklahoma is also moving to the SEC along with Texas, and Sooners head coach Brent Venables addressed media members for the first time Tuesday. The teams clash at the Cotton Bowl on Oct. 12 in the Red River Rivalry, making a tough two-week stretch for Texas with the Bulldogs following. Venables said it doesn’t matter what conference the Sooners and Longhorns are in together — the rivalry remains just as intense.
“It’s as deep-seated and hate-filled and emotional of a rivalry as there is in all of college football,” Venables said. “I don’t see how the conference affiliation will make a big difference.”
He called the schools joining the conference “a partnership of elite with elite,” and that Oklahoma and Texas are “two programs that in the history of college football take a back seat to nobody.”
“We both have programs that have had elite-level success with all of our athletic programs, certainly football included,” he said. “And I just think it fortifies what was already the strongest conference in all of college football.”
Texas opens SEC play at home Sept. 28 against Mississippi State before heading to Dallas for the Red River Rivalry then back home to face the Bulldogs. The Longhorns play Vanderbilt in Nashville, the Florida Gators at home and Arkansas on the road before the final home game of the season against Kentucky. The SEC finale is the revival of the Lone Star Showdown at Kyle Field against Texas A&M.
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