Despite a previous blowout loss, the Texas Longhorns’ playoff hopes are not entirely extinguished.
A decisive 52-37 victory over Arkansas, led by Arch Manning’s four touchdowns, keeps Texas in the conversation.
The team’s chances rely on a potential upset of undefeated Texas A&M and chaos among higher-ranked teams.
If you thought Texas’ blowout loss at Georgia served as a playoff extinction-level event, you’re confusing this 12-team bracket with a beauty contest.
It’s not.
At the tail end of the bracket, it could be much more of a they’d-do-in-a-pinch type of affair.
If the selection committee finds itself in a pinch in a couple of weeks, facing a dearth of beauties, well, Texas still lurks.
And if the Longhorns don’t look like a grand prize, just knock back a six-pack and flip on game film of this 52-37 rout of Arkansas. This didn’t look half bad.
Let’s not turn this result into more than it is. This win serves as a blowout of a bad team, an opponent with an interim coach, a rival that lost to playoff-bound Notre Dame by 43 points.
But, the Razorbacks have had a way about hanging close against SEC opponents, before ultimately losing, and Texas changed the script by burying the Hogs.
“The season’s not done,’ Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said afterward on ABC. ‘You never know what can happen.”
Don’t take this as me stumping for Texas’ playoff bona fides. I had an eyewitness view of the Longhorns’ fourth-quarter meltdown in Athens, Georgia. Sarkisian did my job for me when he called his team’s disintegration against Georgia ‘a disaster.’ Couldn’t have said it any better.
The Longhorns did not resemble a playoff team that night, much as it did not in a loss at Florida or in white-knuckle victories at Kentucky and Mississippi State.
Texas languishes on the road. It’s pretty good at home, and it boasts wins against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, a pair of top-15 teams.
The committee suffers from an affliction known as recency bias. If Texas’ final trip down the catwalk before Selection Sunday is an upset of undefeated Texas A&M in primetime on Black Friday, well, let’s just say hold off on shoveling the dirt on this season.
‘All eyes will be on us,’ Sarkisian said. ‘We’ve got to go compete.”
Need I remind you the first-team-out last season was three-loss Alabama? If Texas reaches 9-3, it’ll tout a resume superior to that of the 2024 Tide.
Texas checked in at No. 17 in the latest CFP rankings. Its playoff hopes would benefit from a dash of chaos inflected upon teams ranked ahead of it. Southern California losing this weekend helps. Look for Texas to be ranked no worse than No. 15 in next week’s pecking order. Add in a victory against Texas A&M, and you never know. If the committee finds itself in a pinch, the Longhorns might look fine.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.