To some surprise, the Texas Longhorns are not favored in Baton Rouge this weekend. After the betting line opened at Texas as three-point favorites, per VegasInsider, DraftKings’ line moved to favor LSU by four and FanDuel’s to LSU by 3 ½ points, as of Thursday.
Therefore, Saturday will be the first time this season Texas enters a matchup as the betting underdog. I doubt head coach Steve Sarkisian is aware of this — it doesn’t matter, so he shouldn’t care. But I am sure that he knows his team is once again being doubted, entering arguably the toughest college football environment in America.
Tiger Stadium is nothing to mess with, especially at night. Neither is this LSU team, despite its three losses and recent fall in the rankings as a result. The Tigers lead the Southeastern Conference with the most offensive yards per game and fewest yards given up defensively per game. Odd for the eighth-highest ranked SEC team in this week’s College Football Playoff order, right?
LSU can win a game through either side of the ball, and desperate, win-needy Tigers pose quite the tough task for the Longhorns. Yet, after Sarkisian’s sentiment following last week’s victory over Missouri, it’s clear road adversity isn’t something new to his team.
“Nobody believed we’d win the game,” Sarkisian said postgame last week. “Everyone thought we’d get pushed around. The DNA of this organization is mental and physical toughness. I think that poured out of our pores today in this ball game today. I am very proud of (my players) for that. I am very proud that they hung together, the way they responded to adversity.”
The Longhorns stuck around in Columbia, Missouri, last Saturday, evening the score on four occasions before converting two unanswered touchdowns in the fourth quarter to emerge victorious, 34-20. The win kept Texas undefeated against ranked teams this season. They are 12–3 against ranked teams during the regular season since joining the SEC, 5–2 in that span on the road specifically.
That track record led Sarkisian to classify his program as “big-game hunters.”
The CFP selection committee has believed that identity suits the Longhorns. Texas has had its fair share of highs and lows in the last three months, but heading into Baton Rouge, Texas sits well within the confines of the 12-team playoff despite meltdown losses to Florida and Oklahoma. The team has the chance to essentially forget those defeats ever happened, considering the committee’s respect for Texas’ ability to challenge every opponent and come away with marquee wins.
The Longhorns are the only team to have won at Missouri this season. They are also the only ones to have defeated Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.
“We have a belief around here that we do play well in big games and games that matter late in the season,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve been in a lot of them, and so I do think there’s a sense of confidence. Now we have to go do that.”
Doubts rooted in Texas’ dualities of performance will persist as the Tiger hunters wearing burnt orange run out in Death Valley. Potentially more than ever, as underdogs. But what’s late-season college football without a little more adversity?
Texas has found ways to survive — on very few occasions has it been pretty, or clean or drama-free. No matter what, even with a first-down-converting forward fumble, a win is a win.
And winning again on Saturday night could almost secure their postseason fate, while officially leaving in the past a two-week stretch in October where the Longhorns weren’t authentically themselves.
It won’t be easy, but that’s how Texas likes it.
