Texas vs. Georgia: Staff predictions for Week 8

No. 1 Texas football and the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs are roughly six hours from kickoff in the highly-anticipated top-five matchup between these two elite squads in the SEC at DKR in Austin in primetime.

This is the first top-five matchup at DKR in nearly two decades, with the last being between the Longhorns and Ohio State Buckeyes in non-conference play in 2006.

Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian have the national college football spotlight this weekend, with ESPN College GameDay's set on campus at UT in Austin this morning for Week 8 against Georgia. Sarkisian made an appearance on ESPN College GameDay this morning to recruit one of the Herbstreits (hint: it wasn't Kirk).

Sarkisian and the Longhorns are one-possession favorites for this critical SEC matchup at DKR under the lights tonight at 6:30 p.m. CT in Austin against Georgia. This is also the first time that head coach Kirby Smart and the Dawgs are underdogs in a regular season game, going back 50 games since the early 2020s.

Georgia also hasn't lost to a team that isn't Alabama in their past 50 contests.

Texas is favored by 4.5 points in the pregame spread before kickoff between the Longhorns and Georgia at DKR on Oct. 19 (per FanDuel).

In agreement with the Longhorns being favorited in the pregame betting odds by a couple of points more than a field goal edge, most media personalities and analysts around the college football landscape are picking this game to be a close one probably decided by a score.

Contrary to most human pickers for this game, ESPN's matchup predictor is pretty adamant about Sarkisian's squad's ability to beat Georgia. ESPN's FPI predictor gives the Longhorns over a 75 percent chance of beating Georgia.

Game predictions for Texas football vs. Georgia in Week 8

In agreement with the pickers on College GameDay this morning, our entire staff gives the Longhorns a slight edge over the Dawgs in this highly-important contest in the SEC that could decide which teams eventually plays for the conference championship in early December.

Andrew Miller: Texas-37, Georgia-33

Shane Black: Texas-30, Georgia-27

Tarik LaCour: Texas-38, Georgia-31

Brian Sweet: Texas-35, Georgia-27

Aaron Ball: Texas-34, Georgia-21

Marc Henry: Texas-31, Georgia 24

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