The Texas Longhorns and Vanderbilt Commodores are finally meeting in football for the first time in almost a hundred years.
The stakes have never been higher.
The No. 5 Longhorns (6-1, 2-1 SEC) are visiting Nashville on Saturday, hoping to avoid back-to-back losses in their new conference. They are tied with No. 25 Vanderbilt (5-2, 2-1) in the SEC standings and need a win to stay in the race for a spot in the conference title game and the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Texas, which made it to the national semifinals last season, is coming off a 30-15 defeat to Georgia that dropped them from the No. 1 position in the AP Top 25.
“It really feels like from here on out, we’re kind of in the SEC championship game,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Every game matters, and we have to put ourselves in Atlanta.”
Texas safety Michael Taaffe stated that the Longhorns are still confident, knowing they have everything to play for.
“If we were worried about that, then we would be taking our focus off of Vanderbilt and they deserve our focus,” Taaffe said.
Vanderbilt certainly deserves that attention. The team, often seen as the SEC’s underdog, also has its sights set on Atlanta. Coach Clark Lea wants his Commodores to recognize what’s possible, especially after their upset win over then-No. 1 Alabama, which was their first victory in 61 games against a top-five team.
Texas would be another big win for Vanderbilt.
“We’re going to fight together to take this as far as we can,” Lea said.
