Texas Drops in AP Top 25 After Humbling Loss to Georgia

The Texas Longhorns are no longer the No. 1 team in the country.

Georgia Bulldogs linebacker Jalon Walker sacks Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers in the second quarter at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday October 19, 2024. / Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

AUSTIN -- The Texas Longhorns suffered their first loss of the season -- and a humbling one at that -- Saturday night at home to the Georgia Bulldogs.

The 30-15 defeat has officially sent the Longhorns down four spots in the Week 9 AP Poll to No. 5. Georgia, which was ranked No. 5 headed into Saturday, rose three spots up to No. 2

The Oregon Ducks are now the No. 1 team in the country.

Texas is one of nine SEC teams in the Top 25, joining No. 2 Georgia, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 LSU, No. 14 Texas A&M, No. 15 Alabama, No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 21 Missouri and No. 25 Vanderbilt.

If the Longhorns can beat Vanderbilt on Saturday, it would arguably be their best win of the season with the Commodores trending upward to No. 25. Texas secured wins over then-No. 10 Michigan and then-No. 18 Oklahoma but both of those teams have since fallen out of the rankings.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the loss that the Longhorns still have all of their goals in front of them.

"The beauty of this format, losing a game like this doesn't kill you," Sarkisian said. "Everything we want is still in front of us. The challenge for us is to be able to regroup and get ourselves back up off the mat and prepare for a Vanderbilt team next week that's going to be hungry for us coming to town, and get our momentum back, going in the right direction, finish out the second phase of the season, trying to get a W and work ourselves back in the direction of where we want to go."

No. 5 Texas and No. 25 Vanderbilt will kick off from Nashville on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. CT.