From SEC media days on, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has been unwavering about his stated goal — win an SEC championship.

He never talked much about the expanded College Football Playoffs or winning a national title. It has always been about winning the SEC in Texas’ first year in a new league.

Sarkisian’s dream is close to reality as No. 3 Texas will face No. 6 Georgia in the SEC title game in Atlanta next weekend. The Longhorns (11-1, 7-1 SEC) clinched their spot with a 17-7 win over the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday at Kyle Field.

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“That was the goal, right? Coming into the season. Let’s get to Atlanta, and let’s put ourselves in position to compete for an SEC championship,” Sarkisian said. “OK, we’ve accomplished that.

“But the next notion is, OK, we’re playing a team that we didn’t play our best football against earlier in the season, so it’s always nice to get another opportunity to do that. We’re going to have to play better than we did that night in DKR, and the best way to do that is to prepare, and that’s what I talked the team about.”

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Texas has likely clinched a spot in the CFP. Georgia’s path to the postseason is a little murky only because of the Dawgs’ two losses. Georgia is 10-2 overall. Still, it’s hard to imagine the CFP committee leaving the SEC runner-up out of the 12-team field.

The SEC champion — whether it’s Texas or Georgia — should get a first-round bye in the CFP pairings.

“I’d probably be surprised if we didn't get in,” Sarkisian said. “But really, I want to go try to win an SEC championship. And if we can do that, then you get a bye. So let’s control what we can control, and that’s getting ready to play a very good Georgia team in Atlanta. If we’re fortunate enough to win that game, then we get some real rest and now we can really start to get healthy.”

Texas and Georgia clashed in what was billed as the biggest SEC game of the season on Oct. 19. The Bulldogs had a terrific night defensively, stopping the Horns’ running game and pressuring quarterback Quinn Ewers into erratic throws and even temporarily forcing him out of the game.

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Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers had a point-blank assessment of the Longhorns’ defense after a 17-7 win over Texas A&M. “It’s just like a common theme at this point,” Ewers said, “they continue to save our butts on offense.” The Longhorns, who have the nation’s No. 3 overall total defense and best unit in the SEC, […]

Georgia won 30-15 in a game coach Kirby Smart had circled throughout the offseason. The Dawgs were erratic the rest of the regular season. Georgia almost got clipped by Florida and then did lose the following week to Ole Miss. Smart’s club needed eight overtimes to get past Georgia Tech on Friday by a 44-42 final.

Meanwhile, Texas found its running game in November and drained the life out of Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky and finally A&M. Both teams are in a different place now stylistically than when they met in mid-October.

“This is where we wanted to be when we started the season, with an opportunity to go in the SEC obviously and a chance to win the SEC championship and then go on from there,” Ewers said after the A&M win. “Just so proud of how we played tonight, to give us that opportunity that we have right in front of us.”

Sarkisian praised Longhorn Nation for how they scooped up $1,000 tickets to get into Kyle Field for the first Texas-A&M game since 2011.

Texas has now won 11 straight true road games, the longest streak in the nation. While the SEC title game isn’t a true road game, it’ll be close enough for Sarkisian to label it as such.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium is only 70 miles from Georgia’s campus in Athens.

“We’re going to need them again next week,” Sarkisian said of Longhorn Nation. “So everybody’s got to dig a little deeper into their into their checkbooks. And we got to buy these tickets in Atlanta. Man, we need to. We need to take over Mercedes-Benz Stadium.”