Georgia coach Kirby Smart was stumped Sunday. He couldn’t think of any team ever joining the SEC and navigating its way to the league title in the first season.

“I don’t know that’s ever been done before in terms of the first year in,” Smart said. “I think I heard somebody reference besides the first year they had it. Somebody had to be first.”

SEC rookies aren’t supposed to do what No. 2 Texas has done, making it to the SEC championship game in Atlanta for a rematch with No. 5 Georgia.

The Longhorns (11-1) and Bulldogs (10-2) are likely both headed to the College Football Playoffs regardless of what happens in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The SEC champ is likely to get a first-round bye. That’d sure be nice for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, too.

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“Any time you can make it to an SEC championship game, you were able to survive to some degree,” Sarkisian said. “I’m sure there’s a lot of teams looking back on this season right now with a lot of shoulda, coulda, wouldas, because it’s difficult when you get on the road.”

Smart isn’t buying the idea the SEC is down this year, either. What Texas has done is legit. “I don’t think you can say Texas and Oklahoma came into the conference and say it was weaker.”

Both teams are now going through the process of looking back at the Oct. 19 matchup and figuring out what still works and what doesn’t.

The Dawgs won 30-15 at Royal-Memorial Stadium, but both teams appear stylistically different now six weeks later.

Texas finished the regular season with the SEC’s top defense and nation’s second-best overall scoring defense. Georgia has run hot and cold down in November and has numbers that are similar to UT’s, only one notch down here and there.

“If you don't know anything about me, I worry about everything,” Smart said. “So I'm very concerned about everything about Texas, because they have an extremely talented roster.”

Sarkisian compared it to his NFL coaching days when teams would play each other multiple times. It boils down to knowing a team’s tendencies and making sure you know your own habits. As Smart said, “Don’t overthink it.”

“At the end of the day, our job is to put our players in the best position to be successful, and whether that’s physically, mentally, schematically, whatever that looks like,” Sarkisian said. “That’s what we always kind of fall back to. But again, I do think there are some things we can take from the first matchup, good and bad.”

No update on Banks: Sarkisian had no injury update on left tackle Kelvin Banks, who was accidentally leg-whipped by a Texas A&M defender on Saturday. Banks left the game and yielded his playing time to redshirt freshman Trevor Goosby.

According to Pro Football Focus’ grade report, Goosby had the best night pass blocking of any Longhorn.

“The moment didn't seem too big for him,” Sarkisian said. “I thought he played a physical brand of football, and I think it’s definitely something that that he can build upon for his future.”

Horns wearing orange: Texas will be the designated home team as the league’s No. 1 seed and will wear burnt orange jerseys in Atlanta.

The get-in price is actually lower this week for the SEC championship than it was for Saturday’s Texas-Texas A&M game. Tickets on Stubhub start around $300 compared to the get-in price of $700 for Kyle Field.