CFP semifinal preview: Can Texas Longhorns stop Washington, reach title game? – Austin American-Statesman

The Texas football team will compete in its first College Football Playoff against a Washington team that hasn’t lost since a visit to Arizona State on Oct. 8, 2022. Can the Longhorns slow down a high-flying Huskies attack and reach the national championship game against either Michigan or Alabama on Jan. 8 in Houston?
Let’s take a look at the matchup.
More:Our Texas-Washington predictions are in for CFP semifinal: ‘Texas football will prove it’s back’
7:45 p.m. Monday, Superdome, New Orleans
TV/radio: ABC/1300, 98.1, 105.3 (Spanish)
Line: Texas is favored by 4
Weather: Indoors.
All-time: Texas leads 3-2 
Last meeting: Washington 27, Texas 20 (2022)
Most memorable meeting: Texas 47, Washington 43 (2001). In one of the wildest bowl games in Texas history, quarterback Major Applewhite led a 19-point comeback by throwing for 473 yards and four touchdowns. Twenty-two years later, that lofty yardage mark remains the single-game standard for Texas quarterbacks.
More:Texas’ Xavier Worthy has put the Alamo Bowl behind him as he focuses on the Sugar Bowl
Last game: Stunningly a 9.5-point underdog to Oregon in what could have been the last Pac-12 title game, Washington stretched its winning streak to a nation’s best 20 games by beating the Ducks 34-31.
Players to watch: QB Michael Penix Jr. leads the nation in passing yards with 4,218 and has almost as many career snaps; in six seasons at Indiana and Washington, the graduate student has thrown for 13,056 yards and 93 TDs on 1,011 completions. … WR Rome Odunze, Penix’s favorite target and a projected top-10 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, boasts elite size and speed at 6-feet-3 inches and 210 pounds and reached at least 100 yards receiving in nine games. … DE Bralen Trice leads an active defensive front seven with 41 tackles, 14 tackles for a loss and a team-high five sacks.
Central Texas connections: None.
Washington had just 19 sacks and its 1.46 sacks-per-game ranks 120th out of 130 FBS teams, which doesn’t bode well against QB Quinn Ewers, who’s coming off a career performance against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 title game with 452 yards and 4 TDs. … Although the Huskies don’t generate much pressure, they led the Pac-12 with 16 interceptions. Jabbar Muhammad, a senior from DeSoto who transferred in from Oklahoma State this season, and Mishael Powell each had three picks to pace the Huskies. … Washington gives up just 4.3 yards a carry, but Texas has 500 yards rushing on 83 carries over the past two games despite the absence of star RB Jonathon Brooks, who suffered a season-ending knee injury Nov. 11 against TCU.
Penix has plenty more weapons than Odunze. Ja’Lynn Polk, a 6-2, 205-pound East Texas native from Lufkin, reached 1,000 yards receiving while slot receiver Jalen McMillan returned to action in the Pac-12 title game after missing most of the season and hauled in nine catches for 131 yards. … Texas has faced dangerous dual-threat QBs such as Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, but Penix has only 239 yards rushing on 128 carries in his long career. … RB Dillon Johnson, a 6-1, 220-pound transfer from Mississippi State, gives Washington a physical presence in the backfield that the team lacked over the past few seasons. He rumbled for 1,113 yards and 14 TDs on 201 carries but faces a Texas run defense led by DTs T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II that is tied for second among all Division I football teams with 80.8 yards allowed rushing per game.
More:Yes, Washington’s offensive line is the nation’s best, but can it outmuscle Texas?
Texas safety Michael Taaffe against Washington WRs: The former walk-on from Westlake who now starts for Texas ranks fifth on the team with 43 tackles and is tied for the team lead with three interceptions, and he’ll be needed more than ever against the dangerous Huskies passing attack since fellow safety Jalen Catalon entered the transfer portal and freshman safety Derek Williams Jr. will miss the first half after drawing a targeting flag against Oklahoma State.
How we’re picking the game:
Kirk Bohls: Texas, 38-35
I truly think Washington may have a false sense of complacency because it beat Texas in its home state in last year’s Alamo Bowl. Mindset is everything in college football, and the Huskies might be overlooking the fact the Longhorns were without Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and DeMarvion Overshown and had an injured Xavier Worthy. That may be the type of advantage Texas needs to beat Washington and advance to the championship game.
Danny Davis: Texas
Five years after its last trip to New Orleans, Texas will be playing a team that actually wants to be in the Sugar Bowl. But I think the results will be the same. Texas has enough offensive talent to win a shootout and move on to the national championship game.
Cedric Golden: Texas, 42-38
Contrary to the 2018 Sugar Bowl, Texas football is back and the Longhorns will actually prove it with a showstopper of a win. Texas is the most complete team in the playoff field and will live up to that talent against the best team it has faced this season.
Thomas Jones: Washington, 41-38
I agree that Texas is the most complete team in the CFP, but its one glaring flaw — a questionable pass defense — could be exposed by what the Huskies do better than anyone in the country. Both teams ring in the new year with an offensive showcase, and the Huskies and star QB Michael Penix Jr. make the last possession of the game count.

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