ATHENS — Coach Steve Sarkisian believes Texas still has its best football in front of it, and it starts with Georgia.

Sarkisian, the Longhorns’ fourth-year head coach, has No. 2-ranked Texas on the verge of winning the SEC in the program’s first year in the league if it can beat the Bulldogs at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

“I’d like to think that we still have better football ahead of us, quite frankly, that we’ve got room to grow, areas we can improve,” Sarkisian said on Sunday night, less than 24 hours after beating Texas A&M 17-7 to close the regular season.

“I think the key for us is to really get recentered, refocused on one game. That’s what we’ve been doing here probably over the last month or so, is not getting caught up in what’s down the road, but what do we need to do this week to play our best football, whether that’s physical, whether that’s mental, whether that’s emotional.”

Texas, a 2 1/2-point favorite to beat Georgia, figures to bring some emotion into the battle with the Bulldogs after dropping a 30-15 decision to Coach Kirby Smart’s team earlier this season in Austin.

“Clearly there were enough things we need to fix from the first time we played ‘em,” Sarkisian said. “You don’t get shut out in the first half, you don’t have four turnovers in the game, you’re not trailing 23-0, to get better from the first time we played them.”

Sarkisian — whose team had two turnovers, a missed field goal and a punt blocked against Texas A&M — noted earlier this season how important turnovers and special teams were in the Longhorns’ loss to Georgia.

“We didn’t take care of the ball every well at all in the first that, field position was a real factor,” Sarkisian said. “Georgia’s average filed position was their 47, ours was the 23, (and) three of our first four we started inside the 13, (so) we were giving them short fields.

“I thought the second half, we started to find a little bit of rhythm, but when you’re playing catch up it’s hard to find balance,” Sarkisian said. “We’re at our best when we create balance, and we couldn’t do that because of the hole we dug ourselves in the first half.”

The scoreboard will read 0-0 when the Longhorns and Bulldogs kick off on Saturday with a first-round College Football Playoff bye and trip to the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 on the line.

Texas, at 11-1, has likely clinched a spot in the CFP field even with a loss to Georgia.

The Bulldogs, at 10-2, will want to do everything they can to take the decision out of the hands of a CFP Selection committee that hasn’t appeared to give UGA much of a boost for having the No. 1-ranked schedule in the nation.

The way the projections work out, if Georgia loses, it could find itself measured for one of two final at-large spots against the likes of Miami (10-2), Alabama (9-3), Ole Miss (9-3), South Carolina (10-3) and possibly SMU (currently 11-1), if it were to lose the ACC title game to Clemson.

Sarkisian sounded like he had a more positive impression of Georgia on Sunday than the committee, which picked at UGA’s offensive inconsistency earlier this season when asked why the Bulldogs hadn’t been ranked higher.

“What Kirby has done at Georgia over nine years has been pretty incredible,” Sarkisian said. “They’ve become the standard of college football.

“Couple of national championship, couple of SEC titles. What they’ve just done on a consistency basis in recruiting, (and) their style of play.”