Urban Meyer is going with Texas over Arizona State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals following the Longhorns’ performance against Clemson.

Meyer favors Texas’ presence on the offensive and defensive lines over the Sun Devils. Despite Arizona State’s underdog story and exceeding of expectations, Meyer called Texas a “buzzsaw” that ASU can’t dull.

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It’s going to start with the big uglies up front.

“We won three national titles, and the reason we won is the line of scrimmage,” Meyer said on The Triple Option. “As you start to get higher, you know, the more competitive the games are, a lot of times the skill set, unless you just have an absolute freak of freaks, skillsets, a lot of times start to equalize a little bit the line of scrimmage, because it’s going to be a field position game. 

“Texas up front, offense, defense, I think they cover the spread. And I think I’m looking at Texas right now, if they can get that quarterback healthy, you know, what other team has more balance of offensive and defensive line than University of Texas right now?” 

Texas is coming off a 38-24 win over Clemson in the first round while Arizona State had a bye after winning the Big 12 Championship over Iowa State. While ASU has an exciting offense and get-after-it defense, Texas has too much, according to Meyer.

“They proved it against Clemson,” Meyer said of Texas. “They just controlled, they screwed around a little bit, that game could have got out of hand fast, but they ran the ball up and down the against the Clemson rushers. So I got Texas covering the spread here. I’m a big fan of (Kenny Dillingham), (Cam) Skattebo, just a big fan. (They have a) great future there, but I think they run into a buzz saw in Texas.”

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was honest about facing Arizona State. It’s a challenge they can’t overlook.

“We obviously have a ton of respect for Arizona State and the job Coach Dillingham has done. They’re a very good football team,” Sarkisian said. “You don’t win the Big 12, as we know how hard that is around here to win a Big 12 Championship, and doing it in their first year in the conference, his second year at Arizona State, is a heck of an accomplishment.

“We touched on it earlier, they’re plus 14 in the turnover margin with only eight turnovers, and they’ve created, I believe, I think 22 turnovers defensively. They pride themselves on running the ball. Skattebo is a heck of a player. He’s got a ton of fans in our building, I can tell you that. We didn’t know we were getting ready to play Arizona State, and we’ve been watching them here for about the last year and a half, and this guy is a monster, and now we’ve got to try to figure out a way to stop him.”