AUSTIN, Texas — Even before kickoff, it was evident something felt different. As Georgia came out for warmups and the entire team lined up, Jalon Walker stood in front of them, alone, shouting. That’s his normal routine, he would later tell me.
But it wasn’t just him. The body language throughout the team seemed more locked in.
Georgia was back, to borrow a phrase from its opponent. You saw it on the field, especially on defense, where Walker and company looked like the 2021 Georgia defense, while quarterback Carson Beck and the offense looked like the 2021 Georgia offense, imperfect but good enough.
It would be an extreme reach to point out that Saturday’s final score, 30-15, was three points off from 33-18. So let’s not point that out.
Then again, it’s also a reach to say nobody believed in Georgia, which was all of a five-point underdog on the road against the No. 1 team in the country. But there was Smart proclaiming it, first in the ABC postgame interview, then in his news conference.
”I was proud of our guys,” Smart said. “Nobody really gave us a chance. Everybody doubted us.”
Ah, there it is.
“Our whole program was being doubted,” Smart said. “Who watched the shows this morning? I didn’t, I was in meetings, but I got 8,000 texts about it.”
He meant the show, singular, as in ESPN’s “College GameDay,” where the four pickers — Desmond Howard, Lee Corso, Pat McAfee and Scottie Scheffler — all picked Texas.
“It’s hard not to see. But that’s just fuel to the fire, man,” Georgia tailback Trevor Etienne said. “I mean we’re all we’ve got, we’re all we need. That’s the mindset we’ve got in this locker room.”
That’s the thing about Smart’s program. It thrives on disrespect. It seeks it out, and when it can’t find any, it creates it. Nolan Smith, the defensive captain of the 2022 team, loudly proclaimed that people picked that year’s team to finish 7-5 but later confessed that he made it up.
The more Georgia won after that, though, the harder it became. And maybe that was the problem. Maybe that’s why something just seemed off this year, that the team was trying to find its identity, on and off the field.
By the way, it still may not have found it. As great as the defense looked against Texas, especially in the first half, and throughout the opener against Clemson, in between there have been plenty of worrisome stretches. As rocky as the offense looked against Texas — a measly 4 yards per play, three Beck interceptions — it has had stretches this season when it was explosive, and it made those plays when it absolutely had to on Saturday.
“If we can just put it all together,” Beck said, “our best game is still out there.”
But the mental identity of this year’s team may finally be coming into focus. We saw it in the second half of the Alabama game, even in defeat. We saw it from the start against Texas as the Bulldogs roared out to a 23-0 lead. Then we saw it again after the chaotic, controversial sequence that will be most people’s memory from the game: the pass interference call that was reversed after a stoppage caused by Texas fans throwing debris on the field, and the Longhorns’ subsequent score to make it 23-15.
“I knew in Alabama, I knew it was gonna be no flinch. We’re not backing down,” Smart said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re gonna guarantee a win or anything, but I told you, the momentum was gone. Everything was gone. And on third-and-12, or third-and-whatever it was, Beck steps up and fires one to Arian over the middle, and it changed.”
Arian Smith got open downfield, and Beck hit him for a long gain. And on the very next play offensive coordinator Mike Bobo whipped out a double-reverse flea-flicker, getting an even longer gain.
Aggressive play calling, the way Smart wants it now. Very unlike the pre-2021 years, when he was criticized for being too conservative on offense, not going for it on fourth down when he should, and so on. Now Smart may be going for it too much.
With just over two minutes left, leading 30-15 and facing a fourth-and-1 from his own 39, Smart elected to go for it rather than punt it away and make Texas use up clock to get downfield. The decision failed, but Texas didn’t score anyway, and afterwards Smart had no regrets.
“What do I gain, 50 yards of field position versus winning the game? We’re going to go for it on it every time,” Smart said. “If I ever get a chance to end the game with less than a yard, then I want to count on the offense to do it. Just like we did on the touchdown run to create that.”
That was referring to Smart going for it on fourth down from the goal line, clinging to a 23-15 lead, rather than kicking the chip-shot field goal to make it a two-possession lead. That decision paid off, with 330-pound guard Micah Morris becoming a fullback to help clear the way for Etienne into the end zone.
In isolation, each of these decisions may involve analytics, hunches, or whatever. But they all fall under the post-2021 philosophy for Smart to be the hunter, not the hunted, sending a message to his team through his aggressive decisions.
The squib kick to start the second half? That actually was an accident, as it turns out. Peyton Woodring, who was perfect on field goals Saturday, just mishit that kickoff. Otherwise, Smart seems content to take chances, and have his coordinators take chances, and deal with a few that miss.
That, and the disrespect card, are the ways in which Smart has run his program differently from Nick Saban. Their personality differences may explain why: Saban barely knew how to use a computer, while Smart has rabbit ears, well aware of what’s being said about his team and eager to cherry-pick what can benefit his team.
That may be a better tack in this era of mega-conferences and the 12-team College Football Playoff. It’s going to be much harder for one program to be dominant the way Alabama was, and the way Georgia was verging on. The Bulldogs’ 29-game winning streak that ended last season is probably the last of its kind. Texas was knocked down a peg on Saturday, but it’s still Texas. Alabama may be slipping, but it’s still early to reach conclusions there. Tennessee, LSU, Texas A&M … this is a tough league, and it’s going to stay that way.
Every edge will be necessary. Thus Georgia, even with all its talent, even with everything it has going for it, will rely on what works for it.
“Look, I know everybody thinks I play that doubter role, all that, I really don’t care,” Smart said. “I mean, I don’t, but after the game it’s a lot easier to say. I don’t bring it up to our players. Everybody thinks that we preach ‘Nobody believes in me’ and that. But our intent was different. Our intent when we walked on that field was completely different.”
The “intent” was not specified. Another buzzword that Smart uses. But it was clear that intent was effective on Saturday. And that whatever this team had going for it mentally heading into this game it needed to try to replicate going forward.
Georgia ratcheted itself right back into the national title conversation on Saturday. It rejuvenated its season. But there’s still a lot of that season left. And we still don’t know for sure we’ll get this Georgia team the rest of the season.
Even Smart, as he waxed philosophic on Saturday, acknowledged that.
“I think we’re a very well respected program, and we’ve got a really good team, and we played a couple really good halves,” he said. “We flashed some ability to be really good. We just have to be able to sustain it longer.”
(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)
