Kirby Smart: "You're not just getting checks at our place. We're hitting people."

Georgia and Texas are not currently rivals on the field -- both sides have to win at some point to maintain a rivalry -- but they are rivals on the recruiting trail. The Bulldogs were running up in the Arch Manning recruitment and, closer to home, Texas beat out Georgia for Justus Terry, a 5-star true freshman defensive tackle from Manchester, Ga., and Tyler Atkinson, a 5-star linebacker in the 2026 class out of powerhouse Grayson High School in Loganville, Ga. 

And so Saturday night's 35-10 stomping of No. 10 Texas by No. 5 Georgia was satisfying enough on its own right, but doing so in the way they did it had to feel extra good for Kirby Smart.

“A lot of these kids want a check. They don’t want physicality. If you have the check and no physicality, you end with nothing. You’re not just getting checks at our place. We’re hitting people," Smart said.

Of course, the irony here is that Georgia offered Terry and Atkinson checks, too, just not as big as Texas's. But the winners get to tell the story as they define it, and for the third time in 13 months Georgia was more physical than Texas. A telling statistic: Texas rushed for 33 yards on 13-play, 59-yard opening drive; the Longhorns finished with 23 rushing yards.

In three games against Kirby Smart's Georgia, Steve Sarkisian's Texas has rushed for 83 yards -- total. 

Georgia did not dominate the trenches on their side of the ball the entire night -- 128 yards on 35 carries is not the stuff dreams are made of -- but the yards were there when they needed them. The Bulldogs went 75 yards and 66 yards in their opening possessions to claim a 14-3 lead, went scoreless on their next five possessions, and then went into hyperdrive once winning time arrived. 

After Texas pulled within 14-10 with 5:37 left in the third quarter, Georgia went on a 10-play, 73-yard touchdown drive, recovered an onside kick, scored again, forced a three-and-out with a punt from Texas's own end zone, and then went on a 33-yard touchdown drive to end the game. 

Over basically one quarter of action, Georgia went on a 21-0 run while out-gaining Texas 159 to minus-4. Georgia also pitched fourth quarter shutouts against Ole Miss, Alabama and Auburn; the latter two didn't score at all after halftime. 

"It's the approach we take. We're going to dominate and try to win the fourth quarter. It's what we do in practice, it's what we do in offseason, it's what we build our core culture around, being a more physical team. You have to recruit physical players, and they have to buy into that process."