AUSTIN, Texas — Georgia coach Kirby Smart had been waiting for his team to put together a complete performance.
It finally arrived in the No. 5 Bulldogs’ 30-15 upset of No. 1 Texas at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
“Nobody gave us a chance,” Smart told ESPN. “Your own network doubted us, and then they tried to rob us with calls in this place. These guys are so resilient.”
Three weeks after Georgia fell behind by four touchdowns in the first half of a 41-34 loss at Alabama, the Bulldogs flipped the script and grabbed a 23-0 lead at halftime against Texas.
Georgia’s defense sacked Texas’ quarterbacks seven times and had 10 tackles for loss. The Longhorns finished with only 259 yards of offense, including 29 rushing. Texas went 2-for-14 on third down and 1-for-5 on fourth.
Georgia, playing at Texas for the first time since 1958, handed the Longhorns their first loss of the season. Texas was the last remaining unbeaten team in the SEC. According to ESPN Research, it’s the first time since 2007 that every SEC team lost before the end of October.
Georgia’s 15-point victory tied for the third-most lopsided road win against an AP No. 1 team all time and was the biggest since Notre Dame defeated Pittsburgh 31-16 in 1982.
In a city that prides itself on keeping things weird, a crazy sequence of events nearly helped the Longhorns get back in the game.
With Texas trailing 23-8 with three minutes left in the third quarter, Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck threw down the left sideline for wide receiver Arian Smith on third-and-10 from the Georgia 31. Longhorns safety Jahdae Barron stepped in front of Smith and intercepted the pass. He returned it 36 yards to the Georgia 9-yard line.
That’s when things got strange.
Initially, officials penalized Barron for pass interference, giving the ball back to the Bulldogs. Referee Matt Loeffler announced the call to the crowd and walked off the 15-yard penalty to the Georgia 44.
Texas fans booed the call while watching replays on the stadium’s jumbotron. Some fans threw debris into the north end zone, stopping play for a few minutes. While staff members and security cleaned up the bottles, officials conferred again and reversed the call.
When Loeffler told Smart about the reversal on the sideline, the Georgia coach told him, “You can’t do that! You can’t do that! … That’s bulls—!”
“Now we’ve set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, that you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed,” Smart said. “And that’s unfortunate because, to me, that’s dangerous. That’s not what we want, and that’s not criticizing officials. That’s what happened.”
Smart said Loeffler suggested to him that the penalty was called on the wrong player — that it should have been offensive pass interference against Smith.
“It took him a long time to realize that,” Smart said.
In a statement released early Sunday morning, the SEC said officials “gathered to discuss the play, which is permitted to ensure the proper penalty is enforced.”
At that time, according to the league, “the calling official reported that he erred, and a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference. Consequently, Texas was awarded the ball at the [Georgia] 9-yard line.”
“While the original evaluation and assessment of the penalty was not properly executed, it is unacceptable to have debris thrown on the field at any time,” the SEC statement said.
The league said it would review fan conduct related to its sportsmanship policies and procedures.
“I understand the frustration,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We were all frustrated in the moment, but all of us, the Longhorn Nation, I know we can be better than that.”
Sarkisian said officials didn’t explain to him why the call was reversed.
Barron told reporters that the delay in cleaning up the bottles on the field “most likely” helped in officials changing the call.
“It was crazy,” Barron said. “I thought it was a bad call, so it was good that it changed.”
Despite Smart’s protest, Texas took over at the Bulldogs’ 9. Following a first-down sack, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers threw a 17-yard touchdown to Jaydon Blue over the middle. The point-after kick made it 23-15. Suddenly, the Longhorns had life after doing very little in the first half.
But Georgia’s offense answered with a long touchdown drive of its own. A 43-yard pass on a flea-flicker to tight end Oscar Delp moved the Bulldogs to Texas’ 25-yard line. On first-and-goal, Beck ran for 5 yards to the 1. After two straight stops by the Longhorns, Georgia tailback Trevor Etienne ran into the end zone on fourth-and-goal, pushing its lead to 30-15 with 12:04 to play.
Etienne finished with 87 yards on 19 rushes with three touchdowns.
After trailing 23-0, Texas finally got on the scoreboard after it recovered Georgia’s onside kick attempt to start the second half. Ewers, who was benched to end the half, started the third quarter. Following a pass interference penalty against Bulldogs safety KJ Bolden in the end zone, Ewers threw a 2-yard touchdown and the ensuing 2-point pass to Isaiah Bond to cut Georgia’s lead to 23-8.
Beck threw two interceptions early, the second coming on a tipped pass to Barron at Texas’ 5-yard line with 3:34 left in the period.
Georgia’s defense didn’t allow the Longhorns to get much of anything going, however, after surrendering two first two downs on Texas’ opening possession.
After Beck’s second interception, Georgia cornerback Daylen Everette blitzed from Ewers’ blind side on third-and-6 from the Texas 27. Everette’s jarring tackle caused Ewers to fumble, and Everette recovered the ball at the UT 13.
Four plays later, Etienne scored a 1-yard touchdown on a toss sweep to left for a 7-0 lead with six seconds left. Texas’ offense went three-and-out on each of its next three possessions. On third-and-7 from the UT 11, Bulldogs linebacker Jalon Walker dropped Ewers for a 9-yard sack.
Georgia took over at the Texas 28 and kicked a 33-yard field goal for a 10-0 advantage with 10:46 left in the first half.
It would only get worse for the Longhorns. On the next series, Everette intercepted Ewers’ pass to Matthew Golden at the Texas 34. That set up Etienne’s 15-yard touchdown run up the middle, giving the Bulldogs a 17-0 lead with 8:30 to go in the half.
Georgia made it 20-0 on Peyton Woodring’s 48-yard field goal with 4:43 remaining.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian benched Ewers and replaced him with redshirt freshman Arch Manning on the next possession.
Ewers was only 6 for 12 for 17 yards with one interception in the half. He was sacked three times and lost a fumble. The Longhorns had just 15 yards on 23 plays when Manning came into the game.
Manning, the nephew of former NFL quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning, didn’t do much better. Texas punted on his first drive, then he was sacked by linebacker Damon Wilson and fumbled on the second. Walker recovered the ball at the Texas 30.
Woodring kicked a 44-yard field goal on the final play of the half to put Georgia ahead 23-0.
Walker, a junior from Salisbury, North Carolina, had seven tackles and three sacks in the first half. He is the first player to do it in a game against a No. 1-ranked AP team in the past 20 years, according to ESPN Research.
Smart collected his 100th victory in 117 games as his alma mater’s coach, which ranks fifth-fastest to 100 wins with Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne and Chris Petersen, who did it at Boise State and Washington.
