Amid the officiating controversy, Georgia shows it is still an SEC juggernaut with a road win over top-ranked Texas

AUSTIN, Texas – Kirby Smart played the doubter card here Saturday night.

He didn't want to do it. In fact, during his press conference after No. 5 Georgia beat No. 1 Texas 30-15, Smart said he doesn't pander to the doubters and doesn't care about the doubters while actually playing the doubter's card.

“Have you all seen the shows on ESPN and other networks this week,” he asked members of the media. Did you see what they said about his bulldogs?

He didn't watch the shows (he was in meetings, he says), but his friends and colleagues did. There were so many people who doubted Georgia would beat Texas that Smart said he received “8,000 text messages” about the doubters.

“Everyone doubted us,” he said.

But there were more than just doubters at the orange-ceilinged Darrell K Royal Stadium that night. There was the most unusual and perhaps unprecedented penalty reversal in recent college football history — right here in a top-five matchup on national television.

Follow me closely now. In the third quarter, with Georgia leading 23-8, officials overturned a pass interference call against Texas that had negated a Longhorns interception after conferring among themselves while the game was paused for stadium staff to do so were able to pick up trash that the students had angrily thrown at the original call – thrown on the field.

Has this happened before? Considering the hundreds of thousands of games played across multiple college divisions, sure, somewhere, probably. In a game of this magnitude? On a stage like this? In The Conference? Absolutely not.

The call was also significant for the game. Instead of Georgia gaining possession with a first down, Texas was granted the interception, gained possession inside the 10-yard line and scored two plays later to close what was once a 23-0 deficit to 23-15.

The reversal resulted in Smart getting into an angry argument with head referee Matt Loeffler on the sidelines as Texas fans cheered in excitement.

“What!?” Smart can be seen telling the officer. “They’re bulls***!” he barked at him in the final words of the exchange.

Later in the press conference, Smart pursed his lips and winked at a questioner about the about-face, clearly still excited.

“Now we've set a precedent: If you throw a lot of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, there's a chance the decision will be reversed,” Smart said. “That is unfortunate. This is dangerous.”

The SEC released a statement about the call after the game, noting that the game officials had gathered to discuss the call, which was legal, and the referee who called the foul admitted he had made a “mistake.” had committed, so the call was reversed.

Would they have reversed the penalty without the five-minute break due to the game being stopped for cleanup? That's a legitimate question. The statement did not address the issue, saying only that it was “unacceptable” for fans to throw debris onto the pitch and that the act would be investigated.

During the course of a game, teams face numerous adversities. A dynamic turnover. An opponent's game-changing touchdown drive. A bad official call. But is this a reversal of a decision made more than five minutes after the decision was made and announced? That was a new one.

“I was confused,” quarterback Carson Beck said of the call.

“It didn’t faze us,” Georgia fear inside linebacker Jalon Walker said. “We carried on. We fought.”

Oh, they did.

The response was an 11-play, 89-yard, five-minute touchdown drive. Beck hit Arian Smith for 21 yards, then tight end Oscar Delp for 43 and then Dillon Bell for 9 yards. On a night when UGA's receivers dropped at least eight passes, Smart said, they started catching them.

The defense, which has been the subject of criticism at times this year, overwhelmed and stuffed the Longhorns the rest of the game. Led by Walker, Georgia's defenses finished the game with seven sacks, 10 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and one interception, and Texas was 2 of 14 on third downs and had four three-play drives in the first half or less.

How about this stat: According to ESPN, Georgia became just the second team in the last 20 years to collect seven sacks in a game against a No. 1 ranked AP team.

Smart's group was so dominant in the first half that Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian pulled starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and brought in high-priced backup Arch Manning for the final two series of the first half.

What happened? Manning was under heavy pressure and fumbled a delivery. Georgia rallied, kicked a field goal and led 23-0 at halftime.

Sarkisian then made it clear: “Quinn is our starter.” Smart made it clear that his defense played one of its best games to date. It came a few days after the coach met with players to “challenge” the team's core leadership to “do something.”

“Our intent was to be aggressive,” Smart said.

They were. Ewers and Manning were harassed. The Texas offensive line, one of the most experienced in the country, failed to block in the middle, on the perimeter and in every direction.

“We knew what we wanted to do,” said Walker, who had three sacks. “We knew where (Ewers) wanted to escape to.”

There is something else. “We knew the doubters,” says Walker, smiling.

In his live television interview after the game, Smart pointed the finger at ESPN.

“Nobody gave us a chance,” he told ESPN sideline reporter Katie George. “Their own network doubted us and then they tried to rob us with calls!”

Let's talk more about this robbery, shall we?

Georgia led 23-8 with 3:11 left in the third quarter when it happened. Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron intercepted a Beck pass and returned it to the UGA 9-yard line. The flag flew and Loeffler announced to the crowd that Barron had committed pass interference.

Enraged by the call, Texas students littered the north end zone with beer and water bottles, prompting a five-minute stoppage of play to clean up the mess.

During halftime, the officials conferred while the replay of the pass interference was broadcast on the stadium's jumbotron. Löffler then announced to a cheering crowd that there had been no interference with the pass. Instead of Georgia having a first down, Texas got possession at the 9.

It was a stunning and very rare reversal. After all, the officials had already called the pass interference foul and spotted the ball for Georgia's first down.

The exchange between Loeffler and Smart then took place on the sideline, with the seething coach wagging his finger at the referee. Afterward, Smart said Loeffler told him the official called the penalty on the “wrong guy,” suggesting it should have been offensive pass interference on the intended receiver, Smith. A replay showed the two jostling with each other, with no clear indication whether a foul had even been committed.

“It took him a long time to realize that,” Smart joked.

While on the field after the game, Georgia president Jere Morehead and athletic director Josh Brooks, visibly still frustrated, declined comment on the pass interference reversal. Morehead was seen talking to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on the field.

Meanwhile, in the UGA locker room, music was playing and voices were chanting. The Georgia Bulldogs, losers to Alabama and survivors in a game against Kentucky, are suddenly in prime position to secure an outright berth in the CFP, if not advance to the championship game.

In fact, here we are, eight weeks into the season, and there isn't an undefeated team in the SEC.

Despite the doubters and the “robbery,” Smart’s group left that stadium with a victory, exactly as he envisioned – penalty or not, it doesn’t matter.

“They’re not giving in,” he said. “There would be no backing down.”