How Georgia's surprise onside kick highlighted the gap between Kirby Smart, Steve Sarkisian as coaches

ATHENS, Ga. -- The sly smile on Kirby Smart's face said it all. 

He knew he had just punked Texas coach Steve Sarkisian once again. The best coach in college football made the big, decisive action that can make all the difference between two good teams.

After Texas cut the lead to 14-10 late in the third quarter, Smart turned up the aggression. This has backfired at times against him, especially in games against Alabama, but Smart knows who he is and doesn't hesitate to go for the kill when he sees an opportunity. It's the kind of killer instinct Texas fans have been begging Sark to adopt.

Georgia went for it on fourth down twice on that offensive drive -- the first one while backed up to its own 36-yard line -- and capitalized on a Gunner Stockton 30-yard touchdown to London Humphreys. The Bulldogs were now up 21-10 and could breathe again, but Smart didn't hesitate to go for poor Bevo's jugular. 

Smart called for an onside kick -- his first ever in 10th season at Georgia -- and caught Texas completely off-guard. Peyton Woodring hit it perfectly and Cash Jones, a Texas native, successfully recovered. Sarkisian looked shell-shocked on the sideline while special teams coordinator Jeff Banks was dismayed. Any hope Texas had at coming back in the game evaporated in the moment. What had been a close-fought game for much of the night turned into a primetime embarrassment and a 35-10 loss for the Longhorns. 

"It's heartbreaking when that happens because you just gave up a touchdown and the defense is over there drinking water, and they all of a sudden got to go back out," Smart said. "So I don't know what the continuous time was they were on the field. Our offense, it's like a big strong anaconda just squeezing you. You get squeezed, and you finally catch a little air, and then they're back trying to suffocate you."

Said Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton: "That was pretty cool. It was a great momentum play, and I'm glad it worked out for us."

Smart said Jones, a walk-on running back, had practiced the play 250 times during his time in Athens only to never see it called in a game. Jones kept telling Smart, "When are we ever going to call it? I'd love to do it, I'd love to do it."

Jones wasn't the only one pushing for it. Georgia practices the onside kick "literally every day," according to linebacker Quintavius Johnson. "It's successful every time in practice," Johnson said. "As a team we always wish can we go run this, when we going to run this? And then finally did it."

The last time Smart was part of an onside kick attempt? You have to go all the way back to the 2015 national championship when Alabama successfully pulled one off against Clemson in a momentum-shifting decision that helped the Crimson Tide win. The game was tied at 24 in the fourth quarter when Alabama coach Nick Saban made the gutsy decision to go for an onside kick. Alabama recovered, Saban let out a smile, just like the one Smart had Saturday night, and two plays later, the Tide scored a touchdown to take the lead. Alabama ultimately won 45-40 in Smart's last game as a part of Saban's staff. 

After that title game, I asked Smart, who had already committed to taking over Georgia, what the Alabama defensive coordinator thought about his boss' decision to go for an onside kick. 

"It's a gutsy call," Smart said. "High risk, high reward. That's what makes him a great coach."

It took Smart nearly a decade to try one for himself, but his decision against Texas is what makes him a great coach, too. It is his third win over Sarkisian in the last 13 months and it's happened in every way -- at Texas, at Georgia and in last year's SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. 

Sark, another Saban acolyte, has a tendency to turtle up in the biggest moments. And it could make for an uncomfortable offseason for Sark and the rest of his staff if Texas doesn't make the College Football Playoff this season. No matter what anyone tells you, that dream isn't completely dead for Texas if it can win out, particularly over No. 3 Texas A&M, but there's no question the path just got more treacherous. If Texas ultimately does miss the playoff, it'll represent one of the greatest disappointments of any college football program this season given the significant financial investment in this roster. And it starts leading to questions wondering if perhaps Sarkisian's window to win it all is narrowing after back-to-back semifinal losses the last two seasons. 

Whether it's the red zone issues, the dropped passes, the inability to put together a cohesive and competent offensive line to protect Arch Manning, there are plenty reasons to be frustrated with a Texas team that is less than the sum of its parts. 

The opposite is true for a Georgia team that appears to be peaking at the right time. The Death Star, yet again, looks fully functional. When the defense can get pressure and Stockton can efficiently pick apart a defense like he did against Texas (24 of 29 for 229 yards and 4 TDs), the Bulldogs are going to be very hard to beat. You can make arguments for undefeated Texas A&M or one-loss Ole Miss or two-loss Alabama, but Georgia looked like the best of the SEC against Texas. 

This is a tough, physical team that is bought into Smart's culture and seems to be improving every week. That should be scary to everyone else. 

Our kids believe in down and dirty," Smart said. "They believe in the [Navy] Seal mantra of, let's take them to the water. Let's see who can survive in the water, see who's going to tap out first, ring the bell, and run from the contact contest. They believe in that. They believe in the physical toughness that it takes to win games."