How Texas football’s 2019 Sugar Bowl win forced Georgia HC Kirby Smart to change his postseason approach

Texas fans still love to reminisce about the Longhorns’ wild night in New Orleans for the 2019 Sugar Bowl. And what a night it was in the Big Easy.

Bevo charged at Uga. Sam Ehlinger charged at Georgia’s defense for three rushing touchdowns, including a backbreaker on fourth-and-goal. The 28-21 victory was a signal that Tom Herman’s program was headed in the right direction. Or so Texas fans thought.

Georgia fans remember it quite different. That was the game the Dawgs “didn’t want to be there,” allegedly, after getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff.

Six starters — three on offense, three on defense — along with 13 regular contributors total missed the game either due to injury or just opting out to protect their NFL draft status.

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“We learned from the Texas one, guys that may not have been all in,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart told reporters after practice Tuesday. “It was a weird season, because I think that was the year that you're all the way in it to the very end, and then you're not.

“It was one of our first games that you weren't playing for it to play in the playoffs. Maybe that's not right, I don't know that. But it seemed that way, and you’re always trying to find a motivating factor, especially at the end of the year. And I remember they had a really good team, and they were very talented and so were we. I know we played a lot of young players.”

After the game, Georgia was blasted by its fan base and media. The Sporting News called it “Georgia’s Sugar Bowl dud.” The headline in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution put it simply, “Texas was ready. Georgia wasn't. End of story.”

DawgNation’s Chip Towers, a longtime Georgia beat writer, noted how Georgia did get a meaningless touchdown late. “But anybody who watched, or bothered to look at the box score, knows it wasn’t really close.”

It was so bad, Smart changed his approach to bowl games. The next season, No. 5 Georgia faced No. 8 Baylor, once again in the Sugar Bowl.

“We took this approach of if you want to be here, get all in, if you don’t, get all out,” Smart said.

Related: No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 1 Texas: Why Saturday’s matchup is the biggest game in Royal-Memorial Stadium history

Essentially, anyone who didn’t want to play in the bowl game was told to stay away. The difference? Georgia players had a blast on the trip and won 26-14. Smart hasn’t lost a bowl game since and won two national titles in the process.

As Texas fans know, the Horns took a different route after leaving New Orleans. Texas went 15-8 the next two seasons, and Herman was ultimately fired after “The Eyes of Texas” school song fiasco and the social justice summer of 2020 engulfed the program.

Steve Sarkisian, then Alabama’s offensive coordinator, was hired in 2021, and the school charted a course to move from the Big 12 into the SEC.

Ultimately, the Sugar Bowl win was a false flag. The Horns have since raised a new banner under Sarkisian.

The two teams meet again Saturday in what is arguably the biggest home game in Royal-Memorial Stadium history. No. 5 Georgia (5-1, 3-1 SEC) has plenty of motivation this time against No. 1 Texas (6-0, 2-0)

“We were playing for something. The Sugar Bowl. That matters,” Smart said. “We’ve got to worry about we play in this game. We’ve got to worry about how we can play well in this game, not any narrative that’s out there.”