ATHENS, Ga. -- As No. 5 Georgia prepared to play No. 10 Texas on Saturday night, Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart invoked the image of a Navy SEAL candidate ringing a brass bell to signal that he was voluntarily quitting training.
"Our kids believe in down and dirty," Smart said. "They believe in the 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."
In the first-ever matchup of the SEC heavyweights played at Sanford Stadium, the Bulldogs once again bullied Texas in a 35-10 victory that kept their SEC title and College Football Playoff hopes alive.
As has often been the case for the Bulldogs this season, they delivered the knockout blow in the fourth quarter when they outscored the Longhorns 21-0, thanks to a pair of gutsy fourth-down conversions and an even bolder onside kick.
"We talked about what's not for some people is for others," Smart said. "And the hardest part of SEAL training is when they go after the hype phase. Everybody's hyped up, and everybody's hyped up to kick off. But when they go to that water phase, and they go down and do the surf torture, not everybody wants it. It's not for everybody."
Texas (7-3, 4-2 SEC) lost to Georgia (9-1, 7-1 SEC) for the third straight time after falling to the Bulldogs twice last season -- once in the regular season and again in the SEC championship game.
With home games left against Arkansas and No. 3 Texas A&M, Texas all but saw its playoff aspirations end. There has never been a three-loss team in the CFP.
"Disappointing, because it was a pretty good game for three quarters, but it was not a good game in the fourth quarter, at least not for us," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. "The challenge for us now is, we've got a two-week season in front of us. We got to get off the mat; we have to go and compete. We got to go and find a way to win two ballgames. We will see what happens."
After dominating much of the first half, Georgia's offense hit a lull with four straight possessions that ended in punts. Then quarterback Gunner Stockton made a rare mistake when he threw his third interception of the season.
The Longhorns responded with Arch Manning's 7-yard touchdown to Ryan Wingo that cut Georgia's lead to 14-10 with 5:27 left in the third quarter.
That's when Smart went into his bag of tricks to grab momentum again.
On fourth-and-1 at Georgia's 36-yard line, Stockton rolled to his right and threw a 10-yard pass to tailback Chauncey Bowens. On fourth-and-5 at Texas' 49-yard line, Stockton got the Longhorns to jump offsides for another first down. Three plays later, Stockton faked a toss to tailback Nate Frazier and threw a 30-yard touchdown to London Humphreys for a 21-10 lead with 14:20 to play.
Smart wasn't done.
On the ensuing kickoff, Smart gambled and called an onside kick. Peyton Woodring executed the kick perfectly, and Georgia tailback Cash Jones recovered the ball at Georgia's 47-yard line.
It was the first onside kick recovered by the Bulldogs since 2013.
"He's been telling us in big-time games, we're going to need something to use to get the team some momentum, and that's what we've been practicing on all week," Georgia safety KJ Bolden said of Smart. "He just kept telling us we were going to run it. I didn't kind of believe him at first -- I ain't gonna lie -- but he called it."
Smart said that Texas sophomore Ryan Niblett being one of the best kick returners in the FBS made his decision easier.
"If you kick it to him, there's a chance he houses it [and] there's a chance he gets it to the 50-yard line," Smart said of Niblett. 'We felt like we had about an 80% chance on the onside based on our rate. We thought it was there, we worked it, we prepared for it.
"The hardest thing to do is call that call after a scored touchdown because you could theoretically lose momentum, but it was executed well by two players who on Monday, in 20-degree weather and 20 mph wind, they were practicing it."
The Bulldogs then put together a nine-play scoring drive that ended with Stockton's 6-yard touchdown to tight end Lawson Luckie that made it 28-10 with 8:53 remaining.
"It's heartbreaking when that happens because you just gave up a touchdown," Smart said. "The defense is over there drinking water, and they all say, 'We've got to go back out.' Our offense is like a big, strong anaconda, just squeezing you. And you get squeezed, and you finally catch a little air, and then they're back trying to suffocate you. It was a big momentum play."
Sarkisian said his team had practiced recovering an onside kick last week because he anticipated one might be coming.
"We did not break on the ball, and that is on us as coaches," Sarkisian said. "We got to do a better job at getting our players [to understand] situational football. We go attack the ball; we have an opportunity for a great field position situation. I would not say that they lost composure. I think we lost some focus, we lost some intensity in the fourth quarter."
Stockton scored on a 4-yard run to seal the victory with 4:43 remaining. He completed 24 of 29 passes for 229 yards with five total touchdowns.
Manning threw for 251 yards on 27-for-43 passing with one interception. He also was sacked three times.
The Longhorns were penalized nine times for 58 yards. They went 2-for-12 on third down.
"We had a pretty good first drive," Sarkisian said. "We had another pretty good drive, but then the interception in the red zone. We dropped some passes, we dropped some throws, we had some holding penalties. We had some self-inflected wounds in there. We had a really good plan, but we were not able to stack it all together to make it all work."