After Texas beat the USC Trojans in the Rose Bowl to win the national title, Mack Brown and Vince Young both talked about how the team used disrespect as motivation.
Disrespect from the media. Disrespect from ESPN, who actually ran a 30 minute special debating whether USC was the greatest team in college football history that ran BEFORE the game.
It worked. Texas played tougher, hungrier and more desperate.
It worked again Saturday night in Austin, but it wasn’t the Longhorns using a lack of respect as motivation. It was the Georgia Bulldogs, who beat Texas 30-15 in front of a sellout crowd.
After the game, ESPN’s Katie George spoke with Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who talked a lot about the team’s motivations.
“I’m so proud of these guys, because nobody believed. Nobody gave us a chance. Your whole network doubted us. Nobody believed us. Then they tried to rob us with calls in this place. And these guys are so resilient. You know? We talked about intent. What was our intent when we walked on the field. Our intent is not to take pictures. Not do all the superstar stuff. Our intent was to eat. Our intent was to come eat and be hungry. I’m not interested in all the bells and whistles. What I want is a team that fights their ass off and they did tonight.” — Kirby Smart
The Bulldogs certainly looked like the hungrier team at DKR on Saturday.
Smart was asked about Georgia QB Carson Beck and his composure.
“I thought Carson had great composure all day. He had four drops to start the game, it didn’t rattle the kid. He threw interceptions and it didn’t rattle the kid. Carson is a great player. He takes undo criticism and all he does is lead our team. This was a team victory for our offense, defense and special teams in a tough place to play.” — Kirby Smart
George asked Smart about how well the Georgia defense played against the high-powered Texas offense.
“Our defense was embarrassed the week before. But we really played really well. So, when you play really well and you still get embarrassed, we were able to get their attention. I thought they woke up and played really well today.” — Kirby Smart
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Everything Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on field after dominating Texas
