Kirby Smart never ceases to amaze. He’s taken perhaps the weakest and most shallow roster, talent-wise, that he’s ever had at Georgia and turned it into a 9-1 team that could possibly win the SEC Championship and compete seriously in the College Football Playoff — a master class in coaching all year long.

Saturday night against Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns was certainly no exception. Smart had finally figured out how to bring pressure against Arch Manning, sacking him three times. The Georgia offense was heating up, already scoring 21 points to Texas’ 10 through three quarters of action. 

Then, just when it seemed things couldn’t get worse for Texas, Smart called an extremely bold onside kick, and Cash Jones hauled it in to steal a possession away from the Longhorns to kick off the fourth quarter.

It was an incredible play. Phenomenal kick. Impressive read and catch from Cash Jones. The onside kick looked so easy for the Georgia Bulldogs that it truly felt like an unstoppable play in that moment. After the game, Kirby Smart was asked about his decision to go for that onside kick play almost immediately when the press conference opened up. His answer was insightful:

“Well, we worked that a lot. We practiced a lot. Little walk-on kid from Texas, Cash Jones. I bet you he’s taken 250 reps of that in his time being here, and he kept asking me, ‘When are we ever going to call it, coach? I’d love to do it. I’d love to do it.’ We just felt like it was there. They’ve got the best returner in the country. I’d already seen him enough. One time about burst through a hole that an 18-wheeler could have gone through, and we got a holding call that prevented it, but I wasn’t kicking it to him again. I just assumed I’d kick it to one of those front guys.”

It’s crazy to think that Jones could have practiced an onside kick play 250 times, but he’s been with the Georgia Bulldogs’ program for five years now. He was on the 2021 and 2022 national championship teams. He’s been a special teamer throughout his entire career, on top of his slightly expanded role in the last few seasons. All that work and it finally paid off.

Smart was likely smart not to try to kick to Texas’ star return man Ryan Niblett, too. He seriously is perhaps the best in the nation. Niblett has returned two punts for a touchdown this year, and he’s tallied nearly 600 total return yards on just 24 kick and punt return attempts. Going for an onside kick might have felt more bold if not for Niblett’s impressive return track record that Smart obviously wanted to avoid adding to on Saturday.

Kirby expanded on just how impactful that kind of onside kick conversion can be for teams, and almost certainly was for Texas on Saturday:

“It’s heartbreaking when that happens because you just gave up a touchdown, and the defense is over there drinking water. Then they all of a sudden have to go back out. I don’t know what the continuous time was that they were on the field, but our offense is 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. It was a big momentum play, and every one of you would have thought I was an idiot if it didn’t work. That’s part of football.”

When a team like Georgia pulls off that kind of play, it’s a terrible kick to the gut. It was already up by 11 points, and it may not have even needed to steal a possession, but when they did, it seemed like the game was already over in that moment.

We’ll see if Smart has any other fun tricks up his sleeve again here soon, but for now, Georgia fans have to feel extremely confident in their team’s chances this season, considering how wildly impressive this squad has been through 10 games.

We’ll be back with more Georgia Bulldogs coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!