The Longhorns’ constantly produced physical play, toughness and “out-SEC’d” a supposedly more smash-mouth Georgia team, and did so impressively.

“I’m proud of the physical nature in which we played this game,” Texas coach Tom Herman said. “At this point in our program’s trajectory, that’s what we’re going to need to do to win, is we have got to out-hustle people, we’ve got to outhit people. And we’ve got to play with a purpose and a passion greater than anybody in the country. And tonight I feel like we did that.”

There were times when Texas could have deviated from its plan and used the pass more — especially when Herman was unbending in his desire to have quarterback Sam Ehlinger use his running ability and brute power to score its final touchdown, early in the fourth quarter, but instead the Longhorns sent a message — stop us if you can. Georgia, ultimately, could not.

“I am sure we wouldn’t have been able to do that at Week 1 or Week 2, but we have continued to develop,” Herman said. “We did it tonight against an unbelievable defense. When you get down there, you’ve got to be able to punch the ball in. It certainly provided us a validation.”

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Texas’ fast start — the Longhorns drove 75 yards in 10 plays capped by an Ehlinger 2-yard TD run on their opening drive — gave it the early momentum and allowed it to move to its in-your-face attack. That opening drive mixed five runs with five passes, and the Longhorns only passed 15 more times the rest of the game.

“We knew coming in that we had to come in and start fast,” said wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey, who led the Longhorns with seven catches for 67 yards. “That’s exactly what we did. Once we went down and scored, we knew that we were going to be in the game all game.”

The Texas defense limited the Bulldogs to just 72 yards rushing, 179 yards short of their season average of 251 per game. That was just the third time this year Georgia had been held to less that 180 yards on the ground.

“You can’t be at The University of Texas if you’re not physical, or that’s not your mentality,” Texas cornerback Kris Boyd said. “That’s part of our culture and who we are. That’s the standard of who we are.”

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Plenty of the talk heading into the game was how Georgia’s pair of running backs — Elijah Holyfield and D’Andre Swift (both of whom gained at least 1,000 yards this season) — would control the game. Texas held the duo to 74 combined yards on 20 carries and forced Swift to fumble twice.

“We played with a chip on our shoulder and all we heard about coming in was how physical those two backs were and how physical their offensive line was,” Texas linebacker Gary Johnson said. “We knew we had to stop the run and everything else would take care of itself.”

Texas linebacker Anthony Wheeler said a few Georgia players were talking trash in the first quarter when Texas took an early lead.

“‘We didn’t think y’all would come that hard,’” Wheeler said of the banter. “That was plenty of motivation … just hearing that was telling me they ain’t ready for us.”

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That nod has to go to Ehlinger, who carried the team on his shoulders for huge swaths of the season, then was all but unstoppable in the Sugar Bowl win.

“The mindset and the physicality and the whatever-it-takes and the fourth-and-inches is the mindset that our offense needs to have, our team needs to have every single play,” Ehlinger said. “I’m going do everything that I can for my team to put them in the best situation to win.”

Ehlinger’s second TD run of the game was his 15th rushing touchdown of the season, breaking Vince Young’s single-season quarterback rushing record set in 2004.

The stats from the victory over Georgia weren’t eye-popping — 21 carries for 64 yards and three touchdowns along with 19 of 27 passing for 169 yards — but Ehlinger’s determination was, and it permeated throughout the team.

“The confidence this man (Ehlinger) exudes to the offense and to the whole team, I’ve commended him so many times,” Texas defensive end Charles Omenihu said. “And I’ll commend him again for just being the guy he is and the way he is because it’s really been transcending and inspiring to everybody on this whole team and the whole university.”

At a legitimate 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, Ehlinger brings size and strength to the position and a willingness to seek out contact that few quarterbacks have. Georgia coach Kirby Smart certainly had no answer for the questions Ehlinger posed.

“Their quarterback managed the game well with his run play, he really hurt us,” Smart said about Ehlinger. “We missed tackles and didn’t finish on him defensively.