ATLANTA — After an unbelieve victory in the Peach Bowl on Saturday night to seal a return to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, members of the Georgia Bulldogs from across the spectrum kept returning to the same themes.
Resilience and composure were words that were used again and again, from coach Kirby Smart to game-winning touchdown catcher AD Mitchell.
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The message in that was clear: The Bulldogs are a team that's been to the mountaintop, and whatever setbacks they experienced against Ohio State - and there were many on Saturday night - weren't going to shake them.
It was because of that, they said, that even while facing long odds to claw the game back in the fourth quarter, they were able to execute.
Here's a bit of what the Dawgs were saying on Saturday night after the win:
AD Mitchell
Speaking to 11Alive's Maria Martin, Mitchell said: "It was crazy, it was a crazy game, but we fought. We stayed at it, nobody quit, that's how it's supposed to be... we just showed our DNA traits, to be honest. We talk about them every year - connection, toughness, resiliency, composure. We showed all four of them today and that's what got us through."
Kirby Smart
Speaking in the post-game press conference, Coach Smart said: "I'll open with a lot of respect for Ohio State and for (OSU coach) Ryan Day and his program, just saw (OSU quarterback) C.J. Stroud out there, heart goes out to those guys because they played well enough to win the game and got a really good football team."
"So do we, and our guys are extremely resilient. We talked at halftime about some games this year we've been behind in, including the Missouri game, had no doubt that our team would come out fighting. Did not play our best football game, a lot of that had to do with Ohio State (playing well)... if we want any chance of winning the National Championship, we have to play a lot better football than we played tonight, but we gotta keep the resiliency and composure along with us."
Smart also spoke about his decision to call a timeout just before Ohio State attempted a fake punt that potentially could have had a game-sealing impact for the Buckeyes: "Yeah they just were not in their traditional formation, so a lot of teams carry that - speed break, they come up to the line quick, everybody's lined up tight. And we've seen it in the SEC, a lot of teams carry it and you try to practice it, but it's another thing when they actually do it and execute it. So it was one of those gut reactions that I didn't think that we had it lined up properly to stop it, and so called the timeout."
Stetson Bennett
Speaking in the post-game press conference: "As far as the huddle (before the winning touchdown drive), I dunno, I don't really remember - recall words, but just looking at everybody and saying alright, hey we haven't played our best and we haven't done our jobs to the best of our ability, but hey we're here now, and it's in our hands now. The defense stood up whenever we needed them to, and where else would you rather be? Having the ball with two minutes left, and if you score a touchdown you win the game."
"I looked around and there was just a whole bunch of determined, strong stares from all the dudes, and it gave me confidence, everybody else had confidence, and we went down the field."
Kenny McIntosh
Speaking to reporters after the game: "I think our preparation is what got us through here right now... we gathered the guys (before the final drive), we was talking like, hey it's time. Defense got the stop, we gotta go execute, do what we do."
Comparing the game to the Missouri game: "That's another thing we were saying, remember Missouri. Missouri we had to fight back, like I said we done been through a lot of games where we had to play four quarters, this team really showed a lot of resiliency, composure, definitely kept cool man, the defense was definitely keeping their composure. Things wasn't going their way but they ended up getting that stop big when we needed it."
"Hard fight team, four quarter team, we preach that to these guys since they first step foot on campus."
Jalen Carter
Speaking to 11Alive's Maria Martin after the game: "We had to stay connected, couldn't make nobody an individual, all trust each other... this is a team that can win it all because we're all connected, we're all brothers, we love each other."
Smael Mondon
Speaking to 11Alive's Maria Martin after the game: "Just feels great, all the hard work, feels like it's paying off, but we know it's not done yet... (our mentality) was just go out there and leave it all out on the field."
Javon Bullard
Speaking in the press conference after the game: "We knew coming into the game it wasn't gonna be perfect. You come into a game like this, College Playoff, we know you're givin' up some plays, they gonna make some plays, we gonna make some plays, you can't get too high up and you can't get too low. So we knew we were gonna have to rely on the connection we built throughout the offseason and the resiliency, I couldn't be more proud of a team."