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Kirby Smart credits Notre Dame for 23-10 Sugar Bowl win, not buying into bye-team blues

SystemSystem admin
edited January 3 in Article commenting
imageKirby Smart credits Notre Dame for 23-10 Sugar Bowl win, not buying into bye-team blues

Kirby Smart said Notre Dame was what Georgia thought it would be, and that meant there would be little margin for error.

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Comments

  • BornADawgBornADawg ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    Again nope. We should have gone into halftime down 6-3, made adjustments and won this game. Again, terrible offensive line play and poor play calling did us in. Some changes need to be made. Will Kirby do it? I have my concerns. Go Dawgs!

  • David1David1 ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    If Beck had still been playing, I would see Kirby’s rationale for being aggressive, but not with Stockton making his first start and having already been sacked on a drop back pass on a previous series. I don’t think Kirby’s explanation makes any sense, it’s just an excuse. Down 6-3 is way better than 13-3, especially with nd getting the ball after halftime. And why in the world does Kirby ever not want the ball to go through the end zone on a kickoff. Less than 1% return rate on balls kicked deep in the end zone.
    That poor Jones kid might have to transfer to another school, but I doubt Kirby will allow him to come back. He’s already gotten rid of the celebration kid after the ole miss loss.
    I finally read a national writer’s opinion that Mike Booboo should be demoted to an analyst role in favor of a more updated OC, similar to Monken that was able to create mismatches and schemes way better than Booboo. O line coach needs to leave. He wasn’t good under Richt and he hasn’t improved any. O line play was embarrassing last night.

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  • DawggieDawggie ✭✭✭ Junior

    How on earth does the #2 Seed in the CFP fail again to score 14 points in a game? For the 3rd time this season?

  • CandlerParkCandlerPark ✭✭✭✭✭ Graduate

    An appropriate end to a disappointing season. The two teams were well matched (which means this UGA team was below our standard). The game could have gone either way early.

    Bad luck was involved. In a big way: Stockton played well but made a few poor decisions that Beck would have been seasoned enough not to. And in a small way: That bone-headed sideline penalty.

    The defense played well IMO. One ND TD was off a turnover and the other was on special teams. Although forcing a turnover or two would have been nice, giving up just field goals is very good against the third-ranked scoring offense in the country.

    But our offensive weaknesses were on full display: 1) Our OL (which has fantastic individual talent) couldn't protect the QB's blind side or dominate a much smaller DL on running plays. 2) For the most part our WRs held onto the ball for a change, but the Dillon Bell drop on Stockton's strike was bad (even though we ended up with a TD on that drive anyway).

    I also was puzzled by some of the play calling. It seemed that we could have worn out their DL with power rushes, especially given the huge time of possession disparity early on.

    What does this mean for the coaching staff?

    1. Is Searels coaching up all that OL talent? Is he even up to **** as a recruiter? Pittman and Luke reeled in No. 1 & 2 IOLs and OTs; Searels isn't doing that. After Searels' third year, we may lose the remaining talent that Luke and Pittman put in the pipeline (Ratledge, Fairchild, Truss, Wilson, Morris). Not good.
    2. Was Coley hampered this year by inheriting a lack of talent or is he simply deficient as a WR coach? If the latter, does that cancel out his strengths as a recruiter?
    3. Finally, is Bobo not the guy to put it all together, or was he just hampered by the shortcomings of some of his position coaches?

    I've not been a big Bobo critic. I don't feel I'm qualified to evaluate the job he's doing fully. But this season raises questions. I hope that Kirby is able to evaluate his friend's performance as OC in as centered a way as he evaluates everything else about football.

  • Eric_CEric_C ✭✭✭ Junior
    edited January 3

    Maybe there were a lot of Dawg fans like myself who could see that fumble coming right before the end of the half as soon as Stockton dropped back…his blindside protection had been weak all game, so it was disappointing that he was put in that position for what was still a very close game. I haven't been one to dump all over the play calling this year, but that was just a bad play call in that situation, and I believe many of us could feel it was about to be disastrous. The bottom line is the game was lost in that last minute of the first half and the first few seconds of the 2nd half. Being down three scores totally changed the philosophy going forward, and required the Dawgs to work in desperation mode in the red zone while forgoing easy field goal attempts. Looking back, the last few seconds of the first half of the SECCG and this game were ultimately the final daggers in this season.

  • benzonebenzone ✭✭✭ Junior

    @CandlerPark

    Yes, Coley was hampered this year by inheriting a lack of talent. Coley is not UGA's first WR coach, nor is Bobo UGA's first OC. The issues recruiting WRs have existed throughout Kirby Smart's entire tenure and lately the RB recruiting has fallen off the map also. Please look at this Sunday Reader from Jeff Sentell, the rare times that this homer paper has been willing to address this issue (and it is from 2022 at that): https://www.dawgnation.com/football/sunday-reader/georgia-football-recruiting-why-couldnt-uga-sign-an-elite-wr-in-2022/W4Z2HIP5MJEQNOS22A6OWODTME/

  • benzonebenzone ✭✭✭ Junior

    @Eric_C

    Nah, not really. UGA lost the game because they scored 3 points in the first half and 7 points in the second half. The reason for this is the lack of talent at WR and RB. The reason for the lack of talent at WR is because most of the Kirby Smart era, 2017-2022, Smart chose to start QBs in Jake Fromm and Stetston Bennett IV that lacked the arm strength necessary to run the offense in the SEC that is necessary to recruit elite WRs. The reason for the lack of RB talent is because Todd Monken was brought in to build an offense around SB IV and Monken - except this year with Derrick Henry in Baltimore - is a spread guy who emphasizes RB by committee, which meant that UGA's string of 1000 yard rushers that went back to 2011 ended (and even in 2011, Isaiah Crowell, who went on to be a starting NFL RB after leaving Athens, would have gotten 1000 if he hadn't missed 2 games due to injury).

    The irony is that UGA fans have spent the last 2 seasons blaming all of UGA's problems on Beck and Bobo when the truth is that Beck and Bobo have been held back by the lack of talent that resulted from Smart's decision to go with his previous QBs. Beck's leading the SEC in passing in 2023 and TDs in 2024 is exactly what UGA needed to improve their WR recruiting. Now Smart has to get serious about rebuilding the running game that Richt left him with also.

  • Eric_CEric_C ✭✭✭ Junior

    @benzone we all knew this would be a close defensive game, so every single point was important. If the score had remained 6-3 into the 3rd quarter, the Dawgs could have been up 10-6 going into the 4th, or at the worst down 13-10. If that had been the case, then FGs would have obviously been okay in the red zone. As for the system issues, I don't disagree with your points, but will say as someone who has lived through a lot of lean years, I'm holding off on giving too much critique.

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