Kirby Smart takes playful dig at Will Muschamp, shares incredible moment for Jackson Muschamp

The Orange Bowl between Georgia and Florida State got out of hand pretty quickly, which led to most of the Bulldogs roster getting playing time.

That includes reserve quarterback Jackson Muschamp, who is the son of Georgia co-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp.

Late in the third quarter, Jackson Muschamp scrambled for 14 yards on third-and-5, which fired up Will Muschamp and the rest of the Georgia sideline. Kirby Smart spoke about the special moment following the game.

“I got on the headphones when it was third-and-5 and coach Bobo called a sprint out. And I said, ‘I don’t want to punt again. I want to get this first down,’” Kirby Smart recalled. “And I said, ‘Coach Muschamp, you might want to step up here… Jackson’s going to sprint out, and we’re going to throw a pass.’ And coach Muschamp was like, ‘Oh God, oh God.’”

Will Muschamp might have been a little nervous, but Jackson Muschamp was ready for the moment.

He showed off some impressive athleticism, rolling to his right, before cutting back and sprinting through the middle of the Florida State defense.

“He stuck his foot in the ground and got a first down. It looked pretty dang good. He really looked good in that jersey he had on, too,” Smart said. “The whole sideline went nuts, because Jackson’s been doing that [in practice]. We had to run a lot of gun runs this year – quarterback runs. And we didn’t have a natural quarterback run guy. So Collin [Drake] and Jackson had to run the ball all the time. And I tell coach Muschamp all the time, he’s a lot better athlete than coach Muschamp ever was.”

In total, Georgia had four quarterbacks take a snap, 11 players catch a pass, 11 players get a rushing attempt and 21 defenders make a tackle.

The blowout didn’t lead to the most entertaining game for fans, but it did allow a lot of Bulldogs players to make special memories.

“I was proud of those guys, and we had a lot of guys get an opportunity to play tonight. And that’s the thing that nobody talks about these bowl games. I got to play in three or four bowl games and that was the highlight of my college career,” Smart said. “We didn’t make it to a national championship. We didn’t make it to an SEC championship. So the highlight of my career was getting to play in the opportunities like that – in bowl games. And we got a lot of kids that got an opportunity to play today.”