Kirby Smart again addresses slow starts by Georgia offense

The Georgia Bulldogs offense went through a few major changes coming into the 2023 season, including changes at offensive coordinator and quarterback. With that has come a series of slow starts on offense that head coach Kirby Smart recently addressed.

Smart acknowledged that the offense has had some slow starts, but also said there were some reasons for those starts.

“Absolutely, we need to improve it, but we look at everything,” Kirby Smart said. “I think we went three and out one time on offense. Every other time we moved the ball, which that’s what you want to do. Obviously, you want to score, but you want to move the ball so you can create field position.”

Among the reasons that Smart pointed out for Georgia’s lack of scoring success early in games is that Georgia has had limited possessions in the first quarterback because they prefer to differ on the coin toss.

“On defense, we’ve gone three and out maybe once or twice. We did last week. So, it’s not the first possession, but it is the first quarter. Some of that has been circumstance of missing a field goal. Some of that has been circumstance of we differ. So, if we win the toss we never get that extra possession in the first quarter because they get it.”

At the same time, Kirby Smart admitted that all of that amounts to excuses. Georgia has 17 first quarter points in five games, for an average of just 3.4 points per game. Those five games include two SEC opponents, an FCS opponent, and two Group of Five opponents.

“But those are all just excuses. We’ve got to play better. There’s a lot of reasons why it happens. I’ve been here years where you score every first possession and you stop them every time. Then, for a while, we couldn’t get it started in the third quarter. We could never get any momentum going into the third quarter and we were awful in the third quarter. One of the years we won a national championship,” Smart said.

“It’s something you try to address and think about the way you start the game, but don’t overthink it because we’re trying to plan for the whole game.”

Georgia will have a chance to improve on its slow starts Saturday in a game against unbeaten Kentucky.

Kirby Smart says every SEC team should be ranked

Early this season, Georgia has been criticized for a weak strength of schedule, particularly in the non-conference this season. However, Kirby Smart believes the entire SEC should be ranked.

“I personally think every SEC team should be ranked,” Smart said. “I can guarantee you there are some teams that don’t want to play them that are ranked. I mean, I don’t — I literally have no idea what you’re referencing because every team we play in the SEC is good enough to beat us and whether they’re ranked or not, I could care less.”