Kirby Smart cracks jokes about Georgia’s fake punt in SEC Championship

The Georgia Bulldogs pulled off a fake punt against the Texas Longhorns in the SEC Championship Game to perfection. It was a bold call by Kirby Smart who needed every point he could get to beat the Longhorns in overtime.

After the game, Smart cracked some jokes about the fake punt, including referencing the last time Georgia tried a fake punt while playing in Atlanta and taking a shot at Mike Bobo, Georgia’s offensive coordinator and former quarterback.

“I’ve got some history of fake punts in that building,” Kirby Smart said. “It’s one that went our way and something we’ve worked on, we carry it. It’s a great design by our staff, Kirk Benedict and Coach [Todd] Hartley and those guys. And they do a lot of work on punt, we have a lot of formations on our punt. The biggest risk of snapping it to Drew Bobo, he had to catch it and toss it, so he’ll go down in history with a higher passing percentage than his father. He had one for one, so he should be 1,000 percent.”

The fake punt came in the fourth quarter when Georgia and Texas were tied at 13 and the Bulldogs were on their own 30-yard line. The snap went to Drew Bobo, an offensive lineman and the son of Mike Bobo, who was back to block for the punt. He tossed the ball forward to Arian Smith for the first down that led to a field goal.

“But I just really appreciate Arian, thought Dom Lovett had made an incredible play on that play, because he got a look that we had not seen,” Smart said. “And he made a decision, versus two guys holding him up to go. He did what we told him not to do, but he did it because he got a different look. And it freed Arian up, Smael Mondon had a key block on that.”

After only scoring three points in the first half, Georgia was without an injured Carson Beck for the second half of the game. That meant that points were at a premium and the Bulldogs needed to essentially steal an extra possession and momentum where they could.

“I don’t remember, did we end up scoring on that drive or no? Field goal. We got a field goal, yeah. So, it gave us a field goal, gave us a little momentum, a little juice. And we had lost a little momentum at that point. I think that was after they scored the touchdown,” Smart said.

“Look, it’s a lot easier to call it when you think you’re gonna be in the Playoff either way.”

With the SEC Championship, Georgia would go on to earn the second seed in the College Football Playoff. That means the Bulldogs have a bye week and will play the winner of Notre Dame vs. Indiana.