Kirby Smart on bouncing back from Alabama loss, turning attention to national title game

Kirby Smart and the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs completed the first step in avenging their SEC Championship loss to Alabama by beating the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines in the Orange Bowl. Plus, the Bulldogs did it in emphatic fashion, scoring a touchdown on each of their first two drives and upending Michigan, 34-11.

It was a dominating win by Smart and Georgia, made possible in part thanks to Stetson Bennett. Bennett put any concerns about his abilities to bed early in Friday night’s contest, as the Bulldogs won behind Bennett’s 20-of-30 performance, good for 313 yards and three touchdowns. But concerns about Bennett’s play stemmed primarily from Georgia’s loss to Alabama, a game in which Bennett threw two interceptions and the Bulldogs were unable to provide an answer to Bryce Young’s dynamic attack. Heading into the national championship against that same Alabama team, Smart understands that his team has a lot to work on — they may be coming off an impressive win, but they’ve already lost handedly to Alabama once before.

“I really never had questions about this team. The resiliency, the bounce back, the amount of character, I’ve seen it all year. We didn’t play well (against Alabama), and we turned the ball over and didn’t get any turnovers and played poor in the red area,” Smart said. “You can list all the things we did in the last game.”

The script was flipped in Georgia’s win over Michigan. The Bulldogs outgained the Wolverines with 521 yards of total offense compared to Michigan’s 328, all while dominating the turnover battle. Georgia’s offense did not commit a single turnover in the game; Michigan, on the other hand, lost a fumble and threw two interceptions. Smart praised his team for bouncing back from the tough loss in the SEC Championship game, but he knows the toughest task lies ahead of the Bulldogs.

“That’s all our kids have heard about for three weeks,” Smart said of Georgia’s mistakes against Alabama. “Our focus has been on, OK, what can we get better at, where can we turn our energy, because it does no good to look backwards. It only does good to look forward and who was our opponent. We always say you can’t let a loss beat you twice, and we didn’t let that happen today and now we get to focus our energy on a really good football team, and that’s where we’ll turn our head and attention now.”

Kirby Smart slams Georgia for easing up on Michigan in second half

Smart wasn’t all that please with the Bulldogs’ performance in the semifinal game Georgia started out fast in Miami, gaining momentum as early as the first quarter and never once taking its foot off the gas. Georgia started with two touchdowns and a field goal; meanwhile, the Bulldogs defense stopped Michigan via a turnover on downs and a punt in the Wovlerines’ first two drives.

Georgia had a 27-3 lead heading into the locker rooms for halftime, the game already out of reach for Michigan. In the third quarter, the game continued in quiet fashion, with neither team scoring until the fourth. Michigan and Georgia each scored a touchdown in the fourth, but with the Wolverines’ two-point conversion, Michigan had won the second half 8-7.

n Smart’s mind, Georgia didn’t play up to par in the second half.

“I did not think we played as well in the second half as we’re capable of and got a little flat, but I appreciate the effort and the commitment to the players,” Smart said. “Nobody understands how long a layoff that is and how many practices you’ve got to continue to have, and they bought into that each day and came to work and answered a lot of questions that everybody had for them.”