Kirby Smart reveals what went into timeout call ahead of fake punt try by Ohio State

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart made a split-second decision during Saturday’s semifinal game against Ohio State that almost certainly saved the season. The Buckeyes had fourth-and-one on their own side of the field and were up 11 points with the ball and nine minutes left to go in the game when Ryan Day called a fake punt. The ball was snapped to one of the up-backs and he scampered for the first.

Except, Smart sensed something off with the OSU punt formation and just barely snuck in a timeout before the Buckeyes snapped the ball. Though the play went off, the refs ruled that Smart got it in time and the play would be re-done. But, with Ohio State showing their hand on the play that was blown dead, Day wasn’t going to be able to trick them again, so he punted away. That allowed Georgia to score and regain momentum, which they rode to an eventual comeback win.

Just a brilliant move by Kirby Smart, and an extremely gutsy one, considering that Georgia would desperately need those timeouts in order to come back. But Smart made the quick decision to burn a timeout when he thought a fake punt could be coming. A call that paid off. Far less likely that UGA pulls off the comeback if OSU had gotten an extra first down there.

Here was Smart on ESPN with Scott Van Pelt afterwards on why he called the timeout:

“They just were not in their traditional formation. A lot of teams carry that speed break. They come up to the line quick. Everybody’s lined up tight. And we’ve seen it in the SEC. A lot of teams carry it, and you try to practice it, but it’s another thing when they actually do it and execute it. So it was one of those gut reactions that I didn’t think that we had it lined up properly to stop it, so we called timeout.”

Man, what a gut by Kirby Smart. A huge risk that paid off with a huge reward: eliminating an Ohio State fourth down conversion in one of the biggest moments in the game. Championship-level situational awareness by the dominant coach of the last two years.