Urban Meyer: Georgia comeback vs. Alabama could be ‘Coach of the Year’ moment for Kirby Smart

Former coach and current FOX Sports analyst Urban Meyer had an unconventional take coming out of the Alabama vs. Georgia game on Saturday, one that Dawgs fans will be quite pleased to hear.

Meyer has Kirby Smart as an early Coach of the Year candidate based on the second-half comeback.

“People are going to listen to this and say, ‘What is he talking about?'” Meyer said on The Triple Option podcast. “That might be the Coach of the Year moment to bring that team back and get their minds right. Because you have a bunch of people right now just got obliterated and they’re not used to that. I mean they got smoked in a tough environment. They come back and took the lead.”

Georgia fell behind 28-0 in the contest. On the road, in one of college football’s most hostile environment.

To even mount a comeback bid, let alone nearly finish it off, was impressive.

“Coaching, to me, during a year, during a season, during a game and during moments, I used to stare at our coaches and go like this (taps on shoulder with two fingers),” Meyer said. “You know what that means? You’re earning your coaching stripes right now. You’re earning them right now. That means you have to raise up and get your guys, whatever you’ve got to do, you’ve got to do.”

Smart did just that for Georgia, slowly helping the Dawgs crawl back into the game. And before long, you looked up at the scoreboard and Georgia was back in front.

“So I’ll say it again, the coaching moment of the year,” Meyer said. “And there’s going to be people roll their eyes because they lost, I get that. When you earn your stripes like Kirby Smart and his staff to get that team back — think about that. I’ve never really been in that scenario, but you’re in Tuscaloosa, Ala., against an elite team and somehow you got your feet back on the ground and they went and fought and fought and they got back and got the lead. So coaching of the year, 2024, goes to Kirby Smart and his staff to bring that team back.”

Meyer was then asked by his co-hosts on The Triple Option what he would do as a coach to get his team back in it in a scenario like Georgia faced.

He broke things down.

“It all depends on your team. I’m getting fired up now,” Meyer said, slipping back into the old coaching mentality. “If I got me Mark Ingram and some of those kind of war daddies, I am grabbing their shirts and say, ‘Listen, I need you, pal.’ We used to say, ‘When I needed you the most you gave us your very best.’ That was a saying that we had. I don’t need you when we’re up by 40 points. I could care less what you do. Go sit on the bench.

“When we’re getting bloodied up right now I need you to go rally, because there’s some guys in the locker room that were not ready for this. They were not ready for that second half, and so you rally your alphas, and I mean you get in their jug now and say, ‘This is going to get real bad unless you guys decide to nut up now and get the **** going.’ And that’s exactly what they did.”