Georgia's commitment to 'the plan' pays off against Tennessee

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia had a plan, and it executed it to perfection on Saturday in a 27-13 win over No. 1 Tennessee. The Volunteers came into the game ranked atop the country in the majority of offensive stat categories including scoring and total offense. For the first 55:45, the Bulldogs held them to just six points.

“Our kids understood the plan and they stuck to the plan,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said after the game. “The plan was really hard practice, lot of reps, lot of organization, lot of details in terms of how fast, ‘Can we duplicate their speed, maybe even faster? Can we get lined up and execute? Can we stop the run?’ I think all the questions that we had coming in, you know, we don’t get to play against that kind of offense, so, it’s tough to prepare for.”

Smart said that as the week went along, he slept better and better. He was confident in the plan that he and the staff had put together and knew that there was nothing more that they could have done. Then it came down to execution.

“I don’t know. I don’t know the other team’s plan,” Smart said when asked why Georgia was able to execute the plan better than others had against Tennessee. “I know for us, it was all about getting lined up quicker than they do. In practice, we told our players, they did double the reps this week. In terms of the amount of minutes you practice in a period, in 12 minutes you usually do 24 plays. We had periods where we were getting 35, 40 plays depending on how fast they were going. They doubled up. I think that helped play a part of it. I think the success we had early in the game. When you play Tennessee, they go for the knockout blow in the first round. You’ve got to survive it. I don’t like surviving anything, we want to attack it. But with them, it’s about surviving that.”

Georgia did more than survive against Tennessee. The Bulldogs limited the Volunteers to 94 yards rushing in large part due to a season-high six sacks. Jalin Hyatt, who was leading the nation in receiving touchdowns with 14 scores and averaging over 100 yards per game, was held in check, as was Cedric Tillman, who went for 200 yards in last year’s matchup between these two teams. Neither Hyatt nor Tillman had more than 68 yards receiving on Saturday or found the end zone. Furthermore, Tennessee was held to just 2-of-14 on third down, the lowest conversion percentage for the Volunteers under Josh Heupel.

Asked what impressed him the most about his team though, it wasn’t any of the stats in particular. It was what helped make the stats possible: the plan Smart loved the team’s buy in and commitment to stick to the plan even when folks were doubting the defenses ability to do so.

“All the stuff that was written and said, we never utilized it or said anything. They get questioned all the time because of the guys that left. Well because the other guys left, why does that matter? They got here on their own merit,” Smart said. “The biggest confidence question for them was Tennessee because they are explosive. They are really hard to stop on offense. There was doubt, some question marks there, but they stayed the course. They bought into this plan. Every coach, five coaches on defense would go over this exact plan every day. This is what we’re doing. This is how we’re doing it. We’re going to keep it simple. We’re going to line up fast, we’re going to strike blockers, we’re going to play people, we’re going to keep the ball in front of us, we’re not going to let them be explosive, we’re going to affect the quarterback, we’re going to buy into it, and if everybody does it – we were talking about the plan every time they came off the field. They executed the plan.”

“Just the courage to stick with the plan. There’s a lot of folks outside doubting them. They never doubted themselves. There’s a lot of confidence in that room. These players are confident,” he added. “I’m most proud of our staff, man. The staff really worked hard this week to have a good plan, to execute the plan. The players didn’t let their ego get in the way. Gameday’s here, SEC Nation’s here, everybody’s here, it’s the biggest matchup in Athens. I’m going to stick with the plan. The plan was to execute your job, play in and play out, be explosive on offense, push the pocket on rush. We did that.”