Kirby Smart details sequences that led to Georgia loss

NEW ORLEANS — Things got away from Georgia, and they did so quickly. That’s not what Kirby Smart said after a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, but hearing him speak after the loss to the Fighting Irish, it sure sounds like what the Bulldogs head man meant.

“They got two turnovers, and we didn’t, and they returned a kickoff for a touchdown. So, we basically spotted them probably 14 points off of that, and costed ourselves a possession in the red area when we fumbled down there. But they did a really good job,” Smart said. “They played really hard, physical brand of football. So do we. Those two mirror each other. I think both defenses played well, and we turned the ball over and they didn’t. And they gave us problems in the pass game with the sack and the sack fumble. So give them a lot of credit.”

The first quarter of the Sugar Bowl was scoreless, but that came as a result of a mistake by the Bulldogs. Running back Trevor Etienne carried on 3rd & 1 from the Notre Dame 16-yard-line and fumbled. The Fighting Irish recovered, and that was that on Georgia’s given-away opportunity.

Still, Georgia got on the board first. A 41-yard field goal by Peyton Woodring sailed through the uprights early in the second quarter, only for Notre Dame to respond with one of its own on the ensuing drive. After punts on the next three possession and another Fighting Irish field goal, it was 6-3 Irish with 39 seconds to go. The score wasn’t reflecting it, but the Bulldogs had plenty to feel good about going into the locker room.

Then, the wheels fell off. Gunner Stockton, making his first career start, was sacked and lost control of the ball. Notre Dame recovered and scored one play later. Then, Jayden Harrison went 98 yards to the house to make it 20-3 Irish in the blink of an eye.

“Yeah, typically when you’re down, you need every possession you can have. We made a decision that we were going to be aggressive and we were going to try to go two-minute, and that’s what everything says you should do. You can’t give up possessions when you’re trailing,” Smart said on the aggressive end-of-half approach. “We’re down 6-3. We felt like we had a little quick-game pass. Certainly not counting on getting beat that quick at left tackle. Got a sack fumble, which gave them some momentum, but at the end of the day, we got a great red-area defense. We should stop them. We don’t play passive here. We play to be aggressive, and we’re trying to go score.”

“I don’t think it affected us because we bounced right back. Spotted an extra touchdown. It made it a harder comeback, but we had an unblocked player that missed a tackle, and usually when that happens, you give the other team credit, but it’s not a mistake. We just missed the tackle, right? And when you don’t play for a while, sometimes you miss tackles. We had leverage on the ball, and we had somebody that couldn’t get him on the ground,” he added, asked in the next question about the kickoff return. “That’s what football is. It’s fundamentals and tackling. We tackle him there, then we got a chance to stop them. Obviously, it played a huge momentum swing for them, but our guys didn’t shy away.”

These things typically come in threes, and for Georgia, it was a third sequence that did the Dawgs in. Down 23-10 and looking like it would be getting the ball back after forcing a three-and-out deep in Notre Dame territory, the Bulldogs fell for trickery.

Notre Dame lined up to punt before substituting all 11 players on the field at once to bring out the offense for 4th & 1. It was a move Georgia coaches didn’t think was legal from past experience and one that resulted in the Bulldogs jumping offsides to keep the drive alive and take more time off the clock. Instead of punting with 7:17 to go, the Irish maintained possession until past the two-minute timeout, all but ending hopes of a UGA comeback effort.

“It’s really unfortunate, because I’ve been told by our head of officials in the SEC that you can’t do that. You can’t run 11 on, 11 off. We did it in 2017 against Tennessee. We’ve carried that. We practiced that and repped that because teams try to do it, and we were told by officials you could not do that. So we were trying to say you couldn’t do it,” Smart said. “We got our defense out there. We were fine. I mean, I would have gone for it if I was them. I don’t think they were planning on going for it. They were going to hard-count us. We prepare for that. We do it every week. We jumped offsides, you know? But we also were told you couldn’t do that in our league.”

Smart added later he did not receive much clarity from the official in seeking it out.

All the mistakes amount to a season-ending loss for Georgia, which finishes the 2024 campaign 11-3. The Bulldogs also close out the trend of all four teams that had a bye in the opening round of the College Football Playoff losing in the quarterfinals. Still, Smart walks away proud of his team, not just this season but over the last few.

“That takes nothing away from these men on the stage and the seniors that are a part of this class. I mean, absolutely incredible. I just told them, what they went through this year and what they played and how they played, the resiliency, the injuries that we’ve had, and to win an SEC championship — which I have so much respect for our conference — and to win some of the comeback games they won and never quit, even in this game, never quit, that’s the attitude you’ve got to have to get better as a football program,” Smart said. “We’ve got a lot of guys moving on. A lot of guys are hurt in that locker room because we didn’t get the outcome that we wanted, but that’s part of life. I give Notre Dame credit for how they played and give our seniors and our leaders credit for what they’ve done for this program.”