Peyton Woodring, kicking game difference for Georgia vs. Missouri
ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart said Saturday’s top-15 matchup between Georgia and Missouri was decided by the kicking game. The Bulldogs came out on top 30-21, and that’s in large part due to freshman kicker Peyton Woodring.
After some early season struggles, missing three of his first seven collegiate attempts, Woodring has made 13 straight in the last five games including a career-long 48-yarder on Saturday. The kick put Georgia ahead by two-scores with less than 4:00 to go and showed the kind of confidence Georgia’s staff has in the youngster.
“The difference in the game was probably kicking game,” Smart said. “Woodring coming through and Mews’ returns and some critical red-area stops. That’s what games come down to.”
Smart’s toughest decision with Woodring actually came on the previous drive though. At the time, the Bulldogs were up three, and a field goal wouldn’t change how many scores Missouri needed. In fact, it would make it an easy decision for Eli Drinkwitz and staff to use all four downs. Having faith in his squad, both that Woodring would make it and that the defense would come up with a necessary stop, Smart sent the kicking unit out.
“It shows we have a lot of faith of him and trust in him,” Smart said. “… There’s a lot of analytics that will tell you not to kick that because a six-point differential just tells them that they get four downs and you just invited them to have four. But I thought there was a chance that we might have another chance at a field goal. Three and three would’ve made 9, but if we don’t hit the field goal or we hit it and they go down and score it’s certainly a tough situation.”
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“You’ve got to have confidence in the rest of your team they can stop them,” he continued. “We got about half of that third down back, and there was a consideration there on fourth-and-5 to go for it, but because of Peyton and what he’s been able to do we kicked it.”
Of course, Woodring made the field goal from 30 yards out and followed it up with the 48-yarder on the next drive. Afterwards, there might not have been anybody more excited that Woodring’s holder and Georgia’s quarterback Carson Beck.
“Obviously I was hype. If you go look at the film, I was super energetic,” Beck said. “I called him the ice man. Every time he’s stepped out there the past couple of games he’s nailed those field goals, and obviously today it ended up coming through huge.”
Woodring is one of a handful of Georgia freshmen contributing to the Bulldogs’ 9-0 start to the season, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if he’s called on again over the next few weeks to make a pressure-packed attempt. This past Saturday, he certainly came through clutch, and recent history would suggest he is more than capable of doing it again.
