Everything Georgia coach Kirby Smart said after losing to Notre Dame in Sugar Bowl

NEW ORLEANS — It’s not often in Kirby Smart‘s head coaching career at Georgia he’s had to answer for his team looking inept and incapable of winning a big game. Notre Dame, on the other hand, met the moment and beat the Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl, 23-10, on Thursday.

Here’s everything Smart said after the loss.

Opening statement

“I want to open with a lot of credit to Notre Dame and their staff and their team. They played exactly like we expected them to play: Physical, tough, don’t beat yourself. And they did that. They did those exact things. 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. 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.

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.

So, 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.”

On the final minute of the first half

“Typically when you’re down, you need every possession you can have. And 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.

“So 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. And 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.”

More on deciding to throw in the final minute of the first half after Georgia hadn’t been moving the ball

“No, I don’t think so. I think we did move the ball. We turned it over. We had more yards than they did at the time, and we had more passing yards than they did at the time. So I don’t see it as just going to the shell.

We got an opportunity — we got timeouts. We got an opportunity to go score. We worked two-minute every week, and we stay aggressive with it. We’ve got a really good pass pro team, and we didn’t pick him up on that play. Made a great rush, and he got a sack and fumble. I don’t question that call because I really agree with the decision to be aggressive and try to go score.”

On Notre Dame’s kickoff return touchdown to start the second half

“Well, 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. And that’s what football is. It’s fundamentals and tackling. We tackle him there, then we got a chance to stop them. But obviously, it played a huge momentum swing for them, but our guys didn’t shy away.”

On not calling a timeout before Notre Dame got Georgia to jump offsides on fourth and 1

“Didn’t want to because that’s what they wanted. They wanted us to burn a timeout there and try to do it. And we subbed. So 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. And so we were trying to say you couldn’t do it. 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.”

On Notre Dame winning the game with 90 passing yards

“Yeah, when you have two turnovers and a kickoff return for a touchdown, that’s what happens. I mean, I have been part of those games. I’ve been part of really good defenses, and they stop people. And we weren’t able to get a lot going.

And the turnovers are the difference in the game, guys. It’s not an exact science. I mean, you should know when you turn it over twice and they return a kickoff for a touchdown, you’re not going to have a lot of success.”

On Georgia’s sideline interference penalty that cost the Bulldogs 15 yards and forced them to kick of field goal

“Yeah, very unfortunate. We had — they said a coach but I think it was a player, from what I’ve been told — in the white, and the white is reserved for the officials. That’s a safety concern.

“Most of the time, they’ll grant you a warning on that; but it was not a — it was a situation where it cost us 15 yards. We still had first and ten and didn’t take advantage of it.

“But, again, I call those things undisciplined, self-imposed wounds that you lose momentum on. So, it’s just something you can’t have happen.”

On Notre Dame forcing Georgia off balance on many occasions

“I think everybody is as good a football team as that. I don’t think that’s a Notre Dame trait. I mean, every team we play in our league, they’re going to try to create a competitive advantage.

“We knew they were really aggressive on special teams with what they do. They come after kicks. They had two roughing the kickers that were running into the kicker. That’s a subjective call, right? So that’s a decision he has to make as to what it is. Those could be first downs.

“But there’s nothing different they do that’s — I mean, we prepare for it, you try to out-execute people. We had the same situation as them.”

On Notre Dame running 11 on and 11 off and what he got from the refs on if that’s legal

“Never gave me a real clear answer. Never gave me a real clear answer.”

On the play of Georgia QB Gunner Stockton

“Gunner did some good things. Any time you don’t have pass pro, it’s tough. He had some tough moments out there. When it’s your backside and you can’t see it coming, it’s tough. I thought he tucked it down and ran. He got us out of a couple sacks with his feet and legs, threw the ball away. Did some good things there. But obviously it wasn’t enough with the two turnovers, and we’ve got to be better for sure.”

On Georgia’s long layoff while Notre Dame had less time between games

“I really didn’t. I really didn’t. I thought we tackled well as a defense, better than I expected. We built a wall on the run game. They had some success with quarterback run late and got some things out as we started to take more chances.

“But I thought our guys were in good shape, good condition. I wouldn’t change anything we did leading up to it. I mean, I thought that our preparation was good. We got to run extra yesterday. I was really pleased with that. All the players felt confident about that. I did not think we had a conditioning issue, and I did not think it was a tackling issue. We did miss one on the kickoff, but that was an offensive player. He doesn’t tackle as much as anybody because he plays on offense.”