AUSTIN, Texas — With Saturday’s 30-15 victory over No. 1-ranked Texas, Georgia’s Kirby Smart became one of the fastest ever to win 100 games as a head coach.
The Bulldogs’ ninth-year coach is now 100-17, which ties him with two other coaches for the fifth-fastest to 100 in the history of college football. The other two are Knute Rockne (100-12-5 at Notre Dame) and Chris Petersen (100-17) with Boise State and Washington.
“A lot of credit goes to a lot of people,” said Smart, who then started naming assistant coaches and players. “Sam Pittman, (Jim) Chaney, Dell McGee, Todd Monken; a lot of players — Kamari Lassiter, DeAndre Swift here tonight, (DeAndre) Baker just flooded the sidelines. And so many other people had an involvement in those 100 wins.”
A lot of those wins have come amid a scorching four-year run. Georgia is 52-3 in its last 55 games. A school-record streak of 42 consecutive regular-season wins ended Sept. 28 this season with a 41-34 loss at Alabama.
“It’s pretty cool to hit that number because, when I started, I thought that was unreachable and unattainable,” Smart said. “And now in I don’t know how many, we get there. It’s a credit to this university and the support we have that we’ve been able to do that.”
Georgia has two weeks to get ready for what it hopes is win 101 for Smart. The Bulldogs have a bye next Saturday before facing Florida (4-3, 2-2 SEC) Nov. 2 in Jacksonville (3:30 p.m., ABC).
Here’s more things we learned in Austin over the weekend:
SEC officiating was terrible
In his postgame press conference, Smart was measured in what he said about Saturday night’s officiating. But when asked about it in the heat of the moment as soon as the game ended, he cut right to the point.
“They tried to rob us with the calls in this place,” he said in a postgame interview on ABC’s game broadcast.
It certainly seemed that way. When it was over, Texas actually was flagged more times than Georgia, 8 to 7. But the Longhorns’ infractions were mostly of the procedural variety, totaling 41 yards.
The Bulldogs’ seven included several personal fouls, including two open-field tackles that resulted in targeting calls that disqualified defensive backs Dan Jackson and Joenel Aguero. Both were questionable. And Georgia’s penalties came at particularly bad times. Six of the Longhorns’ 19 first down came via penalties.
But the most controversial officiating decision came when the crew gathered to discuss a defensive pass interference call during the nearly 5-minute delay that resulted from Texas fans throwing bottles and debris on the field in protest. With a replay playing continuously on the giant video board at one end of the field, the crew reversed the non-reviewable penalty.
So egregious and unusual was the call that reporters covering the game asked for a clarification from the SEC office. The SEC provided one nearly an hour after the game concluded, but it offered no clarity on the extremely rare reversal of interference.
The statement:
With 3:12 to play in the third quarter of the Georgia at Texas game, Texas intercepted a pass at the Texas 46-yard line and returned it to the Texas 9-yard line. Texas was flagged for committing defensive pass interference on the play which resulted in Georgia maintaining the ball with a first down.
The game officials gathered to discuss the play, which is permitted to ensure the proper penalty is enforced, at which time the calling official reported that he erred, and a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference. Consequently, Texas was awarded the ball at the Texas 9-yard line.
While the original evaluation and assessment of the penalty was not properly executed, it is unacceptable to have debris thrown on the field at any time.
The disruption of the game due to debris being thrown onto the field will be reviewed by the Conference office related to SEC sportsmanship policies and procedures.
Ultimately, the decision to reverse the call was made on the field by referee Matt Loeffler. The flag was thrown by side judge Jesse Dupuy.
A less enraged Smart made a good point at his postgame press conference with reporters in a room near the Bulldogs’ locker room.
“We’ve set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed,” Smart said. “And that’s unfortunate because, to me, that’s dangerous. That’s not what we want. That’s not criticizing officials; that’s what happened.”
Beck: ‘I’m just off’
With three more interceptions Saturday, Georgia quarterback Carson Beck now has thrown eight in seven games this season. The fifth-year senior had only six in all 14 games last year and entered the 2024 season with eight in his career.
What’s the deal?
“I don’t think he’s doing anything different,” Smart said. “We don’t have some of the same (receivers), you know what I mean? (Beck is) carrying a lot of that burden with him. I thought the offensive line played really good. I thought we ran the ball well. He had a lot of drops. Maybe without the drops, he doesn’t have as many interceptions.”
Georgia receivers had at least four drops Saturday, including two by Dillon Bell on the opening possession. Tight end Lawson Luckie had one hard-thrown, high pass deflect off his hand to be intercepted by a defensive back two yards behind him. A wide-open London Humphreys dropped a well-thrown ball that would have gone for big yardage. Beck’s first one, intended for tight end Ben Yurosek, was thrown behind Yurosek but possibly could have caught it.
Beck is as perplexed as anybody.
“I was just off it felt like the entire game,” Beck said. “I think the fourth quarter, it really started to kick in for the most part. But, I mean, I was just off, and that’s obviously really difficult. Not to say that games like that are going to happen, but you know, I can’t control everything. ... I’ve got to go back and watch film, and I’ve got to get better.”
Heading into Game 8, Beck has completed 66% of 250 passes for 1,993 yards with 15 touchdowns and 8 interceptions.
Defense wreaks havoc
The Longhorns’ offensive line recently was named to the midseason honor roll for the Joe Moore Award. The Bulldogs turned that into the “No Moore Award” Saturday night.
Georgia wreaked havoc on Texas’s vaunted line. The Bulldogs totaled 7 sacks and 10 quarterback hurries. Thanks in large part to the pressure they created on quarterbacks Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning, the Bulldogs were able to produce four turnovers on three fumbles and an interception.
Georgia’s pressure package was helped considerably by the healthy return of defensive end Mykel Williams, who had two sacks Saturday. Slowed by an ankle injury in the season opener, Williams had single-digit snaps in the last two games and came into the game without a sack all season.
With Williams on one side of the defense and inside linebacker Jalon Walker on the other, the Longhorns were guessing where the pressure might come most of the night. Walker had 3 sacks to go with a game-high 8 tackles. Cornerback Daylen Everette added one, which forced a fumble, and outside linebacker Damon Wilson added an 11-yard sack.
“Our ability to win the line of scrimmage and stop the run, we were able to play confidently,” Smart said. “We left 1,000 plays on the back end. You’ve got to make plays on the back end. We’re not finishing plays and that’s frustrating.”
Special teams edge
Smart predicted that special teams could be the difference in Saturday’s game. Indeed, the victorious Bulldogs certainly had the edge in that department.
The exemplary sophomore season of place-kicker Peyton Woodring continued. The Lafayette, Louisiana, native was good on all three of his field goal attempts from 33, 44, and 48 yards at Texas Memorial Stadium. Woodring is now 12-of-13 for the season, with his only miss coming from 55 yards out before the halftime buzzer against Mississippi State on Oct. 12.
Woodring did have one major miscue Saturday. He apparently was asked to squib the kickoff to open the second half. Woodring mishit the ball and sent it directly into the arms of a front-line member of the Texas kickoff return team. The Longhorns would take over at the 45 and scored eight plays later.
Georgia excelled everywhere else. Brett Thorson averaged 54 yards on four punts with two downed inside the 10, Texas had minus-5 yards on punt returns and Georgia returner Anthony Evans had 21 yards on two punt-return opportunities. He was stuffed, however, on one ill-advised kickoff return out of the end zone.
Atlanta RB stars for Gators
Making his first career start while filling in for injured senior Montrell Johnson, Florida freshman running back Jadan Baugh tied a school record with five touchdowns in the Gators’ 48-20 win over Kentucky Saturday.
Baugh, who prepped at Atlanta’s Columbia High, ran for 106 yards in the game. After scoring on 7- and 10- and 1-yard runs in the second quarter, the 6-foot, 227-pound back scored on two more 1-yard plunges in the second half to help the Gators improve to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in SEC play.
After a bye this coming Saturday, Georgia and Florida will renew their 102-game rivalry in Jacksonville on Nov. 2.
NEXT GAME
No. 5 Georgia vs. Florida at Jacksonville, Fla., Nov. 2, ABC, 750 AM, 95.5 FM
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