Something clearly is amiss with Georgia, and it’s not just coach Kirby Smart bizarrely shoving Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren on the sideline Saturday or taking to task the Bulldogs fan base for its lack of ardor the previous Saturday.
Passes are getting dropped on offense. The defense is blowing assignments. On both sides, penalty flags are flying. Effort, discipline and execution – habits that have defined Smart’s supremely successful tenure – have been found wanting.
“I think that you’ve been beat up on the offensive line,” Georgia great David Pollack and college football analyst told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I think that’s been an issue. Defensively, I think I’ve seen, last week in particular, too many busts, too many guys that were a little confused.”
As the No. 5 Bulldogs prepare for their historic visit to Austin, Texas, to face No. 1 Texas, the Georgia fan base is braced for the seemingly unthinkable – a second loss to fall to 5-2.
Aiyee!
“I think as a fan, you kind of sit back and you want more,” said Pollack, a former ESPN talking head who now shares his opinions on his “David Pollack College Football” YouTube channel. “You’ve seen so much dominance over the years that you’ve kind of been spoiled.”
It’s a point of context that might Georgia fans might mull over – a lot of teams would be over the moon at 5-2. Archrival Georgia Tech, for instance, last started a season 5-2 in 2014. And that year, arguably, was Tech’s best since its 1990 national championship season.
But the Bulldogs have picked a fine year to be less than their best. In nearly any season before this one, a second regular-season loss would virtually disqualify the Bulldogs from national-championship contention. But losing to Texas on Saturday, while not ideal, would not quell Georgia’s highest aspirations.
In the inaugural season of the 12-team College Football Playoff, the Bulldogs will remain in the mix even with a loss to the Longhorns. If Georgia can make it to the end of the regular season at 10-2, the Bulldogs would figure to make the field. During the 10-year era of the four-team CFP, not counting the shortened 2020 season, no fewer than three teams made the top 11 of final CFP rankings each year with at least two regular-season losses. (Top 11 because the 12-team playoff reserves a berth for the five highest-ranking conference champions, meaning a league champion could finish outside the top 12 and still make the field.)
And, with the possible exception of Texas, whom would Georgia have to fear?
“Who’s the team that you go, ‘Man, they’re unbeatable,’” Pollack said. “I don’t see it. The transfer portal and NIL have created more parity than we’ve ever seen – ever – in college football. I think this thing’s going to be won by who gets hot. Like, last in the season, you see teams, they just click. They get it together, they figure it out and you don’t want to play them late.”
The Bulldogs haven’t shown signs of becoming that team, their uninspiring showing against Mississippi State on Saturday at Sanford Stadium the latest demonstration. The maroon-tinted Bulldogs, quite arguably the worst team in the SEC, posted their season scoring high against FBS opponents in the 41-31 loss. They threw for 306 yards, more than they’d compiled against any other power-conference opponent this season. Georgia failed to sack Van Buren after Mississippi State had allowed 4.5 sacks per game against FBS competition.
The UGA defense, which has finished either first or second in the SEC in average yards allowed every season starting in 2017, is seventh. After finishing the past three seasons fourth, third and second in the conference in penalty yards per game, Georgia ranks 14th.
The secondary, having lost Javon Bullard, Kamari Lassiter and Tykee Smith to the NFL, has not played to Smart’s high standards. Georgia ranked first in the SEC in opposing passer rating in 2021, second in 2022 and first in 2023. The Bulldogs rank 10th this season. On Monday, Smart said that the passing defense statistic that he values most is yards per attempt. The Bulldogs’ 7.1 YPA rate is the highest of his tenure.
Smart, whose scheme emphasizes man-to-man coverage, said he can live with not winning every 50/50 ball, “but when you don’t cover someone, period, as a coach, you’re going, ‘What is wrong here?’”
Against Mississippi State, defensive backs were caught watching the ball in the backfield rather than covering their assignments.
“Things that you harp on every day, they happened,” said Smart, whose background is in coaching, and playing in, the secondary.
All that said, even with Texas, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 18 Ole Miss and Georgia Tech still remaining, abandoning hope seems premature. To believe that the secondary and other trouble spots can’t be fixed over the final six games is to considerably undersell Smart and his staff, to say nothing of his team.
Is it too much to think that Smart can figure out a way to solve the consistency problems that have plagued his team?
“That’s an interesting comment I hear from people,” Pollack said. “It’s like, ‘No, they’re not very good.’ Yeah, but teams get better. That’s the whole point.”
Smart could end up placing more responsibility on quarterback Carson Beck.
“I think the identity of this team isn’t going to be ground and pound,” Pollack said. “I think the identity of this team is going to be chuck the ball around.”
Beck did throw two interceptions against Mississippi State, though one was off of a deflection. He had three against Alabama. But since the start of the second half in the loss to the Crimson Tide, he is 78-for-110 passing for 1,038 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions, one of which was an end-of-game attempt against Alabama and another a deflection.
It’s probably also premature to consider Georgia a lock for the CFP field or anything close to it. But with half season to go, betting on Smart seems like the wiser play.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: Photo special to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Photo special to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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