Georgia’s Kirby Smart sticks his guns when it comes to defending the controversial 4th down call vs Alabama
No regrets.
The Georgia Bulldogs were trailing the Alabama Crimson Tide 24-21 when head coach Kirby Smart made a questionable call on fourth-and-1 on Bama’s 10-yard line.
Instead of bringing out Peyton Woodring to kick an easy field goal attempt to tie the game, Smart kept his offense on the field and had quarterback Gunner Stockton hand the ball off to running back Cash Jones.
Unfortunately, Jones tripped up on the run and fell short of a first down.
Kirby Smart Defends 4th-and-1 Decision
After the game, Smart was asked about his fourth-down decision. Instead of saying Georgia should have taken the easy points, he defended the call by pointing to the Dawgs’ previous success running the same play.
“Yeah, we were third and four, I think. We had decided previous to that if we gained anything, we were going for it,” Smart said following Georgia’s 24-21 loss to the Tide. “We were going to probably kick the field goal if we didn’t get anything. So, there’s a thing called sequencing where you sequence plays to try to set up and know that you’re going to go for it. So, we felt we were going to go for it if we got anything, and we did.
“We got it down to fourth and one, and that play has been really successful for us. I think we hit Tennessee on it three times for a conversion. We’d run it earlier in the night and run it for a conversion. We missed a block that we got to make and they ran through and made a great play to stop it. But I’d do that 10 out of 10 times in terms of going for it. The decision is whether you go for it with tempo or not. We felt like tempo had been really good for us throughout the year.”
It’s easy to pin Georgia’s loss on that single play, but the truth is, the Dawgs had plenty of other chances to take control, and that was just one of many missed opportunities.
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