Kirby Smart addresses 11-man substitution that caused late game offsides penalty vs Notre Dame
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs were tricked by Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame late in the fourth quarter of the Sugar Bowl when the Irish lined up to punt but instead did a full 11-man substitution. The quick substitution appeared to leave Georgia's defense flustered and drew an offsides penalty. After the game Georgia […]
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs were tricked by Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame late in the fourth quarter of the Sugar Bowl when the Irish lined up to punt but instead did a full 11-man substitution.
The quick substitution appeared to leave Georgia's defense flustered and drew an offsides penalty.
After the game Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked about the penalty and why he didn't call a timeout, revealing that SEC officials had previously told him multiple times he could not substitute for all 11 players on one play.
"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," Smart said. "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."
The costly offsides penalty ultimately shut down any hope for the Bulldogs' late comeback as the Irish took control of the clock to seal a 23-10 victory.
