Kirby Smart answers pivotal questions many Georgia Bulldogs fans had following playoff loss to Ole Miss Rebels

Georgia’s third down call near the end of the game and the fourth down fumble situation needed to be addressed and Kirby Smart didn’t hold back

Travis May — College Football Managing Editor
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Georgia Bulldogs Official Postgame Press Conference – College Football Playoff Quarterfinal

The Georgia Bulldogs lost a heartbreaking 39-34 game to the Ole Miss Rebels in the quarterfinal Sugar Bowl matchup of the College Football Playoff. Georgia’s players all played their hearts out, some of them posting career performances, but ultimately the Bulldogs were one-and-done in the playoff once again.

Kirby Smart answered two pivotal questions that many fans and media had following Georgia’s loss. There are always critical moments that seem to the define big games. Obviously, the botched fourth down conversion attempt in the fourth quarter that led to a Gunner Stockton fumble and the final third down pass at the goal line (before Georgia tied the game at 34-34) needed to be addressed.

Kirby Smart wanted to play to win the game at the goal line

One of the first questions that Kirby Smart faced after the disappointing loss to Ole Miss was about the decision to pass on third down at the six-yard line with 59 seconds to go in the game rather than run it. Had Georgia just run the ball (even if they didn’t get the touchdown), the clock could have run down much further, giving Ole Miss virtually zero time to go down the field and score. Instead the Bulldogs passed it. It was incomplete to Oscar Delp. Georgia tied the ball game at 34 with a field goal. Unfortunately for Georgia fans, Trinidad Chambliss pulled off more late-game magic, and Ole Miss went down and kicked the game-winning field goal. Still, Kirby Smart defended the decision confidently:

“We wanted to score a touchdown. I think we were on the three or four. We wanted to score and win. I mean, the book says, ‘Go win the game’. We talked about it in between. I talked about calling a timeout. Run it. They don’t have timeouts. Ease the clock down. You’re playing for a tie doing that, right? I just don’t believe in playing for a tie. We didn’t complete it, but we knew we were going to leave them time on the clock. We felt like defensively we were playing well. It was [essentially] a two-point play to win the Sugar Bowl — or at least have a chance to win the Sugar Bowl because they would have gotten the ball back.”

Coach Smart continued later on in the press conference, expanding on not just the third down pass call, but the second down run call as well. It was clear that every decision made down the stretch there for Georgia was about playing for the win — not just playing for a shot at overtime:

“We’re number one or two in red zone offense, scoring touchdowns. What do we do well? We run it. That’s what we do well. We run it down [in the red zone] really well. It’s not very far you get to throw it. We’ve been really, really good at running and do it. By doing that, you also force them to call timeout — assuming they stop you. If they don’t stop us, then they’ve got time on the clock to go out there and run their two-minute offense and try to score back. They burnt two timeouts. They were out of timeouts. The decision was, ‘Do we run it on third down and just play for a tie?’ It’s hard to run the ball in from third and [six]. I liked the call. I like the play. I liked us going to win the game because I felt like if we scored there and we kicked it, then we’re up. They’ve got to score a touchdown to beat us. I’ll take that every time with our defense.”

Georgia fans can second guess coach Smart’s decisions all they want to down there at the end of the game, but the points are valid. Georgia is elite at red zone rushing, so running it on second down made all kinds of sense rather than just firing for the end zone. Going for it with a pass on third down at the six to win the game in that moment is analytically the right decision as opposed to simply playing for a tie and overtime — essentially another coin flip situation. The outcome was difficult to accept, but the decision making was sound.

Gunner Stockton’s fumble on fourth down shouldn’t have happened

The end-of-game decision making may have spot on from Smart and the Bulldogs, but it clearly was not with the fourth down situation that led to Gunner Stockton’s fumble and another Ole Miss touchdown shortly after. It was about halfway through the fourth quarter. Fourth down and two on the Bulldogs’ 33-yard line. Georgia could have just brought the punt team out, but they left the offense out there. At first, it seemed Georgia was just going to try and pull Ole Miss offsides, but Gunner Stockton decided to snap the ball anyway. The Bulldogs’ offense line just decided not to block star linebacker Suntarine Perkins off the edge, Stockton was sacked, and fumbled the ball away.

Kirby Smart clarified that they screwed that situation up. In fact, the ball was not supposed to be snapped at all there, but Smart didn’t point any fingers at his players:

“We screwed [that fourth down] up a little bit. We had a misfire there. It was a change-up from the look we had done twice. We knew teams were going to sit back and not honor us because we had not snapped it on those plays two different times. The ball was not supposed to be snapped in that situation, but that was on us as coaches. It was on me and our guys. It’s not on the players. Gunner and those guys did a nice job executing it, but we did feel like we had lost momentum at that point. The book says we needed to go for it. There’s probably another way I would have liked to have gone for it, but we did not execute the situation really well there.”

Smart expanded on the situation later in the press conference following the game, highlighting just how successful Georgia has been at pulling defenders offsides in those situations:

“We’ve made a lot of plays this year in those critical moments where we had guys jump offsides. We’ve gained more possessions than probably anybody in the country by what we’ve done being aggressive and trying to do things that require discipline and execution. We just didn’t execute that one…That did not cost us the game, let me assure you, because we came back, scored, kicked another one, got the game tied, had a chance to win it, called a good play for the coverage they were in, and we didn’t make the play.”

Kirby Smart can act like that fourth down sack-fumble didn’t lose Georgia the game, but it essentially did. Ole Miss scored immediately, going up by 10 points. Yes, the Georgia Bulldogs came back and tied it, but if that play didn’t happen, the 10-point surge by Gunner Stockton and company might have taken the lead instead of just tying the game.

It’s nice that Smart took the blame — both for the third down play call near the end of the game, and the fourth down fumble situation — but it doesn’t change that Georgia’s season is over. Luckily, this staff and roster will bring back a ton of talent in 2026. Georgia fans should expect to be right back in the mix to win it all again next year too.

We’ll be back with more Georgia Bulldogs coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!

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