Kirby Smart hands Mark Stoops his flowers following Georgia's narrow Week 3 win over Kentucky
Leading up to Saturday night, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart preached all week that the Kentucky Wildcats were a tough matchup. However, it was hard for many, including Smart's players, to comprehend his words after the Wildcats were blown away 31-6 by South Carolina one week earlier. Georgia and Kentucky ultimately went head-to-head in […]
Leading up to Saturday night, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart preached all week that the Kentucky Wildcats were a tough matchup.
However, it was hard for many, including Smart's players, to comprehend his words after the Wildcats were blown away 31-6 by South Carolina one week earlier.
Georgia and Kentucky ultimately went head-to-head in front of a rowdy crowd at Kroger Field until the clock hit zero, the Bulldogs barely winning 13-12.
After the game, Smart handed his close friend and Kentucky head coach, Mark Stoops, his flowers for keeping up with the No. 1 ranked team and the overall culture that he's built in Lexington.
"You know, I think I'll open with an immense amount of respect for Coach Stoops and the atmosphere and the culture he's created here," Smart said. "I tried to tell everybody all week, but nobody would listen to me. I know what this team's made out of. I know how tough he coaches. I know several of his coaches on the staff. I've known him for a long time. I have tremendous respect, and when they get disrespected like they did last week and they listen to it for a week, they come out ready to play.I think our kids listened to that. I think they understood it, but I also think it's a tough environment to play in."
It was 6-3 at the half, 9-3 in the third quarter, and 12-6 at the start of the fourth with Georgia trailing behind, until running back Branson Robinson scored the lone touchdown of the game to put the Bulldogs ahead.
Kentucky's defense held Georgia to just 262 total yards, almost pulling off a historic victory. Instead, the Bulldogs put a stop to the Wildcats for the 15th straight time.
Smart credited his own team's culture and his players' resiliency for coming up with a win that was far from easy.
"I'm so proud of the resiliency our kids showed," Smart said. "They never flinched. We thought this would be a blow-by-blow game, and we talked all week about blow-by-blow, delivering more blows than them. We said the first chop of the tree doesn't chop the tree down. It takes sometimes 272 ax chops, and it took every single one tonight to get the job done.
"What I will say is I'm proud of our team. I'm proud of our leadership. I honestly believe we won this game with culture, and the culture of our team never panicked. I saw more leadership tonight than I've seen all season, and you guys have asked me a thousand questions about this team, this, what about this team, this. I don't know much about this team, but I found out more tonight than I've known up to this point,and that makes me extremely proud of how they responded and how they handled some difficult situations."
