Georgia fans upset with Kirby Smart after questionable decisions in loss to South Carolina
Georgia fans weren’t happy with Kirby Smart on Saturday, as several questionable decisions seemed to hurt the Bulldogs in a loss to South Carolina.
Fans booed some of the play-calling earlier in the game, when Georgia was running the ball too much for those watching. Then, the Dawgs opted to run another play instead of giving K Rodrigo Blankenship a chance to kick a long field goal for the win.
In overtime, things didn’t go the Dawgs’ way either, and after the game, fans took to Twitter to question their coach. As you can see below, there were quite a few comparisons to former Georgia coach Mark Richt:
Kirby is Richt 2.0 change my mind
— Hunter Thomas (@hunterduckjayco) October 12, 2019
Kirby pulled a Mark Richt today
— Gonzo (@grant_troupe) October 12, 2019
Kirby Kirby Kirby smh pic.twitter.com/6E1xpgq5uW
— Quincy McCall (@MDotBrodie25) October 12, 2019
I’m just going to say it. Kirby is a horrible coach. Great recruiter but can’t coach in big game situations.
— Sean Thompson (@sdthompson23) October 12, 2019
Yo Auburn, I would consider using your backup qb when you play Georgia in a few weeks; Kirby is now 0-3 against backups. pic.twitter.com/jRFHHqzZXD
— Morgan Cahn (@Morgan_Cahn) October 12, 2019
It wouldn’t be Georgia football if Kirby and Fromm didn’t let us down at least once
— Nate Richardson (@NateRichardson3) October 12, 2019
Kirby is Richt with a Muschamp haircut
— Christopher. (@ChristophersZen) October 12, 2019
Kirby Smart = Mark Richt
— Relatable Oddball (@RelatableOddbal) October 12, 2019
3rd year in a row Kirby has lost a game like this. Inexcusable. We didn't look prepared on offense we ran the ball on first and second down pretty much every time & had to make it up on third down every drive. Kirby looking alot like Richt to me
— RIP Net Neutrality & Go Pats & Dawgs &#YNWA (@b_a_saxon) October 12, 2019
Can Georgia bounce back from this loss? We’ll find out starting next week, when the Bulldogs host Kentucky for homecoming.
What I didn’t understand is you kept running the ball into the meat of the defense. Right up the middle on a inside zone run. And you got stuffed 9/10 times. But let’s keep doing it
Hey. It’s the georgia way.
Questionable calls sure. But the turnovers aren’t on Smart. We haven’t looked like ourselves all year.
Preseason the media said not having receivers was gonna hurt Georgia and I think that was some of the problem. No big time threats on the outside. That and the amount of “shoulda been Catches”
The one in the first OT hurts for sure. We go from a first down to a turnover and luckily a missed fg
Man forget the excuses!! SC beat georgia with a running back playing QB IN ATHENS!! End of story!
Defense actually did their job. The offense was putrid and embarrassing.
I’m just trying to find the excuse.
You seem to misunderstand the distinction between “making excuses” and “taking responsibility.” I have yet to hear a single Georgia fan blame this loss on the refs, dirty players from the other team, the weather, Injuries, or any other random thing they might find to shift blame. On the contrary, I have seen (as this article demonstrates) Georgia fans pointing to game mismanagement by OUR head coach, sloppy passing and receiving by OUR QB/WRs, predictable vanilla play-calling by OUR OC, and lack of execution by OUR kicker. Additionally, I’ve heard GA fans credit the preparation of the SC coaching staff, the motivation and heart of both SC QBs, the lights out defense from the SC front and secondary, and the resilience to keep fighting when bad calls didn’t go their way (because that’s actually what the poor officiating impacted).
If you’re going to troll, you should at least make an effort to sound intelligent.
We haven’t looked like ourselves all year. (Another guy who forgets that UGA lost 3 games against a very manageable schedule in 2017.)
Sigh.
> We haven’t looked like ourselves all year.
Okay, but at what point do you just accept that you have a new look?
Correction: You’ve looked exactly like yourselves this year. Hate to break it to ya buddy, but the last 2 years were the outliers…
I understand. It was Mark Richt, now it’s Kirby Smart. We had one called Les Miles. Fromm was off target several times, too.
In Smart we still trust, hopefully this was our one bad week this season. Would’ve rather it come against Florida or auburn but now we see what our guys are made of.
Kirby Smart, nah……Kirby Dumb! LOLOL!!!
It’s looking real rough for the SEC today… Gotta say I agree that Kirby was revisiting that Kick 6 in the Iron Bowl and got nervous- cost the Bulldogs the W
Smart recruits so well, the team has elite talent all over the field…. but he gets out coached by Muschamp, and loses to 3-star talent lead by a 3rd string backup. Do these losses eventually affect his ability to recruit at such a high level?
The main issue: it was a generational situation with Sony Michel and Nick Chubb. Individually Michel and Chubb weren’t generational talents per se … though Chubb may have been prior to the knee injures. But having two upperclassmen tailbacks that same caliber at the same time is extremely rare. You had Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders in the same backfield at Oklahoma State in the 1980s. You had Clinton Portis and Willis McGahee in the same backfield at Miami. You had Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams in the same Auburn backfield. But that’s it.
Michel and Chubb made everything about UGA – the defense, the coaching, the WRs, the OL, a young QB named Jake Fromm – look better than it actually was. With those two, they could still call running plays right up the gut against good defenses who knew that it was coming and still get not only first downs, but 40-50 yard runs at times. That hasn’t happened since, and this is why UGA has been looking ragged on offense ever since.
One thing about Richt is that by the time he finally adapted … it was too late. (Plus some things, like his terrible recruiting at DT and OT, he never adapted.) If Smart adapts quickly he can still win a title at UGA.
I agree with you about Chubb and Michel effect. But Kirby has the benefit of a new playoff system. Richt had two teams, maybe a third, that would have been in the CFP if it had existed. I’m not saying any of them would have won it all, but those teams would have had the chance. I not sure Kirby will ever be a good big game coach.
Richt may have gone 13-1 in 2002 and had the two losses to LSU in 2003, but the SEC wasn’t nearly as good back then. In 2002, UGA and on-probation Alabama were the only teams in the SEC to lose less than 4 games. UGA, Auburn and Bama were the only ones to lose less than 5! The league was a bit better in 2003, but still after LSU there were 3 loss UGA, Tennessee and Ole Miss teams and not much else.
Everyone talks about that 2007 UGA team … why? They lost at home to a South Carolina team that didn’t even go to a bowl game, and got hammered 35-14 by Tennessee. The best teams they beat that year were 9-4 Auburn and 9-4 Florida. UGA fans’ insane troll logic (hat tip to TV Tropes) is that they should have played for the national title … because they won their last 6 games in a row. Never mind they finished #2 in their DIVISION.
Now 2012 was Mark Richt’s best team. It had his best QB in Murray and his second best player in Gurley. (A.J. Green was his best player overall.) But yeah, they lost 35-7 to South Carolina and the SEC West teams that year were 3-9 Auburn and 7-6 Ole Miss. Meaning that UGA was 1-2 against GOOD teams in 2012 (with the sole victory being over Muschamp and Florida).
Sorry but the people who claim that Richt would have made the playoff at UGA forget that Richt only beat a top 5 team once his entire career at UGA: LSU in the 2005 SECCG. (And that was the LSU team that had its season wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, not to mention JaMarcus Russell concealing the fact that he had a broken wrist on his throwing hand because he knew that if Matt Flynn got the starting job he wasn’t giving it up.)
Wow props you remembered Cadillac and Ronnie.
SC! SC!! SC!!!
This comment is directed only to that smug, Georgia troll. Y’all know the one. Hope he sees it:
PApEr dAWgS FoLD anD eXpOSe HOw sUbpAR THeY aRE
HA HA HA!!!!!
Lol
That isn’t a Georgia troll. That’s somebody making fun of Georgia trolls. I can’t believe people haven’t figured that out.
Until Kirby changes is philosophy I’m afraid we’re going to be Les Miles LSU
Until the East is officially lost, we’re still the premier team of the East. Let’s not overreact over one game. We still control our fate.
Yeah, but so does half the East now
@UGAlien: you’re definitely not the premier team in the East. You’re ranked behind the Gators, and Missouri leads the conference. The way Missouri’s playing, I’m afraid they’re going to beat both of us.
UGA fans were booing because they didn’t try a 60 yard field goal. UGA has spent 200 million dollars trying to get a Natty. Wait till next year, LOL.
UCF fan here… hold my beer
(our whinny, newer fans are pulling the same on Heupel now, ignoring Frost’s first year and his decisions to start the ‘inexperienced QB’)
It’s freak’n hard to go undefeated, in any conference. And in the SEC, it’s the most difficult, by a wide margin.
Even against an unranked SEC team (okay, maybe not Arkansas)
Don’t feel too bad Jawja fans, a few weeks ago, Gamecock Nation wanted Muschamp gone too.