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Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs were knocked out of the College Football Playoff on Thursday night. The Bulldogs fell to Notre Dame by a score of 23-10 in the Sugar Bowl and had their dreams of another title dashed.
Late in the 4th quarter, the Bulldogs were in a 23-10 hole but looked to be on the verge of getting the ball back. The Irish were pinned deep in their own territory and lined up to punt. However, the team quickly did a full 11-man substitution which prompted the Bulldogs to substitute as well. The Georgia defense was confused, and Riley Leonard was able to draw the Bulldogs offsides.
This tricky maneuver essentially ended the Bulldogs’ chances of a late-game comeback. After the game, Smart was asked about this sequence.
“It’s really unfortunate because I’ve been told by our head officials in the SEC you can’t do that, you can’t run 11 on and 11 off,” Kirby Smart said. “We did that in 2017 against Tennessee, we practiced that and repped that because teams try to do it, and we were told you could not do that.”
The penalty was called with just under 8 minutes to play, meaning the Bulldogs could have gotten the ball back with around 7 and a half minutes to play. Instead, the Irish utilized their fresh set of downs and didn’t give the ball back to the Bulldogs until after the 2-minute timeout. Down 2 scores, a comeback was extremely unlikely at that point.
“We jumped offsides, you know, but we were also told you couldn’t do that in our league,” Smart concluded.
The Bulldogs end their season with an 11-3 record while the Irish advance to play Penn State in the Orange Bowl.
Bryce Lazenby covers college football for Saturday Down South. A Nashville native, his previous stops include FanSided, Dimers, and The Leaf-Chronicle.
