Kirby Smart praises QB Stetson Bennett, looks ahead to Alabama after dominating Michigan
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs absolutely dominated the Michigan Wolverines on Friday night in Miami in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
The Bulldogs beat the Wolverines in the Orange Bowl 34-11. The game didn’t even seem that close.
After the game, Smart spoke with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, saying how proud he was of his team:
“That’s not what it’s about right now, you know what I mean,” he said in response to Rowe’s question about dodging a Gatorade bath. “I’m so happy for these kids, fought their tails off, answered a big question about our team and bouncing back and how you play. There’s a lot of high-character guys on this team and they played their tail off today.
“We’ve got a lot of courageous guys who fight their tail off. Great coaches, great organization. This is for the University of Georgia and really the commitment these guys have shown over the last 3 weeks of working their tails off.”
He also praised starting QB Stetson Bennett IV, who threw for 310 yards, 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions:
“Stetson’s a really good football player,” Smart said. “JT is, too. We’ve got 2 really good quarterbacks. I think the country should know that. Stetson’s made some really good plays with his feet, he’s kept plays alive, he’s a really good quarterback. But so is JT. We’re very fortunate to have both of them.”
Then, Smart took a look ahead to the looming CFP National Championship Game against No. 1 Alabama. Smart said there’s still work to be done to bounce back after the Dawgs’ 41-24 loss to the Tide in the SEC title game:
“We’ve got a lot of things to fix,” he said. “We got to fix some of them over the break. (Alabama) got about a 5-6 hour head start on us. We’ve got to get back to work for what is a really good football team.”
Georgia and Alabama will meet in Indianapolis on Jan. 10 with a national title hanging in the balance.