The No. 1 question Kirby Smart is facing after losing to Florida? Paul Finebaum weighs in
The Georgia Bulldogs came into the season with legitimate national title hopes and a stout defense.
However, offensive struggles and injuries on defense doomed the Dawgs in a 44-28 loss to rival Florida in Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon. Now, the questions will start up about coach Kirby Smart’s handling of things.
On Sunday morning’s SportsCenter, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said the biggest questions Smart will face this week will involve letting QB Justin Fields get away:
“Rightly or wrongly, this question will come up early and often — How did you let Justin Fields get out of your program?” Finebaum questioned. “Two years ago, Justin Fields was the backup to Jake Fromm. He played sparingly in the Florida-Georgia game, and the idea that Kirby went with Jake Fromm made some sense at the time. Georgia fans and fans around the country have to be wondering how did you do that, because Georgia would probably be No. 1 in the country right now if they had Justin Fields at quarterback. Instead, they’re done. They’re not going to the SEC title game, and the hopes of winning another title are gone.”
Georgia’s quarterback play the past 3 games has indeed left much to be desired. It proved too much to overcome on Saturday. Will it hurt them again in the coming weeks?
Fields was not a good match for Kirbys backward, outdated offensive philosophies. Quite frankly, a community college washout like Bennet perfectly fits the UGA Tecmo Offense. No offensive skill player in their right mind would doom their career signing with Smart.
Take that L you wannabes
You sound hurt on a personal level.
This is just dumb on Finebaum’s part. How many times is the media going to beat this dead horse. Fields is long gone. The right question is, who is the QB going forward. But, the media is full of idiots so I’m sure we will keep hearing about Fields.
I believe the reason the media continues harping on the fields transfer is because of the Dawgs problems at the Quarterback position & of course the Jamie/JT situation. Some decisions will haunt a coach.
The Fields decision should haunt Kirby. There is this narrative in the fanbase that Fromm got us to the championship game. That is not true. He was a glorified game manager in 2017. Nick, Sony, and the defense were the driving force to UGA getting to the championship game. Fromm like qb’s tend to do got way to much credit for that. He got worse each season after 2017.
It probably needs to be JTD but KS won’t let him get reps with the ones. It’s a catch 22.
Agree. Finebaum is the third national pundit over the past few days to bring up Justin Fields. Fields chose to leave – Kirby didn’t dismiss him. I’m certain Kirby tried to get him to stay. Questions about the UGA QB position shouldn’t have anything to do with Fields. It’s completely legit to ask Kirby why a team who recruits as well as UGA apparently has no one who is competent at the position.
Once again, the completely irrelevant comments about Fields. If Fields fails to win the CFP this year, does that make him a terrible QB or Ryan Day a terrible coach? NO. Three things Kirby had no way to know, and neither did Ichabod Finebaum or most fans:
1. Fromm leaving after Junior year
2. Newman quitting/getting beat out
3. JT Daniels not healthy.
Smart said after the game that Daniels is healthy. He is just not as good as Bennett and whoever that was that came in after him and impersonated a SEC QB. Think about that, UGA fans.
Forget Newman and Fields. If the two goons that played yesterday are the best quarterbacks Kirby has in year 5 it means he’s a bad coach that happens to be good at recruiting and coaching linebackers – also known as a defensive coordinator.
Amen.
Serious question: why do all these highly regarded receivers and tight ends forget how to catch the ball when they get to Athens? Doesn’t help any QB when every ball they throw is a 50/50 even when the receiver is wide open and the ball hits him right in the hands.
I think the bigger issue is the regression of offensive players. Freshman Fromm was better than Junior Fromm. Pickens or any WR in the system for multiple years. We saw this with Muschamp, both Brissett and Driskel ended up starting in the NFL, Demarcus Robinson! You can’t continue to switch offensive coord/coaches and expect development.
When is the Dawgs going to move away from this ancient Offensive Scheme
When is the…..lmao, you def write like a dawg fan…Go Gators chumps
Kirby felt he owed Jake because he was responsible for talking him into de-committing from Bamma.
Kirby has been at UGA for 5 years and he finds himself without a QB, similar to sharkhumper when Grier was suspended. Actually worse cause that happened in mac’s first or second season. Great recruiting by Kirby and yet he finds himself in this position. Bad management, bad decisions and bad QB development
Nail meet hammer. Nice take RealCo
Justin Fields transfer says more negative about him than Kirby Smart. I hate the transfer rule. Kirby had a quarterback who had taken them to the final four. He remained loyal to Jake Fromm and it was the right decision. Fields should have stayed and honored his commitment. Had he done so, Georgia would have had a great shot at winning it all. Selfishness is not an admirable trait. Loyalty is.
Yeah…sit behind someone you are clearly better than…gotcha.
Bootheel, that’s one of the dumbest posts I’ve seen in a while. Stay with a coach that uses you on fake punts? He threw 41 TDs last year and is going to be a Heisman finalist. Fields made the right move. As did Eason. Bangs and his boys can’t develop offensive talent. Why do you think Chubb and Sony had to stay for their senior years.
bootheelhog, you can’t be f*cking serious…How many jobs have you had in your life. Did you stay on the first job your worked? Players should have rights to leave this is not 19 f*cking 80 bro…Fields is in a perfect spot for him and he will probably win the Heisman. So were you selfish seeking other job opportunities.. Fields didn’t owe Kirby or UGA Loyalty, they didn’t show him loyalty and this is why they are sucking at QB…Daniels is probably trash and explains why he is not playing..He was beat out at USC for a reason, you guys can say injury but I think they went with the better QB…Newman probably saw how Kirby was f*cking up the offense and he probably heard from Fields on how Kirby was and bounced…Many of you said JT Daniels beat him out, Daniels can’t even beat out a short ass 2 star walkon…or erractic Mathis…Man this is a 9-2 season and we should be happy with that…
I really think Kirby is at a point now where he can’t won’t/can’t play Daniels. If he does and he performs well, the fan base will crucify him for not playing him sooner…and let’s face it JT can’t play worse than the two QBs playing in front of him.
His excuse for playing him right now is that he is not getting the reps in practice to allow him to play on Saturdays. Of course he is not getting them solely due to fact Kirby is not giving them to him. Common sense says that when your current QB’s basically give you a 0% chance of winning a must win game to have any hope of making the playoffs, you at least give another QB a shot.
The fact that Smart is not doing so is completely absurd. In my opinion it is primarily due to pig-headed stubbornness on his part.
So this means Missouri got a chance to beat Georgia this Saturday?