Kirby Smart jokes about Georgia defense’s struggles on 3rd down
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Kirby Smart and Georgia will host Ole Miss in a Top 10 battle between the hedges on Saturday afternoon.
And if there’s one area the Bulldogs feel they can improve on, it’s their third-down defense.
Entering Saturday’s game, Georgia is 100th out of 136 teams in opponents’ third-down conversion percentage. Alabama was 13-of-19 on third downs in its Week 4 win over Georgia, the Dawgs’ only loss to this point. Even Auburn, which lost to the Dawgs in Week 7, was 8-17 on third-down situations. More notably, the Rebels are No. 10 in the country in third-down conversion percentage.
Kirby Smart made light of the Dawgs’ struggles on third-down defense during a live appearance on ESPN’s “College GameDay” from UGA’s Myers Quad, especially as it pertains to putting in the right personnel.
“I don’t know if they care. We’re so bad on third down, they want us to get our guys on the field,” he said. “They may go real slow to get the guys out there, ’cause we haven’t been real effective getting people off the field on third down. That’s something we gotta improve on.”
Third-down situations have certainly been a point of emphasis for Lane Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. in the lead-up to the game. We’ll see if the Dawgs show improvement on Saturday.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
