Lane Kiffin chimes in on controversial UGA 4th down call
By Jacob Moss
Published:
It seems like a bit of an overstatement to say that this past Saturday’s matchup between Alabama and Georgia all boiled down to a single play, but in many ways that’s exactly what happened.
With time dwindling and the Dawgs threatening deep within Bama territory, junior quarterback Gunner Stockton took off on a scramble and was ruled just short of the line to gain on third down.
Instead of waiting for a review on the spot or running out the field goal team for an attempt to tie the game, though, head coach Kirby Smart decided to rush up to the line and attempt a fourth down conversion.
Senior running back Cash Jones was tackled behind the line of scrimmage, though, and that put the entire game to bed for the Dawgs.
In the wake of the loss, just about everybody has come out with their own opinion on the questionable decision from Smart, and that includes Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, who spoke about the decision with Kirk Herbstreit on the Nonstop podcast.
“When you go really fast, like what Kirby eventually did there, he had to make the decision what to do,” Kiffin said. “And then he must’ve told it to the coordinator. And the coordinator said, OK, run gas, whatever. You know, put everybody into the boundary, run the zone play.”
Kiffin also stated that while going fast like this has the potential to catch the defense off guard, it can also lead to the offense not being entirely prepared, and the tackle being beaten to his spot.
“When you go fast like that and you give exotic formations and everybody’s got to run into the boundary, you screw the defense up more, but you’re also not going to be able to get the perfect look sometimes because everything’s so fast and you’re just snapping the ball. Sometimes, the right tackle might get beat.”
At the end of the day, games like these are usually won in the margins, and whoever can execute on one particular play better than the other ends up winning.
Bama simply executed better than Georgia on the biggest play of the drive, and that’s all that really matters.
