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With everything on the line, a flawed Georgia team was exposed by Notre Dame
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Georgia’s warts were evident heading into Thursday night. It was just easy to overlook them.
It was easy to overlook the fact that the Dawgs hadn’t been the dominant run defense that they had been in years past, or that Georgia’s offense often treated the first 30 minutes like a spring walk-through. Shoot, it was even easy to overlook the fact that Gunner Stockton was getting his first career start in place of the injured Carson Beck. After all, this was the UGA team that watched a backup QB (Stetson Bennett IV) turn into one of the most clutch players of the 21st century. The way Stockton was being hyped up by teammates and coaches, one would have thought he was ready to lead UGA through a brick wall.
But above all else, this was Kirby Smart. Like, the guy who was 35-1 vs. non-SEC teams since Georgia started this run in 2017. The lone loss to a non-SEC team in that stretch was to Texas at the end of the 2018 season in the Sugar Bowl. It was one thing to drop the occasional SEC game, but outside of that? Nah. Even a flawed UGA team would find a way.
Go figure that 6 years later, that’s exactly where UGA finally fell victim to someone outside the SEC.
Notre Dame was, whether UGA fans wanted to acknowledge it or not, a brutal matchup for the 2024 version of Smart’s team. That played out over the course of 60 minutes with a 23-10 loss Thursday.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, defensive coordinator Al Golden, quarterback Riley Leonard, anybody who lined up across Georgia’s left tackle, etc. They all played a role in exposing the flawed Dawgs and ending their path to a national title.
Georgia couldn’t even stay disciplined enough to avoid an offsides penalty when the Irish were deep in their own territory and shuffling formations to confuse UGA with a 13-point lead in the middle of the 4th quarter. Mind you, that was Butkus Award winner Jalon Walker who committed the cardinal sin of stepping across the line of scrimmage when Notre Dame had no business snapping the ball.
But that play wasn’t the reason that UGA lost. It wasn’t even the drop issues — Dillon Bell’s awful drop was made up for when Cash Jones caught UGA’s lone touchdown a few plays later — and as baffling as it was, it wasn’t even Parker Jones, AKA the inactive walk-on who interfered with an official during a long pass play by Arian Smith and earned a 15-yard sideline warning penalty.
Yeah, even Georgia’s inactive walk-ons had a night that they’d like to forget.
That’s what Thursday will be remembered as, backup quarterback or not. We didn’t have enough evidence of the 2024 version of Beck to suggest that he would’ve been the difference outside of perhaps sensing backside pressure when Stockton fumbled deep in UGA territory with 39 seconds left in the first half.
(That’s the exact scenario that injured Beck’s elbow on the last play before halftime in the SEC Championship.)
Blame OC Mike Bobo for dialing up pass play in that spot with a struggling left tackle and a first-time starter at quarterback in a 6-3 game. Blame Smart for not overruling. Georgia failed there, too. Instead of being content to take a 3-point deficit into the locker room, UGA trailed by double digits and never quite came back like it did the previous 2 games when it trailed at halftime vs. Texas and Georgia Tech. This UGA team, which was the preseason No. 1 team in America, trailed at the half 6 times in 12 games vs. Power Conference competition.
Speaking of that preseason No. 1 ranking, UGA’s season-ending loss marked the 19th time in the past 20 years that the preseason AP No. 1 team failed to win a national title. Three of those 19 seasons belong to UGA, and the lone preseason AP No. 1 who won it all was … 2017 Alabama.
Sorry, we don’t need to go there.
That team 7 years ago could have obviously pointed to a play here or there as the difference between winning a title. You could argue the same thing about last year’s team, which suffered a loss at the only time when it couldn’t afford to do so. This team got a first-round bye — something that proved to be quite useless with all 4 of those teams losing in the quarterfinals — and didn’t come close to a title. A 13-point loss in a quarterfinal game should eliminate the notion that UGA was a break or a call from being the last team standing.
This Georgia team didn’t come out firing with extra rest. Sure, there were some big-time defensive plays made (Walker’s late offsides gaffe overshadowed an otherwise banner showing) and Stockton showed some nice poise in moments during the first half. But UGA wasn’t built to beat 3 consecutive elite teams en route to a title. It was too inconsistent from quarter to quarter — and even from possession to possession — to get through the Playoff.
Many of us (myself included) overlooked it because everyone had flaws. Oregon was considered the closest team to “flawless” and it got boat-raced in a rematch against Ohio State. Three of the 4 semifinal teams suffered 2 pre-Playoff losses. The team that didn’t? Notre Dame, AKA the team that lost as a 28-point favorite at home to Northern Illinois. The national champ will be a team that was written off at some point.
We might not have written UGA off completely, but we at least questioned it at different points this season. Whether that was the beatdown at Ole Miss, the double-digit deficit at home vs. Tennessee or the 17-0 halftime deficit at home against Georgia Tech, there were a handful of moments in which it was justified to wonder if UGA would ever find that championship gear. Like, the one that Notre Dame found after Northern Illinois.
We got our answer Thursday night.
Call them warts or call them flaws. Whatever they were, UGA didn’t leave them in 2024. They followed UGA into the new year.
It took Notre Dame to shine a light on them for everyone to see.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
