Kirby Smart doesn’t exactly have a reputation as a riverboat gambler. He plays the percentages, tries to avoid mistakes, and generally likes to give his talented and tough football teams a chance to win at the end.
Which is why it was a little surprising tonight to watch him roll the dice three times in under three minutes to utterly eviscerate a Texas team that thought they just might have the Dawgs where they wanted them. With the game on the line a Texas team that trailed 14-10 and thought they were about to put the ball back in the hands of a newly confident Arch Manning instead surrendered two fourth down conversions and lost an onside kick that no one but cagey ole Kirby saw coming.
The result was a 21-0 explosion that allowed the Red and Black to cruise to a 35-10 route in a game that was still very much in doubt headed to the fourth quarter. Life comes at you fast, especially when Kirby Smart is doing his best Kenny Rogers gambler impression.
Asked after the game about his decision to go for it on 4th and 1 in his own territory, then 4th and 5 just past midfield, Smart told Holly Rowe “You gotta be aggressive to win. This league is tight and the margins are small.”
The margin was indeed small in this one, right up until it wasn’t. Georgia only trailed once, in the first quarter when Texas opened up with a field goal then surrendered a Bulldog touchdown. But the Longhorns were never really out of it in the first half, despite a pair of Gunners Stockton touchdown passes to Noah Thomas. It felt like Mike Bobo got a little conservative in the second quarter, and then coming out in the third. A crisp Texas drive and an Arch Manning touchdown pass and suddenly we had a ball game.
Right up until we didn’t.
Gunner Stockton’s win the battle of the quarterbacks, and won it handily. Stockton finished a crisp 24 for 29 passing for 229 yards and 4 touchdowns. He did have one poor interception, on which he locked on a receiver and missed a linebacker floating back into the pattern. But all in all Stockton continued to look more confident with the ball in his hands, and again distributed the ball throughout the lineup.
Reputed golden boy Arch Manning on the other hand was harassed by the Bulldog defense most of the night. He finished 27 of 43 passing for 251 yards, but 64 of those came on the Burnt Orange’s last, futile drive after the game was already well in hand. Manning may yet become an All-American quarterback and an NFL star. But on this night he was outplayed by a gutsy kid from Rabun County eho’s been disrespected all season.
Manning may have had a better night if the Texas offense had been able to take some pressure off him with a competent run game. They decidedly were not able to offer that. The ‘Horns managed an anemic 23 yards rushing on 17 attempts, never really committing to the run, but also never really sniffing success when they did.
Georgia was playing better football than Texas before the dam broke in the fourth quarter, and the stats bear that out. We talked all week about penalties and special teams being likely keys. Well, the Longhorns stumbled to 9 penalties for 53 yards, while the Dawgs didn’t commit a penalty until Zion Branch was flagged for defensive pass interference on the visitors’ only touchdown drive late in the third. The special teams portion of the equation came shortly thereafter when Georgia called an onside kick after going up by 11 points and caught Texas napping. Cash Jones recovered a perfectly placed Woodring kick with ease, and it felt like the Fightin’ Sarkisians were done from that point on.
Barring a total collapse with losses to Charlotte and Georgia Tech the Dawgs have likely punched their ticket to the College Football Playoff. More importantly, they look like a team that is playing its best football and getting healthy at just the right time. Kirby Smart cajoled just enough out of his young team in the early going and now has them playing like veterans. We absolutely shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves here, but this team is starting to look like a fair matchup for just about anyone. I’m not sure even dice throwing gambler Kirby Smart would have bet on that at the beginning of the season. Until later…
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
