‘We screwed that up’: Kirby Smart gives his reasoning on third, fourth-down calls

Smart initially sent the punt team out onto the field, only to then run the offense back out in an effort to catch Ole Miss off guard. It’s a move Georgia has employed before. Notre Dame did it to Georgia in this very spot last year.

Georgia center Malachi Toliver ended up snapping the football to Stockton, which Smart later said the redshirt freshman was not supposed to do.

“We screwed that up a little bit. We had a misfire there. It was a change-up from what we had done twice,” Smart said. “And we knew teams were going to sit back and not honor us because we had not snapped it on those plays in two different locations, two different times. And the ball was not supposed to be snapped in that situation. But that was on us as coaches.”

The Georgia quarterback never had a chance to get a pass off as he was sacked and stripped.

Ole Miss would score a touchdown two plays later to go up 34-24.

“We did feel like we lost momentum at that point,” Smart on the decision. “And, you know, the book says we needed to go for it. There’s probably another way I would like to have gone for it, but we did not execute the situation really well there. It was a situation where it gave us an either-or. We didn’t have to snap it. We could take a delay.”

Toliver was Georgia’s backup center, as the Bulldogs were once again without Drew Bobo. He suffered a foot injury in Georgia’s win over Georgia Tech.

Earlier in the game, Georgia converted on a fourth down when it ran a fake punt with Landon Roldan finding Lawson Luckie for a 16-yard gain.

Despite being down 10, Georgia found a way back into the game. Stockton found Zachariah Branch for an 18-yard touchdown with 7:03 remaining. The Georgia defense got a stop, giving the Georgia offense the ball back with 5:26 remaining.

From there, Georgia drove to the Ole Miss 9-yard line with 1:13 remaining. Stockton ran for 6 yards on first down, forcing Ole Miss to call a timeout.

Then Chauncey Bowens was stuffed for a three-yard loss on second down. The Rebels used what was their final timeout, setting up a third-and-goal from the six-yard line with 1:04 remaining.

A running play would have bled at least another 40 seconds off the clock, leaving Ole Miss with likely around 20 seconds remaining in the event Georgia did not score and kicked the short field goal.

Yet, instead, Stockton dropped back to pass. He fired a pass toward Oscar Delp but it was broken up. Even if Ole Miss hadn’t gotten in the way of the pass, Delp had gone out of bounds on the play and would have been flagged for an illegal touching.

Smart was asked what led to the decision to throw the ball instead of running the football.

“We wanted to score and win,” Smart said. “I mean, the book says go win the game. We talked about it in between. I talked about calling a timeout, run it if they don’t have timeouts, ease the clock down. You’re playing for a tie doing that, right? And I just don’t believe in playing for a tie.”

After the Stockton incompletion, Peyton Woodring connected on a 23-yard field goal to tie the game at 34 with 56 seconds remaining.

Ole Miss got the ball back at its own 25-yard line. On a key third-and-5, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss found De’Zhaun Stribling for a 40-yard gain to get Ole Miss to the Georgia 30-yard line.

Ole Miss kicker Lucas Carneiro converted on a 47-yard field goal with six seconds remaining to give the Rebels the winning points.

“We felt like defensively we were playing well,” Smart said. “And to be honest with you, it was a two-point play to win the Sugar Bowl or at least have a chance to win the Sugar Bowl because they would have got the ball back.

“But I feel really good about that. I didn’t want to, you know, run it.”

Georgia had been aggressive on fourth downs throughout the season, having led the country in fourth-down conversion rate. Georgia entered the game second nationally in red zone touchdown percentage as well.

Yet those two areas, where Georgia was so strong all season, brought an end to Georgia’s campaign.

“They made, you know, more plays than we did,” Smart said. “And I got to be honest, that’s part of football. They made more (plays) and out-executed us, out-coached us, outplayed us. But I enjoyed that game and that atmosphere. I am proud of our team. I’m sick that we lost. And there’s things that I would love to go back and do differently.”