This is as Happy As Kirby Smart Has Been in Some Time
NEW ORLEANS - This is as happy as I have seen Kirby Smart is some time, and if you didn’t know already Kirby is a hugger.
Maybe that happiness came from Georgia winning its final game of the season for the first time since the 2016 Liberty Bowl.
Maybe it came from his offense being able to do what it had previously done most of his time as head coach - move the ball and score.
Maybe it was because the two players to his left on the stage during post-game interviews, Jake Fromm and George Pickens, combined to play so well that it looked like they were throwing against air… or maybe a seven-on-seven drill at its most difficult. Pickens was hurdling players. Fromm was distributing. It was the UGA passing game rediscovered.
Maybe it was because UGA’s suffocating defense held Baylor to its lowest point production of the year.
NEW ORLEANS - Georgia WR George Pickens and UGA coach Kirby Smart during No. 5 Georgia's 26-14 win over No. 7 Baylor at the 76th Annual Sugar Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 1, 2020. (Dean Legge/Dawg Post)
Maybe Kirby was so happy because Zamir White, who has struggled to find himself after two ACL injuries post high school, proved that he can carry the load in the future. Zamir got a hug from nearly everyone on the field with him on that play, and had a line of huggers waiting for him when he jogged back to the sideline - including Kirby.
It could have been that Kirby was happy to embrace Richard LeCounte, who has developed from unsteady earlier this season into a ball hawk at the end of it. LeCounte’s on-field leadership has been one thing. His stepping up off the field has been noticeable as well. He might be the most-developed player of the year at Georgia, and that’s saying something.
These Bulldogs, which were clearly not the best team in the nation, might be the second or third best. We know they aren’t worse than the fourth-best team. You don’t get a lot of years like that. Trust me when I tell you that on the field after the game the smiles were as wide as the Mississippi.
Kirby hugs were a plenty. Departing players. Returning players. Coaches. Family members of coaches.
NEW ORLEANS - Georgia DB Richard LeCounte, III and UGA coach Kirby Smart during No. 5 Georgia's 26-14 win over No. 7 Baylor at the 76th Annual Sugar Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 1, 2020. (Dean Legge/Dawg Post)
Maybe the now fifth-year coach was told that he’s one of only a handful of coaches in history to win a Rose Bowl Game and the Sugar Bowl. Maybe he was just happy to enter an offseason without the dumb narratives that come out of bowl season each year.
Texas ain’t back after all. The Longhorns might have beaten Georgia a season ago (not sure if you heard about that last winter, spring and summer, but Texas beat Georgia last year at the Sugar Bowl, and was set to force its way into the CFP for the first time ever, but were sidelined by a 7-5 season…), but they could learn a thing or six from Kirby.
What he’s has done at Georgia isn’t necessarily remarkable - this should be happening. The power, resources, capital and brand that is Georgia should be having this sort of success. Then again, if anyone could do it Jim Donnan would be celebrated.
That something should be happening doesn’t mean it will, or make it easy (Texas?). Georgia, which had shade thrown at it in the lead up to the Sugar Bowl because of players missing the game, was reminded over and again that it wasn’t interested in playing in last year’s Sugar Bowl.
The Dawgs came out and whipped No. 7 Baylor up and down the Superdome’s turf.
Chip and Joanna Gaines prolly needed a Kirby hug after that beating.
Sugar Bowls don’t grow on trees, and Georgia now has five of them. These Dawgs took the narratable that the program didn’t want to be there, that the players not there would effect the outcome of the game and the panicky falling spread leading up to the game and showed that all that power recruiting actually “does” matter at the end of the day.
Could you tell that J.R. Reed didn’t play in the game? Did it seem that Fromm was missing Lawerence Cager?
Kirby had a lot to be happy about. His parents were there. His wife and three children were there. Red and black confetti fell on him for the first time since the Rose Bowl Game. It was a happy occasion.
It was fun.
But Kirby might want to get back into the gym. Picking up the Sugar Bowl trophy was about the only thing that stopped him.
Perspective: When lifting the trophy you just won isn’t so easy you’ve had a pretty good night.
NEW ORLEANS - Georgia RB Zamir White celebrates a touchdown with UGA coach Kirby Smart during No. 5 Georgia's 26-14 win over No. 7 Baylor at the 76th Annual Sugar Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 1, 2020. (Matt DeBary/Dawg Post)