That Coach Said What About Kirby Smart?
ATHENS - The quote is pretty simple, and true.
“You get nothing for free against Kirby Smart.”
That’s what a coach at another school said about Kirby in Athlon’s 2020 preview. The quote didn’t have a name attached to it - that’s commonplace with pre-season magazines now. But I’m not sure how saying something that’s so true would get you in trouble. That sounds like something Dan Mullen or Gus Malzahn might say in public.
That sounds like something Dan Mullen or Gus Malzahn should say in public.
Those two have made a living off scoring a lot of points. But when it comes to scoring on Kirby and his defenses… that’s another story. Georgia’s defense heads into the fall with the chance to be the best in the nation again. And while the program is certainly gifted, talented or whatever you want to call it there’s one thing it is just as much or more than anyone else.
Discipline.
UGA’s defense had five total offsides penalties enforced against them in 2019. To put that in perspective Notre Dame, a team that’s not exactly error prone, had six false starts against the Dawgs’ defense in one game.
Math. It’s not just for Andrew Yang anymore.
UGA’s run game defense only allowed 75 yards a game. That was best in the nation a season ago. Could that get even better in 2020? UGA’s scoring defense only allowed 12.6 points per game. Could that get even better in 2020?
(It could. I can’t wait for Kirby to lecture me about suggesting that here sometime soon... whenever “soon” is)
I’ve learned something for sure following UGA and its fans for their decades of toil: things can always get worse. Larry Munson is alive and well - rent free in the heads of UGA fans. And it is not that hard to be “worse” than No. 1. But you really don’t get anything for free against Kirby Smart’s defense.
Remember when Georgia Tech coach Geoff “Jeff is spelled with a J” Collins talked about explosive plays the UGA defense gave up heading into that season-ending game?
“One of the first things I do on Sundays after put the film to bed is I watch the explosive runs and the explosive passes tape for the opposing defense. I had to call the (graduate assistants) in when I watched the explosive runs against Georgia’s defense, and I’m like: ‘Where’s the rest of them? There’s only eight. Aren’t there supposed to be …,’ ‘No coach, that’s accurate, there’s eight.’ So credit to their players and their coaches. They’re a really, really good run defense.”
Collins understood what he was going up against that Saturday. He probably knew it wouldn’t go well, and it didn’t. But judging this defense and team by what they do against the Jackets is too low a bar.
If this team and defense are for real they’ll be ready for the trip to Alabama as nothing before that matters. They’ll need No. 1 UGA defense that day.
