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Kirby Smart doesn’t regret his aggressive late first-half play-calling during Thursday’s loss to Notre Dame during the College Football Playoff quarterfinal.
Moments after Bulldogs quarterback Gunner Stockton fumbled with 33 seconds left in the half, allowing the Fighting Irish to eventually take a 13-3 lead on a Riley Leonard-Beaux Collins touchdown connection, the Georgia head coach defended his decision to try to put some more points on the board before the second quarter’s end.
“Well, I would say we tried to be aggressive in two minutes and probably regret it, right? Go to the half 6-3,” Smart said on the ESPN broadcast heading into halftime. “But we wanted to show confidence in our quarterback and let him go play, we didn’t get the block we needed to get and they made a good play.”
The play ended up being one of the most important in the game, allowing Notre Dame to take a two-score lead into the half in a game that Georgia could not find a way to get back into.
After the 23-10 loss, Smart doubled down on his choice to bet on his backup quarterback late in the second quarter.
“Typically, when you’re down, you need every possession you can have,” Smart said. “We made a decision that we were going to be aggressive and we were going to go two-minute. That’s what everything says you should do. You can’t give up possessions when you’re trailing.”
Stockton, who was making his first start of the season, was playing in place of Carson Beck, who had season-ending elbow surgery after hurting himself in the SEC championship game.
The 2024 season marks the second straight that Smart’s Bulldogs fell short of a national title after winning it in two straight seasons in 2021 and 2022.
Notre Dame will take on Penn State in the CFP semifinal on Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
