Although Mercedes-Benz Stadium is no longer a house of horrors for Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs, Caesars Superdome has been the bane of their existence the last two years. After winning back-to-back SEC Championships, Georgia has lost to a lower-seeded team in New Orleans for the second year in a row. It was cruel and unusual punishment, thanks to stooge buffoonery Big Ten officiating.
After one dumb call by the officials after another, Ole Miss stunned Georgia 39-34 to win the Sugar Bowl. The Rebels will take on the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl for the right to play in this year's national championships. While beating the same team twice in one year is so incredibly hard, it honestly felt like Smart and all of his coaching friends are who let Georgia down in the bitter end...
Some of the decision-making processes put forth by Smart, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, and defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann seemed to actively undermine their disciplined team full of well-coached players. The plays happened the way they did, but it did not feel like the Georgia coaching staff was putting its guys in the most advantageous positions to succeed vs. Ole Miss here.
While Schumann gets some blame, and Bobo deserves more than his fair share, this falls on Smart.
Georgia coaching staff ripped a Sugar Bowl victory away from Bulldogs
Let's work our way from Schumann, to Bobo, before we finish up with Smart. Schumann had a difficult task of trying to contain Trinidad Chambliss within the context of Charlie Weis Jr.'s offense. Once Raylen Wilson got hurt and JaCorey Thomas was ejected for targeting, it really put the Georgia defense behind the eight ball. Chambliss is a great ad-libber, but a meager pass rush did Georgia in.
When it comes to Bobo, he went in and out of feel with his play-calling. Gunner Stockton and Zachariah Branch bailed him out on so many occassions. He did not run the ball early enough in the second quarter. The halfback pass featuring Dillon Bell was so dumb. It was a wasted down and largely prevented sure-footed Peyton Woodring from making an easier field goal. Bobo was way off.
And then Smart... Not since the 2018 SEC Championship Game vs. Alabama has Smart looked this out-of-sorts in a championship setting. He was way too aggressive with his decisions to go for it on fourth down. The fake punt was great, but the blown-up play where Stockton got sacked deep in Georgia territory to hand Ole Miss points was moronic. The final six seconds of play were disastrous.
To attempt to tie a bow on this game, it was the worst way Georgia's season could have ended imaginable. Nobody gave Ole Miss a chance in this one. Beating the same team twice in one year is so hard. It was not that Ole Miss was without its own miscues. There were plenty... The shame in it all is this was such a well-coached team all season long, only to be unraveled by the coaching staff itself.
Georgia may be a playoff team again next year, but it wasted a golden opportunity to win it all here...