There are a lot of plays that didn't go Georgia football's way during their loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff. And unfortunately for UGA a lot of those plays came on special teams.
The obvious play everyone remembers is the kickoff returned for a touchdown to start the second half, but there were a few other examples of Georgia being outcoached on special teams. And one of those plays was late in the fourth quarter on 4th & 1 when Notre Dame was lining up to punt the ball away. But instead of punting, the Irish subbed all 11 players off the field and ran on 11 offensive players like they were going to go for it.
Kirby Smart discussed this play after the game and how the Irish were hoping Georgia would burn a timeout, which Smart did not want to do. But Smart also discussed how refs in the past have told him they were not allowed to do what Notre Dame did, which is what caused the frenzy that ensued and offsides penalty called on Georgia.
"Didn't want to because that's what they wanted," Smart shared via 247sports.com. "They wanted us to burn a timeout there and try to do it. And we subbed. So it's really unfortunate because I've been told by our head of officials in the SEC that you can't do that. You can't run 11 on, 11 off. We did it in 2017 against Tennessee. We've carried that. We practiced that and repped that because teams try to do it, and we were told by officials you could not do that. And so we were trying to say you couldn't do it."
Kirby Smart blames the officials for this play
Who knows if this play is allowed or not, but if an official in the past told Smart this isn't allowed then it's quite clear why Georgia was not fully prepared for this. But this isn't the thing that Smart should be most upset with from this play.
A Notre Dame wide receiver actually moved before Georgia jumped offsides, so the Irish actually should have been called for a false start on this play. This would have forced the Irish to punt and given Georgia one final chance to mount a comeback, but unfortunately they were not given that chance.
Regardless, this will be a great learning point for Smart and his staff because it was clear they were not ready for this sequence from Notre Dame. So hopefully UGA will be better prepared next time this happens and not have to rely on the refs to make the right call in the future.