Georgia can’t stop beating Tennessee. Their win on Saturday marked the ninth straight victory against the Volunteers, but this year’s game was a little different.
Entering Saturday’s game Georgia had beat Tennessee by at least 14 points in their eight previous victories. This year however Georgia was only able to squeak out a three point win in overtime, and the consensus from a lot of fans was that UGA was pretty fortunate to win this game.
Georgia did play well enough to win, but so did Tennessee as they had an opportunity to make a field goal to win the game in regulation. Thankfully that kicked sailed right which gave Georgia the opportunity to win in overtime.
But even though UGA emerged victorious, Kirby Smart knows that they had luck on their side. He even went as far as to offer an apology to Tennessee because he felt they deserved to win.
“I feel like we almost should apologize because they outplayed us in many ways, but that’s the way it goes.”
Smart: “I feel like we almost should apologize because they outplayed us in many ways, but that’s the way it goes.”
— Graham Coffey (@GrahamCoffeyDC) September 13, 2025
Kirby Smart apologizes to Tennessee after emotional victory
It’s worth mentioning that Smart doesn’t actually feel bad that Georgia won this game instead of Tennessee. At the end of the day all that matters is what the final score says, so even if the Vols could have won in regulation all that matters is that Georgia ended up on top.
This was just Smarts way of saying that he recognizes and respects how well Tennessee played in this game. He knows how good of a team they have and how close Georgia was to losing, so this is just how Smart is choosing to show respect to Tennessee for the great game that they played.
But at the end of the day it’s Georgia that came away with the victory and they are the ones that now have control of their destiny to make it to the SEC Championship game.