When you point the finger, three are pointing right back at you. Despite playing one of their worst games of the season, the Georgia Bulldogs, them losing to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl is not really the players' fault. It all comes back to coaching. Mike Bobo called a weird game offensively. Glenn Schumann looked incompetent calling the defense. Kirby Smart only made things worse for Georgia.
This play in question has Georgia fans everywhere pulling their hair out over what all just happened!
That was malpractice. Just roll Stockton out and if it’s not there he lays down and you kick it with 15 seconds left. 56 seconds with that kicker is way too long
— Graham Coffey (@GrahamCoffeyDC) January 2, 2026
Georgia was goal-to-go with less than a minute left on the clock down three to Ole Miss. Gunner Stockton had been so good in the red zone all season long. Rather than take the clock down to something like 15 seconds, a terribly designed third-down call ended up giving Trinidad Chambliss and the Ole Miss offense too much time to win the game. Smart should have intervened over Bobo.
Once again, Smart can blame the death of one his Georgia team's seasons on all of his close friends.
Kirby Smart played a massive role in Georgia falling apart vs. Ole Miss
Smart may have two national titles under his belt, but we have to remember those were in the four-team playoff. A prospective playoff team only had to win two postseason games to be crowned national champions. There were no first-round games, first-round byes, or national quarterfinals, only the semifinals and the national title bout... Smart will have to adjust, and he will, but there is also this...
While having enough depth to sustain the blows of winning three or more postseason games was all the rage coming into this year's playoff, the biggest key of all might be to have the best coordinators imaginable. Although Bobo was a Broyles Award finalist, he is not winning it now after this latest disaster-class. Schumann has been propped up for too long. You cannot be average at coordinator.
Simply put, it felt like Smart was overly aggressive in trying to overcompensate for his two coordinators' collective shortcomings. Smart is still one of the best coaches in college football, but his two most trusted assistants should not have been worked by Joe Judge, Charlie Weis Jr., and the rest of Pete Golding's Ole Miss coaching staff in transition. Smart and his guys were totally exposed.
So what is Georgia to do now? Odds are, that Smart will retain his two trusted coordinators for another season. This year's team may have been well-coached, or took to coaching well, but this group was rather green. Maybe next year is the year for the Dawgs? The saddest part in all of this is Georgia was good enough to beat any team in the country. Smart wasted yet another opportunity...
Georgia is not done winning national championships under Smart's watch, but he has to adapt soon.