WTF Just Happened?
Why Georgia Lost to Ole Miss and How Georgia Can Break its CFP Losing Streak
I know, I know. From the title and tagline, it sounds like the rich complaining about being slightly less rich. However, because the Kirby Smart Era at Georgia has been so dominant, people forget the quarter century between 1990 and 2015 when Georgia fans would have killed to be considered a title contender. If there’s anything Georgia fans should learn from what’s happening to Alabama right now, it’s that you need to do everything you can to hold on to the glory days while they’re still here. Georgia is still in its glory days, and its roster is packed with young talent. Kirby Smart is only fifty. Georgia owns the SEC and piles up double digit wins every season, even when the team itself isn’t elite, as we saw in 2024. Georgia is still a top 3 program in the country, and was very unfortunate to get knocked out of the playoff. This was a game Georgia should have won against a team it is objectively better than. I firmly believe that in a 4-team playoff, and maybe even a straight 8-team playoff, Georgia would have won it all this season.
So, let’s first get the systemic issues out of the way. The playoff was expanded to hurt the best programs by putting more elimination games in their way. To be honest, expansion was probably expedited because Georgia was winning every playoff game they were in by multiple touchdowns for two years, then beat undefeated FSU by 9 touchdowns in a first-team-out bowl game. You can’t have a 65-7 national championship game and keep the fans interested on a national level. Anyways, note that Indiana was the only top 4 team to advance to the semifinals (after crushing an Alabama team that had been crushed two other times this season). They’re the outlier. The teams that played in (and/or won) their conference championship game sat out for several weeks and it seems that, in practice, that huge gap between games impacts a team’s ability to play like they have all season. Georgia was notably less physical against Ole Miss than they had been against Alabama almost a month earlier. Ohio State looked lost out there against Miami. Texas Tech was shut out. So, Kirby Smart has to figure out how to handle the bye week better, even if it means playing a 4 quarter, full contact, good on good game every week until game day.
It’s also difficult to beat a good team twice in a season, since it’s easier for the loser to change their game plan than you. Your plan worked the first time, after all. It was ridiculous to have two regular season rematches early in the playoff and, as we saw, both regular season losers got their revenge, as did Georgia against Alabama in the SEC Championship.
Second, the players. The defense played well, generally, until the 4th quarter. If I told you that Georgia’s defense scored a touchdown and held Ole Miss to 1 TD and two 55+ yard field goals in the first half, you’d think that Georgia won this game by double digits. Of course, credit where it is due, Ole Miss’ kicker literally won this game for them with three long kicks. Trinidad Chambliss had an elite second half, where it did not matter if the pass rush plowed through the offensive line—he was able to elude the rush and extend drives. A couple of blown coverages were taken advantage of and Kewan Lacey had more success than he should have but, overall, the defense played fine. Good enough to win, for sure.
On the other side of the ball, Gunner missed a few reads that came back to haunt Georgia, but the receivers also struggled to get open for most of the game. The offensive line wasn’t getting any push, and it was really on just one drive that Georgia was able to run the ball effectively. However, even with the mostly poor execution by the offense all day long, Georgia executed an excellent touchdown drive near the end of the 4th quarter, the defense made a big stop, then the offense found themselves on the 3 yard line with the game on the line and two plays available before they’d have to settle for a field goal. Unfortunately, it was all for naught due to a rookie clock management mistake, which brings us to the biggest reason Georgia lost—poor coaching.
I’ve been a Mike Bobo defender since 2023. I understood that Bobo was the best available offensive coordinator at the time and probably learned some things working with Todd Monken. He was continuity and experience. However, longtime Georgia fans like myself are aware of Bobo’s biggest weaknesses—situational play calling and personnel usage. Bobo would try to perform surgery with a machete and cut through brush with a scalpel. He’d try to make three left turns instead of just making a right turn. He’s been that way for all his three seasons at Georgia under Kirby Smart. We saw in the first Alabama game that he’ll run 180-pound Cash Jones off tackle on 4th and 1 instead of 235 pound Josh McCray up the middle. You really don’t have a trap in your arsenal? You can’t throw a defensive lineman in there at fullback? Really? In the playoff game, why are we running Josh McCray to the edge? It’s not his strength. No, they are definitely not expecting it, but they’ll also catch him. Why are we throwing back shoulders to Zachariah Branch but not Colbie Young or Noah Thomas or one of the big tight ends? Bobo used to back shoulder teams to death back in the day with Aaron Murray if receivers were struggling to get open.
The play calling in general was all over the place, with no real strategy. It seemed like throwing to the edges opened up the run between the tackles, and vice versa, but instead of calling plays based on that cause and effect, plays were just being called randomly to see what stuck. It was like watching a 13-year-old play NCAA Football. Finally, on the deciding drive of the game, bad situational play calling in a key moment reared its ugly head, and part of it was definitely Kirby’s fault. It was maddening and inexcusable for a staff with this much knowledge and experience to manage the clock so poorly. Why weren’t we leaning on the run game on the 3 yard line on 2nd and goal, down by 3, with 1:08 left? The passing game had struggled most of the second half, and we needed to run clock because Trinidad Chambliss was killing us. The objective was obvious—we needed to try to get in the end zone with no time left and, if we didn’t get the touchdown, we could still tie the game with no time left. It’s very basic. Yet only 4 seconds ran off the clock before Chauncey Bowens was stopped behind the line of scrimmage, then only another 4 seconds came off the clock when Gunner tried to pass to Delp in the back of the end zone. Dude, you have to burn 20 seconds per play in that scenario. Monken would have put 6 offensive linemen and 3 tight ends out there and either run the ball between the tackles a couple times, run a couple QB dives, or rolled right with Gunner for a throw to the flat only or scramble and see if there’s a running lane to the end zone. Whichever it would have been, it would have to run the clock and minimize the risk of turnover and loss of yardage.
Winning is a skill built into Kirby Smart’s Georgia teams, but when it came down to it, the coaches missed some obvious opportunities when the team wasn’t playing its best. Despite all the rust, Georgia was executing a potential game-winning drive late in the fourth and blew it.
How does Georgia fix this so they don’t keep losing in the first round of the playoff? Coldest take in Georgia fan history, it’s probably time to cut loose Mike Bobo, who’s been making the same mistakes in big moments for 3 seasons, now. 2023’s title run ended due to an unnecessary end-around reverse pass thing that resulted in a fumble recovered by Alabama. 2024’s title run ended because the offense struggled to get in the end zone at all against Notre Dame despite Gunner putting up 200+ yards passing, but to Bobo’s credit, the defense couldn’t stop the QB scramble in that game, anyways. The thing about Bobo is that he racks up yards, but the yards-to-points ratio is inefficient. In the first match up between Georgia and Ole Miss, Ole Miss scored 35 points on only 350 offensive yards. 70 yards per touchdown. That’s extremely efficient. Georgia put up 510 yards in that game to score 43 points, which is 83 yards per touchdown. Bobo will also call some great games and pad stats and you’ll think he’s figured it out, then he’ll flop with the season on the line, or his offense will fail to execute. He’ll be hard to replace, but you have to try something. Jim Chaney was solid while he lasted (like Bobo is, but slightly better, in my opinion), then Coley flopped, then Kirby went way outside the box and found Todd Monken and won back-to-back Natties. Maybe it’s time to go outside the box again. If no one better is available, you need some good analysts or a co-coordinator on staff to add some different looks for key situations that are easy to execute. Why run a double reverse pass when a jumbo formation will do? Why throw a fade to a 6 foot receiver when you can shift around your personnel and get him matched up with a linebacker? Simple can be better. Look at Lane Kiffin‘s offense at Ole Miss. Look at Indiana’s passing game. The concepts are extremely simple. You can throw in the super brainiac stuff when you have a comfortable lead and want to cushion it.
It may not hurt to get a new set of eyes on the defense as well. Don’t get me wrong, as these young defensive backs grew up over the course of the season, the defense became elite. Glenn Schumann has done an excellent job assisting our defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart, but the top coaches in college football all have the same agent, roll in the same circles, and many, the Saban tree, especially, run a similar defensive scheme. An outside set of eyes couldn’t hurt…you don’t want your defensive success to hinge on whether or not you have the 2021 Georgia front 7 every season (although Georgia might going into 2026). Again, though, need to keep your coordinator because he recruits well and is mostly very good? Get a co-coordinator or some new eyes to see what you’re missing.
Finally, figure out the freaking bye week and be the best in-game coach you can be on the biggest stage. Hopefully, the committee gets feedback from the coaches and the playoffs are moved back a couple of weeks so bye teams don’t have to wait a month to play. You want some rest to get healthy, but you also don’t want to lose your momentum. If the committee doesn’t fix the calendar, Kirby may need to take some risks to keep the team’s edge during the bye week(s). On the second point, where’s 2022 Peach Bowl Kirby, who sniffed out a fake punt that surely would have buried Georgia? Sure, it’s great to take chances like that fake punt that stole back a possession, but you can’t screw up simple clock management during the biggest moment of the game. You’re the most successful head coach in college football, you can’t make rookie mistakes.