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Kirby Smart doubles down in defense of controversial timeout debate from Auburn game

Danby: Daniel Hager10/17/25DanielHagerOn3
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© Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Kirby Smart‘s ‘timeout or no timeout’ fiasco ripped apart the college football world last Saturday night on the Plains. And almost a week later, it is still a hot topic.

With No. 10 Georgia leading Auburn 13-10 early in the fourth quarter, Smart ran down the sideline to seemingly call a timeout. Once the timeout was called, however, Smart complained to the referee that he wasn’t calling a timeout, but was instead accusing Auburn of clapping.

The timeout was called back and Georgia was not assessed a delay of game penalty. That infuriated Auburn and many college football fans around the country.

During an appearance on Friday’s edition of ‘The Pat McAfee Show‘ on location in Athens, Pat McAfee jokingly asked Smart about the fiasco. There, the two-time National Championship-winning coach doubled down that he was not calling a timeout.

“Have you taught (Lane Kiffin) how to clap with a timeout signal?” McAfee jokingly asked ahead of Georgia‘s matchup against Ole Miss this weekend.

Smart laughed at the question. Then he responded, “Absolutely not.”

“I told him, do you read my lips? No human being ever calls a timeout where’s he’s saying ‘they’re clapping. They’re clapping. They’re clapping,'” Smart recalled. “I’m repeatedly saying that with my lips, and he said ‘I don’t care about your lips. Read my lips. They’re clapping. They’re clapping. They’re clapping.

“In my brain, when I’m saying they’re clapping… read my lips. Read my lips. I don’t know any coach that ever has tried to call a timeout without saying the word timeout. They’re clapping, they’re clapping. But Lane has loved that.”

The awkward moment didn’t end up helping Georgia in any way, however, as kicker Peyton Woodring missed a 45-yard field goal to end the drive with a thud. The Bulldogs, however, scored a touchdown with 1:53 remaining to stretch their lead to 10 points, cementing a rivalry win over the Tigers.

Rece Davis dissects the Kirby Smart ‘timeout or no timeout’ fiasco

Several days later, ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis suggested Smart’s actions were more than likely a simple error made in the fog of war. At least, that’s how he saw it.

“Now multiple things are true about this. No. 1, … Auburn was clapping, and it’s against the rules, so Kirby was right about that. My sense of it is that Kirby sort of flipped out for a second, lost contact with the mothership, and was like ‘Wait, they can’t clap!’ and inadvertently – he didn’t really want a timeout, there was no reason for him to want a timeout there,” Davis said on Wednesday’s episode of the College GameDay Podcast with ESPN insider Pete Thamel. “So he’s running up and he’s (thinking) ‘Timeout, they can’t clap’ and then realized ‘no, no, they’re clapping,’ (but) he should’ve been charged with a timeout. There’s no question about that. 

“I don’t doubt that he didn’t really want one. That he was just mad they were clapping. But you’ve got to be charged with one because you called it,” Davis continued. “And for them not to do it is just another egregious error.

“Look, you can make errors all day long in officiating; we make them on TV. … Nobody is saying the officials have to be perfect. … (But) misapplication of the rules, that’s the primary reason you’re there. If not, we’ll just call our own fouls. You’re there to make sure the rules are not misapplied.”

On3’s Alex Byington contributed to this article…