Paul Finebaum places blame firmly on Kirby Smart for Georgia loss to Alabama

Minutes after then-No. 5 Georgia lost to No. 17 Alabama, 24-21, on Saturday night, Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart appeared to deflect any blame for his program’s 1-10 record in the past 11 games between the two SEC superpowers. In fact, Smart outright rejected any suggestion his 1-7 career record against his former employer was anything more than happenstance.

“I mean what’s everybody else’s record against them?” Smart responded when asked postgame about his struggles vs. Alabama. “I don’t lose sleep over that because those games have been like championship-caliber games. Right?”

Championship-caliber games or not, there were several instances in Saturday’s loss to the Crimson Tide that are ripe for second-guessing, including Smart’s decision to not kick a chip-shot field goal on fourth-and-1 from the Alabama 8-yard-line that would’ve tied the game at 24-all early in the fourth quarter.

ESPN host Matt Barrie called the move “inexcusable” while heaping heavy blame on Smart’s plate, a take SEC Network firebrand Paul Finebaum doubled down on.

“I would agree. … I’m not sure what (Smart was) trying to do there,” Finebaum said Sunday morning during his weekly appearance on The Matt Barrie Show podcast. “It wasn’t a critical moment in the game where you had to get that first down. You tie the game and you exhale a little bit, as opposed to being uptight as you really were from the very beginning.”

Finebaum then suggested Smart’s 0-2 record against second-year Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was a worst look than his 1-5 mark against his former boss, Nick Saban.

“Everyone knows who Kirby Smart is, but what we know now after (Saturday’s) game is he’s 0-2 against Kalen DeBoer. And that’s an ugly look,” Finebaum added. “I defended him yesterday with that pro-Georgia crowd and (country singers) Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan saying ‘You can’t blame Kirby, that was a Nick Saban problem.’ Not any more. Not any more. We’re talking about a guy (DeBoer) who many of us thought was down for the count four weeks ago today, and that’s a real problem. We know how fortunate Georgia was to get out of Tennessee (with a win), had they not pulled that game off, their season would already be on the brink. They still have Texas and Ole Miss, they have a lot left to deal with.”

But before then, the 12th-ranked Bulldogs (3-1, 1-1 SEC) will get a chance to right the ship next Saturday when Kentucky (2-2, 0-2 SEC) comes to Athens for a 12 pm ET kickoff on ABC.