Kirby Smart after Georgia's OT win at Tennessee: 'I feel like we have to apologize'
Kirby Smart still had Georgia’s last loss to Tennessee — Joshua Dobbs throwing a Hail Mary to Jauan Jennings for a walk-off win for the Vols at Sanford Stadium in Athens in 2016 — in his head when he came to his postgame press conference Saturday night.
His sixth-ranked Bulldogs had just rallied from down eight late in the fourth quarter to win 44-41 in overtime at No. 15 Tennessee. And it sounded like he thought his team stole something.
“I feel almost like we have to apologize,” Smart said during his postgame press conference. “I don’t think that we should have won that game.”
Tennessee gave up 38-30 lead late in fourth quarter
Tennessee (2-1, 0-1 SEC) jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter, only for Georgia (3-0, 1-0) to counter with 20 straight points to take a 27-21 lead late in the third quarter.
The Vols woke up with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Joey Aguilar to Chris Brazzell II to take a 28-27 lead with seven seconds left in the third quarter and took a 38-30 lead on a 48-yard field goal from Max Gilbert with 6:40 left.
Georgia answered with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, scoring on a 28-yard pass from Gunner Stockton to London Humphreys on fourth-and-six, then tied the game on a pass to Zachariah Branch on the two-point conversion.
Gilbert missed a 43-yard field goal with seven seconds left in regulation, Georgia held Tennessee to another field goal in the first overtime, then ended the game on a three-play touchdown drive after taking possession.
“They outplayed us in a lot of ways,” Smart said, “but that’s the way it goes. I’ve had one against them about nine or 10 years ago that certainly didn’t go that way. So it comes and goes.”
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It hasn’t gone Tennessee’s way in a while in the series. The Vols have now lost nine straight to Georgia, including five straight at Neyland Stadium. Smart lost his first game at Tennessee as Georgia’s head coach in 2016, but hasn’t lost since then.
“I lost a lot of times in a row as a player, still sticks with me,” said Smart, who went 0-4 against the Vols as a Georgia defensive back. “Have my memories, good and bad, of playing here. Five in a row is a lot. Going back to Alabama, it’s probably more than that.”
‘We got some kids that aren’t afraid of fighting’
Smart said he told his players there was “a lot of whistling by the graveyard” after the first two weeks of the season, after Georgia beat Marshall 45-7 at home in Week 1 and beat FCS Austin Peay 28-6 last week.
“I don’t mean this directed at Tennessee,” Smart said, “… but there’s a lot of whistling by the graveyard. That ain’t who we are.
“… Tennessee’s physical and they’re tough, but there’s a lot of outside of whistling by the graveyard. A little bit of acting like one thing, but we feel like our team has a certain identity.
“We’re not going to go down without a fight. We’re nowhere near where we need to be. We got some kids that aren’t afraid of fighting.”
