It’s a long way from 451.53 to minus-22.14, but Kirby thought he owed it to Stetson.
“We thought Stetson really practiced well and he and JT rolled all week,” Smart said on his decision. “We told them, I guess it was Thursday or Friday, we called them in and said, ‘Hey look, you’re both going to play. We think JT is healthy enough to go but we’re going to play you, Stetson.’”
My personal theory is that Kirby wanted to make sure every pundit who trotted out a “Georgia has a quarterback controversy” line last week looked like an idiot. Hey, it worked!
Get The Picture 
You practice hard/well, you get to play.
That’s gotta be it.
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C’mon it’s the quarterback not a RB or wideout or any other position. You practice well you play applies everywhere but the QB. You have a clear starter and you go with that guy until the game’s in the bag. Then bring in the backup.
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I didn’t endorse the reason. I simply said that HAD to be the reason.
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It’s was weird. He just couldnt help himself.
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More curious was not putting Beck ( or BVG) in for a series in the 4th. Don’t disagree that JT needs reps, but it really was garbage time in a good setting to be inserted.
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Was hoping for Beck later in the second half too. Feel like if JT does go down later in the season we’ll regret not having the backup with the higher ceiling more battle tested.
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I have to wonder if Beck’s lack of effort on his Pick 6 last week had something to do with not playing last night.
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Senator,
You nailed it again. This performance is for all you arm chair pundits.
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I love Kirby. He’s the best coach we’ve had since I became a fan in the middle of the Goff era. That being said if he could just recruit QBs and hire great OCs and then have nothing else to do with the QB position that would be awesome.
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I mean, its possible that Monken called Bennett’s name on that play. We will never know of course.
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Siskey, WTF do you mean??? “If?” You’re not complaining, are you?????
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Anytime I read something about this I think about the 2002 Florida game. Greene leads us down the field for 2 quick touchdowns, and we have the Handbags on the ropes. Shockley comes in for his series and throws a pick 6. We lost momentum after that and really started shooting ourselves in the foot.
Play your starter until the game is well in hand.
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^^This times 1,000!
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Conversely, Greene was ice-cold at Columbia his senior year (including a dreadful pick-six that put us down 16-0, I think) but Richt couldn’t ever work in Shockley because there wasn’t a plan for him. The defense held it down for us and we snuck by 20-16. A couple weeks later we hit the same stone wall at home against Tennessee, moving the ball well only on Shockley’s two scripted series. Lost about 19-14, 19-13?
There is no perfect formula.
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ee…I meant to reply to this yesterday but forgot.
Sorry to nitpick, but Greene led us to only one touchdown in the 2002 Cocktail Party. We kicked a couple of field goals after the first touchdown to lead 13-12 at half. Then Shockley threw the pick-6, they went for 2 and got it, and that was the ball game.
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Thanks. I just remember we were ahead when Shock threw the pick. We were up 7-6 at the time. The offense never really got untracked after pick.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/223060061
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That made me laugh. Thanks Senator.
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You’re current blog quote says it all. SBIV is never afraid to take his shot – it works until it doesn’t.
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Stet got a little bit too “cocky” for his own good. Believing his press. A good lesson.
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I’m tired of second guessing Smart because I usually look like an idiot. But… JTD was on fire and he gets pulled for Bennett??
Ummmm. Hmm…
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Should be a fun week for the Kirby can’t manage QBs cohort. Can y’all get it all out in this thread or is it going to be an all-week thing.
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Cali, I’m with you. I just gave Siskey what-for for the same thing. Enough already!!!
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I thought it was a bizarre move at the time and still think it was ill advised. It wrecked the momentum of the offense to that point and it took a while to get it back. SB111 is a nice story that needs to go away (not saying he should go away). Sure, fine, he’s numero dos in the room. When the games are well in hand, play somebody else. We know what he can do.
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Stetson had a game for the ages last week. Greyson Lambert had one too. They are nice stories. However, quarterback is the one position you can’t screw around with. JT is our best option for 2021. End of story.
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As much as Kirby wants to be done with Stetson he knows that there is a decent chance he will need Stetson to play meaningful snaps this season. Therefore he needs to keep Stetson engaged and feeling needed.
Sure the 3rd series was early for Stet to play, but let’s be honest, everyone knew USC was absolutely no match for UGA at that point. Game was in the bag.
The most telling deet was Beck and Vandagriff didn’t get any snaps.
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Not so surprising on Vandagriff but it is surprising on Beck. Wonder what the current odds of Beck hitting the portal at the end of the year are??
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Better than Joe Biden putting on the same colored pair of socks in the morning.
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And how’s the fat fascist doing after his bullshit “rally” yesterday?
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Every President is going to be a fascist based on how much the executive branch gets away with these days… oh wait, was I just suppose to continue the political insults on this Georgia Football blog?
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It’s a little early for all this nonsense no?
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Why, yes, now that you mention it. I’d hate to shut the thread down, but this certainly qualifies if it continues.
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Sorry, didn’t mean to start some shit. It just popped in my head.
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No on the continuing insults. That’s why the playpen is gone, it’s only fun when its one sided.
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I’m happy to conform to the guidelines.
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He’ll be calling uncle Rico anytime now.
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He gone.
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Biggen, based on what could be gleaned from his disposition at the UAB game, I’d say the odds are pretty good.
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Kirby’s playing chess…who else calls a play where the touchdown pass carry’s the freshman receiver into the recruiting box?
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Arch was in attendance? Oh I thought I accidentally switched to the Manning cam the entire 3rd quarter…
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A lot of noise signifying a morbid fascination with a kid who has losing big games in college in his dna. interesting.
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Meh, I’d rather land Bear Alexander, or any 5-star defensive lineman, or any 5-star OT.
Until yesterday, I’d never heard of the Manning kid. Is he ‘Trever Lawrence at Cartersville HS good’, or is it hype?
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He’s supposed to be the shit, but he’s only a junior so who knows. Glad we’re at least in the mix as this tells other recruits Georgia is the place to play.
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So they give the star recruits the “good seats”, huh?
/s
I always assumed they got some decent seats somewhere.
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They used to sit many of them near the middle of the field in the 300 level in the South stands, but when the the new locker room was built with the fancy recruiting space, they (along with player parents) were all moved to the end zone so that they have easy access to those facilities. It’s also a lot easier to get them from the field (where they spend pregame) to their seats. While I prefer sitting near where they used to be, it makes perfect sense for overall entertaining purposes.
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Ok, I’ll be devil’s advocate. I completely disagree Senator. News flash: Hindsight is 20/20 and still undefeated. I agree with Derek. You have a great week of practice, you play. Period. How’s that for motivating players to practice hard? I agree that it was a mistake to break the momentum JT had going in the first half. He should have had Bennett start the second half and played the entire half.
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Senator, I do t know if you have a post planned, but this is hilarious and insightful from Beamer, Jr. about the defense:
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/south-carolina-football/shane-beamer-goes-on-hilarious-rant-discussing-georgias-elite-defense/?fbclid=IwAR1N59DJjAi9iEdWmUbKZTyQvWQya6BTiSe3ghM7dHbsAkKTdDQAog_05OQ
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I love it when coaches don’t talk coach speak
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Ok got a good laugh out of that.
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A few moments in time the sc hc was looking to the heavens or off in a distance wondering WTF have I got myself into here, could have kept that job at ou, coulda stayed home with the family….shoulda stayed at UGA, that’s it….damn Kirby Smart anyway….
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I noticed that as well. Looked like he was having an existential crisis right there on the sideline.
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Paging David Pollack, David Pollack to the idiot phone.
David Pollack you have a call on the idiot phone.
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What did he do I missed it.
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He said on GameDay, I’m paraphrasing, that we should keep feeding Stetson or at least have some packages for him (alluding to our offense being better game 2 than 1).
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I you get to play based on performance, then pretty much all of the SEC officials need to be benched. We have all bitched about them for years on his forum, but Saturday, their ineptitude was on full display to the whole world. Miss a complete down in the Auburn/State Penn game (and some questionable PI calls). Totally blow he call in the Miss State/Memphis game (How do you screw that call on the punt up that bad AND miss having two #4’s on the field at the same time). The topper was the “fumble” that clearly showed his knee down before the ball came loose in UGA/SC. I’m sure there were other games involving SEC crews that had equally high quality “play” that I missed. No matter how good they practiced their game performance screams “BENCH ME COACH”
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Oh there’s more…lots more. Georgia stopped SC on one drive when the runner stepped out of bounds but the refs “didn’t see it”. It ended up in a first down for SC. I think the refs just felt sorry for them and felt like it was OK to help’ em out a little. Same with the fumble.
But there was one ref in UF/Bama game that was helping the turds on every single spot he could. And Bama had a big one called back on a hold out on the edge…when Florida did worse, it “wasn’t seen”. The little things add up (where the ball gets spotted…not seeing infractions…seeing phantom infractions like Tyler S. being offsides when he wasn’t offsides) and can completely change a game’s outcome.
SEC Refs are either the dumbest refs in the world, or the crookedest refs in the world or both.
I vote that they’re both.
I think they should be fired, the organization disbanded, and professional unbiased refs paid to do every game.
I will admit that it was refreshing to see Bama getting the short end of the zebra’s stick for a change. I just wish it wasn’t against the turds, who also have historically been helped by the Zs.
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For a league that makes MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars, it is way past time for them to employ fulltime well paid zebras. The clowns that they run out there now are an embarrassment.
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I had a different thought about the interception: I didn’t realize Stetson was in and thought it was JT’s fault. Somehow, I felt a little better when I realized it was Stetson.
Not worried too much, though, because I think we all knew that last week’s performance by Stetson couldn’t be maintained by him (or anybody for that matter) indefinitely. Regression to the mean for the win?
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I had one other thought on Stetson. Seems like he can open up some wrinkles in the run game by keeping on those zone reads. Thought we were looking for a sustained drive with heavy run calls to completely gas their D early. Going for the jugular, manball style. Just my .02.
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I thought so too. Stetson is a running threat and I think Monken was wanting to establish that. It will keep defensive backs from playing too deep knowing he can and will run. Monken is not going to risk JT running it and getting injured. So it falls on Stetson to take off every now and then to keep the DBs from real tight coverage on the receivers. When he rolls out on an RPO, they’re going to have a decision to make.
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Hurry and write the Bama/Florida piece Senator, certainly by now you have watched your recording…
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Give him time. It’s hard to find all the new superlatives to bestow on Danny boy for his greatest winning defeat yet over Alabama. Imagine if he can lose in OT next time to seal a perfect 0 – 14 record…Hall of Fame baby!
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Yeh. Hurry up, dammit.
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I’m in a damn big hurry to read his thoughts….the original 1980 Hairy Dawg is on his way to R3, our farm, driving cross country on his BMW motorcycle!
We got some drinking and catching up to do!
GATA🐶🐾
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It’s not a qb controversy. Who will play next year with damn near no live reps?
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Couldn’t he have made that same point by not playing Bennett. Imo Kirby is the one who looked like a dumbass after the pick.
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My guess is Beck not getting any reps could go back to him not making any effort to make tackle on his pick 6 against UAB
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unlike that little 13-dude, who damn sure made the effort on his pick.
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