Jump To Top of Page

Here are the Numbers

*Georgia Finishes 12-2: With tonight’s 39-34 loss,the third-seeded Bulldogs finish 12-2, and the Senior Class ends up with a 51-6 mark. Georgia is now 5-3 in the CFP, 5-8 in Sugar Bowls and 38-23-3 all-time in bowl games. This was the first time the Bulldogs and Rebels faced each other twice in the same season. It was the first time Georgia lost a rematch in the Kirby Smart era as he is now 4-1 in those while his overall mark is 117-21.

*Reviewing The Offense: The Bulldogs tallied 355 yards on 69 plays (124-rushing, 231-passing) in a 37-34 loss. 

*Down 34-31 with 3:13 left, Georgia converted a 4th-and-9 at its own 48 with a 17-yard pass to Branch. It was part of a FG drive that tied the game at 34.

*Down 34-24 with 9:02 in the 4th, Georgia went 75 yards in six plays, capped by an 18-yard TD pass to Zachariah Branch to trail 34-31 with 7:03 left.

*Down 27-24 with 11:29 in the 4th, Georgia went for a 4th-and-2 and its own 33, and Stockton was sacked for a loss of 8 at the UGA23. 

*Georgia’s Peyton Woodring made a 37-yard FG to make it 24-19 with 30 seconds left in the 3rd quarter as the drive included a succesful fake punt.

*At the half, Georgia led 21-12. The Bulldogs tallied 190 yards of offense on 31 plays (85-rushing, 105-passing). 

*For the fourth time this season, Georgia did not score in their opening quarter (also vs. UA, @ AU, @ GT) and so far it’s 2-1 in those games.

*Georgia was forced to punt on its first two drives, tallying a combined 37 yards on nine plays and then had 75-yard TD drives on its next two possessions. 

*Down 6-0 with 2:13 left in the 1st quarter, the third drive resulted in a go-ahead TD. It featured a 16-yard rush by Nate Frazier, a nifty 13-yard reception by Colbie Young and a 12-yard rushing TD by Gunner Stockton to cap a 75-yard drive in seven plays in 3:36.

*Down 12-7 with 10:33 left in the half, Georgia reclaimed the lead 14-12 after a 75-yard TD drive in 12 plays that took 6:28. It featured a 3rd-and-5 conversion by Cash Jones for eight yards, a 3rd-and-13 conversion from the UGA35 following a 15-yard catch and run by Zacariah Branch that tied the school mark for single season catches with 76. Also, Jones came through on a 3rd-and-12 conversion with a 26-yard catch. The drive included a Nate Frazier tying his career-high with a 24-yard reception and ended on Stockton’s second rushing TD of the night, a 1-yarder.

*In the first half, redshirt junior QB Gunner Stockton was 9-for-13 for 105 yards and 15 yards on five carries with two rushing TDs.  

*Sophomore RB Nate Frazier posted 128 all-purpose yards with 86 rushing on 15 carries and 42 receiving on three catches. 

*Junior WR Zachariah Branch set the Bulldog single season mark for receptions tonight with (73+). The old mark was held by Brice Hunter (76 in 1993). Branch set the mark in the 2nd quarter on a two-yard catch. He finished with X for XX yards and one TD.

*A Look At The Defense: OM scored 39 points with 473 total yards (362-passing and 111-rushing), hitting a 47-yard FG with six seconds for a 37-34 lead. They registered a safety on the ensuing kickoff for the final. 

*OM led 34-31 with 7:03 left, Georgia forced a three-and-out. OM took a 27-24 lead with 11:29 left in the game after a 75-yard drive and two-point conversion. Following a failed 4th-down attempt by Georgia at its own 33, OM needed just two plays for a TD and a 34-24 lead with 9:02 left.

*OM cut it to 21-19 with 4:51 left in the 3rd quarter, going 63 yards on seven plays including a 43-yard completion on 4th-and-3.

*Georgia’s leading tacklers were sophomore KJ Bolden with 10 and senior Daylen Everette with nine.

*In the first half, Ole Miss scored 12 points (TD plus 2 FGs) with 234 total yards (160-passing and 74-rushing). 

*Down 14-12 with 4:05 left in the 1st half, OM’s Kewan Lacy had a fumble, caused by freshman Elijah Griffin, that was picked up by senior Daylen Everette, and he returned it 46-yard for a TD and a 21-12 lead. It was the first fumble return for a TD by the Bulldogs since 2024 when Chris Cole did it against UMass for 28 yards. It was Everette’s second career fumble recovery and first caused fumble for Griffin. 

*Tonight was Georgia’s first “NOT” (Non-Offensive TD) of the season. In the Kirby Smart era, Georgia has 18 NOTs and six safeties. 

*Georgia’s last fumble return for a TD in a bowl game came in the 2008 Sugar Bowl against Hawaii by Marcus Howard. Everette’s 46-yarder for a TD tonight was a Georgia bowl record.

*Ole Miss’ first drive resulted in a punt while the 2nd drive ended with a 55-yard FG and a 3-0 lead with 5:47 left in the 1st quarter. It marked the eighth time this season that the Bulldogs trailed early in a game involving an SEC opponent. In the first meeting with the Rebels in Athens, Georgia took a 3-0 lead in the first before the Rebels responded with a touchdown and a 7-3 edge after 15 minutes and then OM led 21-20 at the half and 35-26 entering the 4th quarter before Georgia rallied for a 43-35 win.

*OM pushed its lead to 6-0 tonight with a 56-yard FG with 2:13 left in the 1st quarter. Down 7-6 with 13:37 left in the 1st half, OM answered with a 75-yard TD drive in eight plays to take a 12-7 lead following a failed two-point try with 10:33 left in the half. 

Kirby Smart’s Postgame Presser with Transcript

COACH SMART: I’d open with the Sugar Bowl staff, committee, they did a wonderful job hosting us.
Felt safe all week, or the three days we were here. They did a great job of bringing New Orleans into our
hotel, and I know our players enjoyed being here. It felt very different than last year in terms of the
environment and everything.

Great crowd out there today. Probably more partisan Ole Miss than ours, but it felt like you’re on a road
game with their atmosphere.

And they had momentum a lot. It was a back-and-forth game. It was an incredible college football game.
It’s what the CFP was built for, to have battles like that. And that was basically every conference game
we had this year. I felt like every game was like that one: back, forth, back, forth. Plays being made all
over.

A lot of credit goes to Ole Miss, the defensive improvements they made. They played much better and
tougher and more physical on defense, created some problems for us. And their quarterback is just
incredible. I mean, he does an unbelievable job of not giving up sacks and making plays with his legs.
They made more plays than we did; and I’ve got to be honest, that’s part of football. They made more,
and outexecuted us, outcoached us, outplayed us.

But I enjoyed that game and that atmosphere. I am proud of our team. I’m sick that we lost, and there’s
things I would love to go back and do differently. But I’m just so proud of the way our guys competed
when down ten, and just didn’t finish it.

Q. Kirby, on that final third down that you guys had, what led to the decision for the pass there?
And did you consider running the ball at all in that situation?
COACH SMART: The last third down, do you mean before the field goal? We wanted to score a
touchdown. I think we were on the 3 or 4. We wanted to score to win. The book says, Go win the game.
We talked about it in between. I thought by calling a timeout, run it, they don’t have timeouts, ease the
clock down. Playing for a tie doing that, right? And I just don’t believe in playing for a tie.
Had to go for tie because we didn’t complete it. But we knew we were going to leave time on the clock.
We felt like defensively we were playing well. To be honest with you, it was a two-point play to win the
Sugar Bowl, or at least have a chance to win the Sugar Bowl, because they would have got the ball back.
But I feel really good about that. I didn’t want to run it.
We ran it on second thinking we could do it, and they got the look. And Gunner [Stockton] did a good job
checking that run.

Q. Kirby, I think that was early in the fourth quarter when you guys had the punt team on, ran
them off, put the offense on. What was the thinking there, particularly snapping the ball and trying
to convert on that fourth down?
COACH SMART: Yeah, we screwed that up a little bit. We had a misfire there. It was a change-up from
the look we had done twice. And we knew teams were going to sit back and not honor us, because we
had not snapped it on those plays in two different locations, two different times. And the ball was not
supposed to be snapped in that situation.
But that was on us as coaches. It was on me and our guys. It’s not on the players. And Gunner [Stockton]
and those guys did a nice job executing it.
But we did feel like we had lost momentum at that point, and the book says we needed to go for it.
There’s probably another way I would like to have gone for it, but we did not execute the situation really
well there. It was a situation where it gave us an either/or. We didn’t have to snap it. We could take a
delay. We could sit back, see what happened, just to take a chance.

Q. You already answered part of my question, but you went for it on fourth down three times in
the second half. You mentioned you felt momentum was slipping away, even when you had the
lead. Two of the three worked. But did you feel like you — you mentioned Ole Miss was making
more plays. Did you feel like you needed to have that kind of change in momentum?

COACH SMART: I don’t know which fourth you’re referring to. I think we had to go for one of them
because we were down.
Q. You were down. You had three timeouts left. There were three minutes, 15 seconds left. It was
fourth and 9, but you made it.
COACH SMART: I couldn’t kick the field goal.
Q. No, you could have punted.
COACH SMART: No chance I’m punting there. We’re not going to get another possession possibly. We
had three timeouts to stop them if they didn’t get it.
Q. Fair enough. The fake punt, though, when you were leading, which worked —
COACH SMART: We had lost momentum at that point. We were leading, but I think we were leading
maybe by two or so. And we felt like we could get momentum back with that play. And we felt like it was
there, and the kids did a great job executing it.

Q. Despite ultimately losing, you guys did rally down ten. And this is for Gunner [Stockton]. I
know you took a lot of hits today. Can you just talk about how you were feeling both mentally
and physically when you were able to rally and tie the game late.

GUNNER STOCKTON: Yeah. When there’s time on the clock, we feel like we’re still in the game. And I
mean, that’s what we did. And I mean, just playing, just playing for everybody on the team and just trying
to give my best effort.

Q. Kirby, in your experience, does a play like that misfire that you talked about, does that stay
with you for a long time? Or do you think about it, like you said, it was a good game, and there
were a lot of other plays from your career? Do things linger a long time like that?
COACH SMART: Yeah, I mean, that’s football. We made a bunch of plays. You can take that and the
fake punt and call it even. That kept the possession alive.
We’ve made a lot of plays this year in those critical moments where we had guys jump offsides on
disciplined teams. I think back to — I think it was Texas at home. They jumped offsides and we got a free
play off of that. It’s been really huge. We’ve gained more possessions than probably anybody in the
country by what we’ve done being aggressive and trying to do things that required discipline and
execution.
We just didn’t execute that one. I mean, at worst there, we would have gotten a delay and given our
punter, who’s one of the best punters in the country, five yards to give up or call timeout.
But we didn’t execute, so in hindsight, it didn’t work. But that did not cost us the game, let me assure
you, because we came back, scored, kicked another one, got the game tied, had a chance to win it.
Called a good play for the coverage they were in, and we didn’t make the play. The kid knocked the ball
down on Oscar [Delp], and then — we had third and 5. We’re going to have a chance to get the ball back
and maybe win the two-minute. And they made a good throw and catch.

Q. You ran the ball. Were you thinking more of forcing them to use their timeouts in case you
scored a touchdown and they would have limited time to score? What were your thoughts on
that?
COACH SMART: So we’re number one or two in the country in red-zone offense, right? Scoring TDs.
What do we do well? We run it. That’s what we do well. We run it down there really well.
It’s not very far you get to throw it. We’ve been really, really good at running it. And by doing that, you
also force them to call a timeout, assuming they stop you. Assuming they stop you. If they don’t stop us,
then they’ve got time on the clock to go out there and run their two-minute offense and try to score back.
They burnt two timeouts. They were out of timeouts, and the decision was what he talked about. Do we
run it on third and just play for a tie? Because it’s hard to run the ball in from third and 3. I don’t know
what yard line we were on. I felt like it was 3, 3 1/2, 2, like a two-point play. I liked the call, I liked the
play, and I liked going to win the game. I feel like if we scored there and we kicked it, we’re up, and
they’ve got to score a touchdown to beat us. I’m like, I’ll take that every time with our defense in two
minutes.
So, I liked the plays there. I mean, if we run it and don’t get it, then I’m sitting here playing for a tie, and
I don’t love that, or playing for overtime.

Q. Kirby, I think in the first game against them this year, they had 10, 11, 12 yards in the fourth
quarter and [Trinidad] Chambliss didn’t do much. Did you sense a whole lot of a different
strategy, approach, execution on their part in this game that you saw in that first matchup this
year?
COACH SMART: No, not at all. I mean, I don’t know what stats they — I thought we played better
defensively than we did last time. Now, we didn’t play better maybe in the fourth. We played good in the
fourth. We had a three and out, got the ball right back and went and scored. We just didn’t the last drive.
We go stop, stop, bat a ball. It’s third down and 5. We play man-to-man. This guy’s really good at throwing
the ball.
You can think that they might run the ball there, because if they don’t get a completion there, we’re
getting the ball back, and they’re looking at it. They played to win the game, and we played to win the
game. We didn’t play to go to overtime, because a lot of people would have said, Oh, third and 5, let’s
just run it and milk the clock out or they’ll call timeout. They went for it, and they made a good play.
So, I don’t know if your reference is we didn’t play as good in the fourth as we did last time. We had a lot
of momentum and we were at home. That was a big factor.

Q. Schematically or execution-wise, they looked any different? Obviously, Lane [Kiffin] is not
there.
COACH SMART: No, they ran the same plays, and they ran them well. There’s several plays where
they’ve got the quarterback running around out there and he makes unbelievable plays. The play to
[Kewan] Lacy on our sideline where we blitz a corner and he does a complete circle around [David]
Lalaian, and then he hits a deep over on Ellis [Robinson IV] and scrambled. Their scrambles were
explosive, and you think about Gunner’s [Stockton] scrambles that he had that were explosive. Both
quarterbacks made some plays with their legs. A lot of credit to that kid and their offense.

Jump To Today’s Discussion Thread