By almost any measurement, Georgia’s Kirby Smart is one of the best coaches in modern college football, if not the best, following the retirement last year of his mentor, Nick Saban.
His knowledge of the game’s rules, though, could apparently use a little work.
Following Georgia’s 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday, which eliminated the Bulldogs from the College Football Playoff in the event’s quarterfinal round, Smart publicly took exception to what turned out to be one of the game’s most decisive plays.
Facing a fourth-and-1 from its own 18-yard line with a 13-point lead and 7:47 remaining, Notre Dame initially lined up to punt before substituting all 11 players off the field in favor of the team’s offense. Georgia responded, getting its defense back on the field, but shortly after they lined up, the Bulldogs jumped offsides, giving the Fighting Irish a fresh set of downs and allowing them to burn precious additional minutes off the clock.
During his post-game news conference, Smart addressed the snafu.
“It’s really unfortunate because I’ve been told by our head officials in the SEC you can’t do that, you can’t run 11 on and 11 off,” Smart said. “We did it in 2017 against Tennessee. We carried that, we practiced that and repped because teams try to do it, and were told by officials that you could not do that, so we were trying to say you couldn’t do that.”
While different leagues across the sport have their own protocols and quirks, Smart has been working for years under a faulty belief. It’s not illegal to do what Notre Dame successfully pulled off.
The 2024 NCAA football rules book states that ‘any number of legal or either team may enter the game between periods, after a score or try, or during the interval between downs only for the purpose of replacing a player(s) or filling a player vacancy(ies).’
There are several caveats, namely that substitutions cannot take place while the ball is in play and a player must enter the game directly from their team area. Additionally, officials cannot allow the ball to be snapped while one team is executing a substitution so that the opposing team also has an opportunity to send in substitutes to adapt to the change, which officials in the Sugar Bowl made sure to do for Georgia.
To add insult to injury for the two-time national championship-winning coach, video of Smart’s comments on social media received a community note, something typically reserved to fight back against conspiracy theories and counteract false claims from the world of politics.
The Bulldogs’ setback against Notre Dame ended their season at 11-3, marking the first time since 2018 they have suffered more than two losses.
The Fighting Irish, meanwhile, move to the College Football Playoff semifinals, where they will face Penn State in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9.