Kirby Smart used his turn at SEC Media Days in Tampa to make a familiar kind of argument: Georgia is not just a bruising, defense-first program. According to Smart, the Bulldogs have been plenty explosive, too.
That message matters because Georgia is heading toward its fourth Florida head coach since Smart took over, and the next edition of the World’s Largest Cocktail Party is already shaping up as a useful measuring stick. New Florida coach Jon Sumrall brought in Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, who is known for an explosive offense, and the matchup will give Smart’s claim a real test.
Smart said the focus in Athens is simple.
“What we focus on in Georgia is what wins football games, and that’s my passion and energy. That’s what we love to do. We love to grind it out, play physical football, be explosive in offense, be explosive in defense by how you create turnovers and how you create sacks.”
He was later pressed on the idea that Georgia wins mostly with defense and the run game, and he pushed back hard.
“Those would be your words, not mine, because I like to think we play good defense and we play good offense. Statistically over the last five years we got the second most explosive plays in all of college football, and that’s on offense. So I think there is a misnomer probably because of the position I coach and my history and the defensive philosophy that it’s like this, oh, okay we’re just - no, we believe you have to run the ball.
In the fourth quarter there were probably four games last year that if we didn’t run the ball for a first down and they know we were going to run the ball because of the clock management, you lose games or you give them another possession. Our identity will be physical. You can be physical in the pass game, you can be physical on the perimeter.
We pride ourselves in these things as well, but I don’t think we’re an anomaly or an exception. We just follow the rule of the book that when you have to run the ball, you have to be able to run the ball in games.
There will come a time where every whenever team has to do that. It doesn’t mean you can’t be explosive.
We need to be more explosive.
When you do a five, four year study, you look at the numbers, Georgia has been in the Top 5 of all those categories. I like to think our success has come from both offense, defense, and special teams.”
The numbers from last season don’t exactly scream fireworks. Georgia finished 67th in total runs over 20 yards and 56th in total passes over 20 yards.
For comparison, Florida State had more passing plays over 20 yards than Georgia. Georgia Tech also finished ahead of the Bulldogs in both categories.
That’s where the Florida angle gets interesting. Georgia fans can point to the scoreboard from 2025, when the Bulldogs won 16-9. But Florida can answer that Buster Faulkner did not have Jadan Baugh, Vernell Brown III, Dallas Wilson, and Eric Singleton Jr. at his disposal.
The bigger point is hard to miss: in the last two seasons, Florida got close to beating Georgia and still came up short because the Gators never found the explosive play that could finish the job. Georgia, meanwhile, had to work to pull away because it also lacked the big play that would have put Florida away earlier.
So if Smart wants to insist Georgia’s offense is more explosive than people think, that’s his story to tell. The real proof will come when the teams meet in 2026. If the Bulldogs can’t put Florida away early in Atlanta, the Gators may finally have the opening they’ve been chasing.
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