Georgia is 4-0, the wins have come in convincing fashion, and yet Kirby Smart is still pushing for more.
That was the message after Georgia’s 41-13 win over Oklahoma, a game that looked comfortable on the scoreboard but still left Smart wanting a cleaner, sharper four-quarter effort. The Bulldogs were dominant enough to keep rolling, but their head coach made it clear he wasn’t interested in treating a big margin as the whole story.
“I didn't think that we played to a standard in the second half,” Smart said after the stress-free victory. “And you know, give Oklahoma credit.
That's what we felt like as coaches. There's some of the stuff they did that made it hard on us.
But I'll always hold our standard to what we do. The standard is excellence.
The standard is taking the ball off people, not giving up points, red zone defense, third down defense. We don't take our preparation lightly and, and our staff puts a tremendous amount of work into every one of these games.”
For Smart, the scoreboard isn’t the point. The standard is. And in his view, Georgia didn’t live up to it for stretches, especially in the third quarter when the Bulldogs had a lull, turned the ball over and let the game drift away from the level they’ve been trying to maintain.
“There was definitely a lull, and the good teams don't have lulls,” Smart added. “They don't sleep-walk and do things.
And usually when we watch the tape, it's something we did. In the first half, I went in and said, "Hey, they didn't stop us.
We stopped ourselves. And that's important.
I think in the second half they stopped us some.”
Georgia recovered after that rough patch and closed the game in control, moving the ball on offense and continuing to create havoc in the backfield on defense. The Bulldogs still looked like the kind of team that can overwhelm opponents, but Smart’s comments made it clear he sees room for the group to tighten things up.
That’s the challenge now as the schedule keeps moving toward Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss, among others. Georgia has already shown it can win big. Smart’s message is that the next step is doing it for all four quarters.
The Bulldogs have been blowing teams out, and Smart still wants more. That’s the sign of a team that believes its best football is still ahead. If Georgia finds that level consistently, it’s going to be a hard group to handle as the season goes on.
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