Georgia head coach Kirby Smart shocked many on Saturday following the Bulldogs victory over Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns when he called out both ESPN and the game officials.Smart has been known for calling out various media members (in this case ESPN) for doubting, creating an “us against the world” or nobody believed in us” mentality across his roster. And most of the time there’s not much truth behind the doubts because Georgia’s simply been too dominant for anyone to second guess their greatness.
However, coming into this week Texas was indeed favored over Georgia. Plenty of people were doubting the Bulldogs. But what was even more shocking than Smart calling out ESPN for doubting Georgia was his clear gripe with the game officials:
“These players get the best out of me. I’m so proud of these guys. Because nobody believed. Nobody gave us a chance. Your whole network (ESPN) doubted us. Nobody believed us. And then they tried to rob us with calls in this place. And these guys are so resilient. We talked about intent. What was our intent when we walked on the field? Our intent was not to take pictures. Not to do all the superstar stuff. Our intent was to eat. Our intent was to come eat. And be hungry. I’m not interested in all the bells and whistles. What I want is a team that fights their ass off and they did tonight.”
“They tried to rob us with calls in this place.” That’s not something we hear from Kirby Smart too often. There were a few calls that didn’t exactly go Georgia’s way throughout the night, but none were more obvious than the pass interference call (or the apparent lack thereof) that came on Jahdae Barron’s interception of an intended target meant for Arian Smith late in the third quarter.
Carson Beck launched the ball towards Georgia wide receiver Arian Smith who was engaged in contact with Texas defensive back Jahdae Barron. Smith clearly wasn’t ready for the ball to arrive, but Barron saw the ball coming, quickly adjusted and snagged the interception. Unfortunately for Texas (at least initially), there was a flag on the field for defensive pass interference on Barron.
The flag sent the Texas crowd into an enraged frenzy as they launched bottles on to the field. Steve Sarkisian ran onto the field, pleading with fans to stop. But amidst all the chaos an amended call from the referees began to emerge.
After further review and discussion as the Texas fans’ water bottles were being cleaned off the field, the officials decided to reverse their call, deciding that there was in fact no defensive pass interference.
This of course did not sit well with Kirby Smart, who was livid over this decision. The penalty itself was not technically “reviewable” as mentioned by the broadcast team, so any change to the call would have to be an on-field decision. The amount of time that passed between the initial call and the refs announcing that they had changed their minds was quite a long time.
It was almost as though the Texas fans’ throwing their water bottles onto the field actually influenced the penalty call. The referees clearly had enough time to look up at the big screen, see how horrible their initial call was, and then correct it on the field.After further review, it was pretty clear that ultimately the correct call was made, but the timing was certainly a bit sketchy. Yes, Jahdae Barron had a right to absorb the contact from Arian Smith. And yes, there should not have been an initial defensive pass interference call. But Smart was rightfully angry about how the whole process played out.
However, Smart’s post-game rant wasn’t all just throwing ESPN and the officials under the bus. He also, couldn’t stop talking up his team, and specifically Carson Beck, who fought through early mistakes to win the day:
“I think Carson had great composure all day. He had four drops to start the game and it didn’t rattle the kid. He threw interceptions, it didn’t rattle the kid. The guy’s a great player. He takes undue criticism, and all he does is lead our team. This was a team victory, offense, defense, and special teams in a tough place to play.”
Beck did throw three interceptions on the night, but when it came down to the game’s most critical moments late the Georgia quarterback still executed. A critical run helped drain the clock late. Some gutsy runs and throws set up key scoring drives even when Beck couldn’t find the end zone himself. Yes, there were mistakes, but Smart was clearly still happy with his quarterback.
It’s a shame that Beck’s gutsy performance and recovery had to be overshadowed by the failures of the officiating crew. Even in Smart’s post-game press conference he wasn’t finished harping on the damaging consequences of the officials’ decisions:
“Now, we’ve set a precedent. If you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes that you have a chance to get your call reversed. That’s unfortunate. Because to me that’s dangerous. That’s not what we want. And that’s not criticizing officials. That’s what happened.”
Smart might actually be subject to some kind of monetary fine for calling out the referees on national television, but his point still stands. The pass interference call that could very well have changed the game should not have been changed the way that it was. Hopefully this kind of flip to a non-reviewable call doesn’t set a dangerous precedent for future big time games. Either way, Georgia still won in the end, impressing their head coach in the process.
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