Everybody Else Is Easy
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 10, 2026
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Saturday, October 10, 2026
Kirby Smart is 120-14 against the rest of college football and 2-7 against Alabama, and tonight in Tuscaloosa is his next chance to make that second number less embarrassing.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
Craig Meyer of the USA TODAY Network dug up a number this week that ought to come with a warning label. Kirby Smart is 120-14 as Georgia's coach against everybody who isn't Alabama. Against Alabama he is 2-7. Most men would give a kidney for the first record. The second one is the kind of thing that keeps a man up at night staring at the ceiling fan. It's like being the best bass fisherman in the county who can't catch anything in one particular pond, and that pond is the only one anybody talks about at the bait shop.
The part that hurts is that these haven't been beatings. Meyer noted that five of the seven losses were decided by one score. Last year's was 24-21, and it ended Georgia's 33-game home winning streak, which is a little like having a burglar come in and walk off with the family silver while you're standing right there in your bathrobe. When you keep losing by a field goal or a touchdown, nobody can say you're outmanned. You've got no excuses, only a growing pile of film on what almost happened.
When you keep losing by a field goal or a touchdown, nobody can say you're outmanned. You've got no excuses, only a growing pile of film on what almost happened.
Paul Finebaum, who has never seen a fire he wouldn't fan, went on ESPN's Get Up and said the game is bigger for Georgia than for Alabama because of the schedule Georgia still has to play. Then he really got going: "The idea of Kirby Smart losing three straight seasons in the regular season to Kalen DeBoer is almost unthinkable." Mr. Finebaum is paid to say alarming things into a microphone. He also happens to be right this time, and that's the most irritating thing about him.
Smart, for his part, went on Pat McAfee's show and made it about who hits harder. "We think we're a physical team, and they're a physical team," he said. "Let's go find out." The numbers back up the boast. Georgia is converting 81.3 percent on short yardage and at the goal line, the best figure in three seasons of records. But the bodies are thin. Guard Marcus Harrison and safety Tyriq Green are ruled out. Edge rusher Darren Ikinnagbon was seen in a boot and isn't expected to travel, and Amaris Williams may miss the whole year. Running back Nate Frazier, at least, is back from his rib injury.
The best detail of the week came from Sports Illustrated. With rain in the forecast, Smart said Georgia has been turning the sprinklers on before practice so the quarterbacks and receivers get used to a wet football. He picked the idea up from Nick Saban. "Under Coach Saban, we had every third or fourth day in camp, we would do the wet ball drill," Smart said. So there it is. The plan to finally solve Alabama involves borrowing from the man who built Alabama. That's either poetic justice or a cry for help, and we'll know which one around midnight.
The Notebook
- THE GAME EVERYBODY'S ARGUING ABOUT: No. 20 Iowa beat Washington 41-24. The Hawkeyes looked like they'd lost their nerve when No. 5 Ohio State beat them 31-14 last week in Iowa City, with Jeremiah Smith catching 11 passes for 206 yards, but they've bounced back fine.
- THE NUMBER IN VEGAS: Red Clay Hounds at Pachyderms, Saturday 7:30 PM Eastern, Alabama by 2.5. The desk calls it a coin flip, and given the last nine meetings, that may be generous to the coin.
- GATORS IN THE GUTTER: Missouri beat No. 8 Florida 45-17 last week, CBS Sports reported, and held Jadan Baugh to 13 rushing yards. Florida was the only top-10 team to lose in Week 5.
Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946–1994.
Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.
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