Finish Your Tackles Before You Go Home
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 22, 2026
Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Thursday, October 22, 2026
Georgia has one practice left in its open week, and Kirby Smart has handed his defense homework that has nothing to do with the drawings on the board.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
An open week in the middle of football season has its own kind of quiet. It is the quiet of a house after the company has gone home and before anybody has started on the dishes. Georgia has one practice left in it. Kirby Smart told reporters Tuesday that the plan was to practice that day, go light Wednesday, practice again Thursday and then give his players what he called a much-needed break before starting on Florida next week. DawgNation reported that each player got his own plan, split between getting healthy and getting better, and Smart allowed that those two do not always share a roof peaceably.
So what does a coach work on when he can't work on the opponent yet? Sic 'Em Dawgs reported that Smart's list started with red-zone defense and missed tackles. He noted that linebackers weighing 230 to 240 pounds have been making tackles the defensive backs ought to finish. That is a polite way of saying the cleanup crew keeps showing up to sweep a floor that should already be clean. Smart insisted the trouble is not in the playbook. "So, it's not a schematic issue. It's not anything like that. It's just playing better and making more timely plays in the red area," he told reporters Tuesday.
Every one of those numbers assumes Georgia will tackle, and the bye week is where that assumption gets earned.
This is not idle housekeeping with Florida on the calendar. Last Saturday, Auburn's Byrum Brown ran for 115 yards against Georgia. Florida won at Texas by handing the ball to Jadan Baugh 25 times for 91 yards and letting a freshman quarterback, Tramell Jones Jr., tuck it and run 10 times for 41 in his first career start. Whoever lines up behind center in Atlanta, Jones or a mending Aaron Philo, the Gators will be asking one plain question. Can Georgia's defensive backs put a man on the ground without waiting for a linebacker to come help?
Khalil Barnes, the senior safety who came to Georgia by way of Clemson, didn't pretend the answer was simple. He said the men on the other side are on scholarship and getting paid too, and that the game is played in a lot of space. Then he made the promise every safety in America makes in October: "We're going to be better with it." He also offered a line Smart might want to frame and hang in the film room: "the bye week is still a week you're either going to win or you're going to lose."
Smart was asked Tuesday about five of the top seven teams losing on one Saturday. Alabama, a week after losing to Georgia, fell 26-10 at Tennessee. Florida won 27-24 at Texas. "And I think you're going to see more of that and it's actually going to be who deals with it best," Smart said. The betting market still has Georgia by 12.5. Moneyball likes Georgia 30-21 and has the Bulldogs winning 70 percent of its regulation simulations, and ESPN's FPI puts it at 82.7 percent. Every one of those numbers assumes Georgia will tackle. The bye week is where that assumption gets earned, and today's practice is the last one before the break.
The Notebook
- COUNTDOWN: Nine days until Georgia and Florida meet at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, October 31, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC. It is the first meeting outside Jacksonville since 1995.
- THE STREAK IS OVER: Ohio State won 19-15 at Indiana and ended the reigning champion's 22-game winning streak. Nick Marsh caught what would have been the winning touchdown, but his left foot came down on the sideline paint.
- ONE SECOND SHORT: BYU beat Notre Dame 28-24 and moved up to No. 2 in the AP poll. The Big 12 has since admitted the clock should have had one more second on it, which would have given Notre Dame another snap from the 8-yard line.
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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