Kirby Is 8-0 Against Missouri and Acting Like It’s 0-8
Written by Jarvis Prime on November 9, 2026
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Monday, November 9, 2026
Georgia gets a 3:30 kickoff, a two-touchdown line and a head coach pointing at what happened the week after Alabama.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
ESPN finally put a clock on it Sunday: Missouri at Georgia kicks at 3:30 Saturday afternoon in Athens, on ABC, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The same story noted that Kirby Smart has never lost to Missouri, eight wins in eight tries, four of them against Eli Drinkwitz. A man with that kind of record ought to be whistling on his way to the office. Instead, DawgNation reports, Smart spent Sunday reminding anybody with a notebook that humility is never more than a week away, and pointing at the Auburn loss that followed the Alabama win as Exhibit A.
He is not wrong to point. Georgia is 4-1 in Sanford Stadium this year, and the one loss, 10-17 to Auburn, came the Saturday after Georgia had gone on the road and beaten Alabama. Now here comes a beatable team to Athens the week after Georgia went to Oxford and beat Ole Miss 42-7. Trevor Michael at Dawn of the Dawg saw the same shape and said so. My grandmother held that the devil does his best recruiting the Sunday after you brag in church, and I have never found a flaw in her theology.
Everybody has made up their mind except the fellow who gets paid to worry.
The bookmakers do not share Kirby's nerves. DraftKings opened Georgia 13.5 points better, FanDuel went 15.5, and Rock M Nation, the Missouri outlet, reported a 14.5 with the total at 46.5. The desk's own opponent-adjusted rating makes Georgia about 15 better in Athens, and ESPN's computer gives Georgia an 88.8 percent chance. Missouri, meanwhile, fell clean out of the Associated Press Top 25 after losing 34-20 at home to Texas, a game in which the Tigers converted 3 of 16 third downs. Everybody has made up their mind except the fellow who gets paid to worry.
The Tigers also come limping, and I mean that literally. Missouri Tigers On SI reports quarterback Austin Simmons stayed down after a five-yard run late in the Texas game, limped off, gave way to Matt Zollers, then came back to finish. Leading receiver Cayden Lee was helped off by trainers, and defensive end Langden Kitchen was on crutches by the end. Simmons has thrown 18 touchdowns against 2 interceptions, and Jamal Roberts has 1,071 rushing yards, the best back Georgia has faced since Alabama. Whether the three are whole by Saturday is Wednesday's news, when the SEC availability report comes out.
Georgia has a list of its own. DawgNation's Connor Riley reports cornerback Ellis Robinson left the fourth quarter in Oxford with what Smart called a thigh and hip problem, the second straight game he did not finish. Receiver Craig Dandridge went out with a hamstring that has bothered him for two or three weeks, and defensive tackle Joshua Horton was rolled up on during a sack. Smart allowed that Georgia is banged up, and so is everybody else in the league. That is the kind of thing a coach says when he has counted heads in the training room and would rather you didn't.
The cure Kirby trusts is the one he used Saturday night. Georgia ran on 73 percent of its snaps at Ole Miss for 295 yards, the fourth straight game the Dogs kept it on the ground two-thirds of the time. "Physicality is our brand of football," Smart said after the game, and it does more than move the chains. Missouri's two lopsided losses this year came when its own running game was taken away, 39 yards at Ole Miss and 84 against Texas. Fifty degrees and clear Saturday afternoon is running weather. The surest way to keep humility a week off is to keep the clock moving.
The Notebook
- COUNTDOWN: Five days to Missouri. Saturday, 3:30 in the afternoon, Sanford Stadium, on ABC. Clear and about 50 degrees, the forecast says.
- AROUND THE COUNTRY: Notre Dame beat top-ranked Miami 31-24 in Coral Gables and the fans came over the wall. Oregon handed Ohio State a third loss, 41-28, and Alabama, the only team ahead of Georgia in the desk's ratings, put LSU away 31-13 in Baton Rouge.
- THE SLATE: The weekend board rates the Pachyderms 17.5 better at the Anchor Boys and calls it a lock. Longhorn Steers at Bayou Bengals, LSU by 3.5, is a coin flip, and so is Salt Flat Utes at Desert Cats at Utah minus 2.5.
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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