Seventy Points and the Man Wants a Refund

GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Monday, September 14, 2026

Kirby Smart's Bulldogs hung 70 on Western Kentucky, and he came out of it madder than the fellow who lost.

ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk

Kirby Smart's football team scored seventy points Saturday night, and by the sound of him afterward you'd have thought they lost the homecoming game and the parade both. Georgia beat Western Kentucky 70 to 20, and Smart told reporters his reserves finished, quote, kind of sloppy, and weren't quite ready, after the backups let two late touchdowns get past them. Asked whether the all-white uniforms would ever come back, he said, and I quote the man directly: if we play like we did in the second half, hell no. Seventy points, and he wanted a word with the kitchen.

Understand what he was fussing about. Georgia wore all-white for the first time in program history and led 49 to nothing at halftime, which the athletic department says matched the most productive half of football the school has ever played. The Bulldogs finished with 493 yards and gave up 225. Then the second string came on, the thing got briefly human, and that is the part Smart carried home with him. Cupcake season is officially over, he announced, which is coach language for: enjoy it tonight, boys, because I do not intend to.

And here's the thing — the weekend proved him right on national television. Top-ranked Ohio State led Texas by twenty points in the fourth quarter, whereupon Arch Manning threw three unanswered touchdowns' worth of comeback and Texas won it 24 to 23, taking over the No. 1 ranking for its trouble. Out in Stillwater, Oklahoma State — a 24-point underdog carrying a 21-game losing streak against major competition — beat sixth-ranked Oregon 39 to 31 and the fans came over the fence. Comfortable is the most dangerous thing a football team can feel, and Smart knows it.

Which brings us to Saturday. Georgia opens SEC play at Arkansas, an eleven o'clock in the morning kickoff in Fayetteville, the Bulldogs' first road game and first Power Four opponent of the year. Yahoo Sports reports the line opened Georgia minus seventeen and a half against a 1-and-1 Razorback outfit under a first-year coach, coming off a 2-and-10 season. A seventeen-point road favorite at eleven in the morning is precisely the sort of comfortable that just got Oregon. Smart said his team hasn't yet faced SEC-caliber adversity on the road. He did not sound sorry about the wait.

One housekeeping note from the training room. Smart revealed that freshman receiver Thomas Blackshear missed the Western Kentucky game with a wrist injury and has been in a cast, with Arkansas as his next chance to play. Lineman Drew Bobo, meanwhile, has been playing with his left hand in a cast all along, per Sports Illustrated, and blocking folks anyway. So Georgia travels with two casts and one grudge, which around Athens is what they call ready for conference play.

Cupcake season is officially over, Smart announced — coach language for: enjoy it tonight, boys, because I do not intend to.

The Notebook

• NEXT UP: No. 2 Georgia, 2-and-0, at Arkansas on Saturday — 11 a.m. Eastern on ABC. The line opened Georgia minus 17 and a half with a total of 53 and a half.
• IN THE BIG HOUSE: Michigan 17, Oklahoma 10, before 111,240 in Ann Arbor. Bryce Underwood's 38-yard touchdown run in the first quarter held up in a defensive struggle, and the Sooners fell to 1-and-1.
• TALE OF TWO HALVES: Alabama trailed Kentucky 17 to 13 at halftime after two Keelon Russell interceptions, then outscored the Wildcats 32 to nothing after the break to win its SEC opener, 45 to 17.

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.