A Wet Night Is a Kicker’s Night
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 6, 2026
Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Tuesday, October 6, 2026
With rain and wind in the Tuscaloosa forecast and Alabama favored by a point and a half, the Bulldog who matters most on Saturday may be the one who is on the field the least.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
Kirby Smart has spent the better part of a month answering questions about who is going to catch the football. This week the question is whether anybody will be able to hold onto it. Georgia Bulldogs On SI reported that the forecast for Saturday night in Tuscaloosa calls for a 50 percent chance of rain, winds of 15 miles an hour and gusts up to 25. Smart allowed that weather "obviously can be a factor." In coach talk, that means he has checked the radar more often this week than he has checked his own mailbox.
Which brings us, as wet nights in Alabama always do, to the kicker. Georgia's game notes say senior Peyton Woodring has made 206 extra points in a row, which is an SEC record. He is 63 of 71 on career field goals, good for 89 percent, and on Monday Smart called him "a model of consistency." I have heard preachers, bankers and bird dogs described that way, and most of them let somebody down sooner or later. Woodring hasn't, at least not on the short ones, and I quit counting on my fingers a long time ago.
A kicker is the only man on a football team whose job is to be bored for three hours and then perfect for two seconds.
Asked about the rain, Woodring said the Bulldogs "practice in the wet conditions all the time." That is either the most reassuring sentence anybody has said in Athens this week or the most Georgia thing a kicker ever said. A kicker is the only man on a football team whose job is to be bored for three hours and then perfect for two seconds. Rain doesn't change the job. It just changes how many people in the stands are praying while he does it.
Here is why it matters. The board has Alabama by a point and a half, which in the betting trade is a polite way of saying nobody has the faintest idea. 247Sports reported that Georgia is averaging 51.4 points a game and Alabama 49.6, and that thirteen different Bulldogs have caught touchdown passes. Everybody is expecting a track meet. But a 25-mile-an-hour gust doesn't care about your averages, and a soggy football doesn't care about your receivers. Two unbeaten teams a point and a half apart could end up settled by the fellow who touches the ball the least.
So my advice to the Georgia faithful headed for Tuscaloosa is the same thing my mama told me about Sunday dinner: bring a jacket and keep your expectations reasonable. Kickoff is 7:30 Eastern on ABC. If it rains, and it might, keep an eye on the extra points. Peyton Woodring has done the dull thing exactly right 206 times in a row. On Saturday night, in the wind, the dull thing could decide the whole ballgame.
The Notebook
- GATORS TAKE ON WATER: Missouri routed Florida 45 to 17, and Jamal Roberts ran for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns. In the next AP poll Missouri climbed from No. 25 to No. 14, and Florida fell eight spots to No. 16.
- THE HURRICANES ARE FOR REAL: No. 3 Miami beat Clemson 41 to 13 in Death Valley. Saturday Down South pointed to quarterback Darian Mensah, who has 15 touchdown passes and no interceptions this season.
- ELSEWHERE SATURDAY: Tennessee is favored by 13.5 at the Hog Callers at 4:15 Eastern, and LSU is favored by 8.5 at Kentucky at 7:00.
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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