Kirby Said Be Brave, and Bobo Listened
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 12, 2026
Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Monday, October 12, 2026
On third-and-7 from his own 10 with the game on the line, Georgia's head coach told his play-caller to forget the punt, and then he gave the play-caller the credit.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
There is a moment in every close football game when the sensible thing and the right thing stop speaking to each other. For Georgia on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, that moment came on third-and-7 from its own 10-yard line with 2:36 left and a 20-17 lead. Every granddaddy in every recliner from Valdosta to Toccoa knew the play. You run it into the pile, you punt it away and you pray the defense remembers what it was taught. That isn't cowardice. It's just how the old folks did it.
Kirby Smart, it turns out, is not the old folks. DawgNation reported that Smart had told offensive coordinator Mike Bobo to be aggressive and play to win instead of running it and punting. When it was over, Smart gave Bobo the credit for the call. In this conference that's a rarer sight than a humble booster. Head coaches usually keep the good decisions for themselves and leave the coordinators the ones that get folks hollering on the call-in shows.
Aggressive is a lovely word on a Monday; on a Saturday it's only lovely if the ball goes where you sent it.
The call was Gunner Stockton to tight end Elyiss Williams for 17 yards, and that was the ball game. Alabama never got the ball back. Kalen DeBoer has spent the days since talking about the flag that wasn't thrown when Rico Scott and KJ Bolden collided near the end zone. To his credit, he also said, "We can't put the game in that situation where the officials come into play." He's right, and it helps to have the football.
The numbers suggest Bobo wasn't flipping a coin. In the desk's ledger, Georgia runs the ball on only 30.5 percent of its third downs, and the offense produces 0.46 expected points per play, up from 0.42 in 2023. That's a team that trusts its quarterback when the down gets long. The footnote on those figures says descriptive, not predictive, which is a polite way of saying the numbers don't make the call. Somebody still has to, with a stadium full of people screaming at him.
It was a weekend for nerve all over the map. In Lexington, Will Stein went for two in overtime instead of settling for the tie, and Kenny Minchey ran it in on a quarterback draw to beat LSU, 35-34. Unranked Oklahoma went 31 yards in 19 seconds, and Tate Sandell kicked a 47-yard field goal as time expired to beat No. 1 Texas, 27-24. Aggressive is a lovely word on a Monday. On a Saturday it's only lovely if the ball goes where you sent it.
Now comes Auburn, in what Smart called the South's oldest rivalry, at 3:30 Saturday afternoon in Sanford Stadium. Georgia is 6-0. Auburn is 3-2 and rested after a bye. Smart said tight end Jaden Reddell is a little dinged up and that Georgia has nobody it can move to tailback. Somewhere this week Bobo is drawing up another third-and-long, and somewhere Kirby is deciding whether to tell him to be brave again. I'd bet the farm he does.
The Notebook
- OUT WEST: UCLA won at No. 13 Oregon, 17-15, and stayed unbeaten even though quarterback Nico Iamaleava left injured in the first half. Oregon's backup, Dylan Raiola, threw two interceptions, and the Ducks finished with 242 total yards.
- TROUBLE IN GAINESVILLE: South Carolina beat No. 16 Florida, 38-19, and torched the Gators' pass defense along the way. Florida is now 4-2.
- THE COUNTDOWN: The Loveliest Village Tigers visit the Red Clay Hounds at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. The desk has Georgia giving 20.5 points and calls it a lock.
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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