Kirby Has Asked Athens to Holler Like Somebody Else’s Town
Written by Jarvis Prime on November 12, 2026
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Thursday, November 12, 2026
Georgia is unbeaten in other people's stadiums and has lost only in its own, and the head coach has noticed who was making the noise.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
Kirby Smart has spent this week doing something the coach of the No. 1 team in the country does not ordinarily have to do, which is ask his own people to holler. DawgNation reported that Smart, ahead of Georgia's last home conference game of the season, challenged the Sanford Stadium crowd to make Athens as hard on a visitor as the places Georgia has been visiting, and allowed that only the Oklahoma game had come close. It is a peculiar thing to be told you have been out-yelled by Arkansas.
The man has his reasons, and they are in the ledger. Georgia is 3-0 on the road, having gone to Arkansas, Alabama and Ole Miss and come home happy every time. Georgia is 4-1 in Athens, and the one is Auburn, 17-10, the week after the Alabama trip. "We're a good team that's a week away from humility," Smart said after the Ole Miss game. He was not guessing. He has already met humility once this fall, and it was sitting in his own living room with its feet on the furniture.
The team has shown it can quiet a crowd; somebody ought to show it one that won't hush.
The players have been asked about it all week, and they answer like men who remember. Guard Dontrell Glover told reporters Monday what the Auburn week taught him: "You got to always be on 10 in the SEC." Glover also said the offensive line's aim on the road is to send the other fellow's crowd to the parking lot early, and that in Oxford he saw them going early in the third quarter. That is a fine ambition. Saturday the job is the reverse, and it belongs to the customers.
There is also the matter of the number by Georgia's name. The Associated Press reported that when Notre Dame beat Miami 31-24 last Saturday, Miami became the fourth team this season to lose while ranked No. 1. Georgia now holds that spot in the AP poll, the coaches poll and the playoff ranking, which this year is a little like being handed the keys to a truck that has thrown four drivers. Smart told reporters Monday the ranking means nothing to him. I would not get attached to it either.
Missouri is 6-3 and 2-2 away from home, and it brings a quarterback, Austin Simmons, with 18 touchdown passes against 2 interceptions. Georgia leads the series 12-1, according to Georgia's athletic department, and the one was 41-26 in this same stadium in 2013. The bookmakers opened Georgia at 13.5 and have moved it to 15.5. Sports Illustrated's betting preview took Missouri and the points, and this desk's exploratory simulation calls it 28-22 and has Georgia covering just 26.9 percent of the time. ESPN's index gives Georgia an 88.8 percent chance to win.
So there will be no excuses for the paying public. The forecast is clear, about 57 degrees at the 3:30 kickoff and the mid 40s by the end, with the wind under 5 miles an hour. ABC has the game, SEC Nation is in town, and On3 reports Georgia will have five-star recruits in the stands deciding where to spend their youth. Bring a sweater and whatever lungs the Lord gave you. The team has shown it can quiet a crowd. Somebody ought to show it one that won't hush.
The Notebook
- WHO'S AVAILABLE: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Wednesday's first SEC availability report lists only two Bulldogs: outside linebacker Amaris Williams out with a knee and defensive lineman Joshua Horton questionable with a leg. ABC17 News reported Missouri has lost starting defensive end Langden Kitchen for the season.
- AROUND THE COUNTRY: Oregon spotted Ohio State 14 points and won 41-28, the Buckeyes' second straight loss. Alabama beat LSU 31-13, and Tennessee ended Kentucky's six-game winning streak, 34-6.
- ANOTHER LIST FOR STOCKTON: Georgia's athletic department said Wednesday that quarterback Gunner Stockton is one of 20 semifinalists for the Walter Camp Player of the Year. He has 20 touchdown passes and only four interceptions.
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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