UGA beat writer Seth Emerson joined Dukes & Bell to talk about the National Championship game on Monday between UGA and Alabama. Emerson talked about if he feels Kirby Smart coaches tight against Nick Saban and Alabama.
Seth told the guys he doesn’t think Kirby Smart coaches any differently against Alabama.
“I don’t think he coaches games different because it’s going up against Saban, when you’re in the moment you’re not looking over at the other sideline, seeing the other coach and suddenly all the memories come back to you and you freeze up. It doesn’t work like that,” says Emerson. “I think it’s just a matter of little different stuff that’s happened in every game, like in 2017, Kirby knew that Nick was gonna put Tua in the game but they still couldn’t stop him. Their defense was not built that way, their defense was built more to stop a Jalen Hurts type of quarterback, but when a good pocket quarterback got in there, their defense wasn’t built to stop him.”
Emerson talked about how a win Monday night could be poetic for UGA.
“Last month, Georgia might still be a better team and they were up ten nothing, it was the old Mike Tyson boxing adage of everyone’s got a plan until you get hit in the mouth. When Jameson Williams caught that touchdown, when he caught that short pass and went all the way for the touchdown, Georgia’s defense was hit in the mouth. And then it kept getting hit in the mouth and it was the first time that had happened all year and they weren’t ready, they folded as a defense essentially until the second half and then the offense had to play catchup and they couldn’t. Georgia needs to play differently, they need to probably coach differently in terms of strategy but maybe that ends up being some great poetry that they finally win the national championship by not only knocking off Alabama, by doing it in the same year that they also lost to Alabama. Every other time they’ve lost to them that ended for all intent and purposes their season hopes, this time it didn’t and they get another shot at them.”