Paul Finebaum Rips Georgia Coach’s ‘Terrible Call’ in Thursday Bowl Game Loss

Considering the difficulty that Georgia was up against when facing a difficult Notre Dame front in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday, with star quarterback Carson Beck out and backup Gunner Stockton stepping in as the starter, the Bulldogs might have done well to be conservative, particularly with the game off to a slogging start and with the Bulldogs’ receiving corps not quite what it’s been in the past.

But with the Fighting Irish leading by a count of just 6-3, Georgia got the ball on its own 25-yard line, with 39 seconds to play in the first half. The Bulldogs would have been wise to go into the locker room down just a field goal, but instead, they decided to give Stockton a chance to get into field-goal range.

Alas, Stockton took one of the four sacks he suffered in the game, and fumbled on the play, setting up a half-ending touchdown for Notre Dame.

The Irish then compounded matters with a kick return for a touchdown to open the third quarter, taking a field-goal deficit and expanding it to 20-3 in a span of 54 seconds.

To ESPN college football guru Paul Finebaum, the blame for Georgia’s misplaced aggression was on offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, the former Bulldogs quarterback who has been tight with coach Kirby Smart for years.

Speaking on “Get Up” on Friday morning, Finebaum said Smart will not get fans’ wrath.

“They will not be blaming Kirby Smart,” he noted. “They will be blaming Mike Bobo, who is the offensive coordinator. He came in and took over for Todd Monken who went to the NFL. And quite frankly, nobody is very happy with him. He’s Kirby Smart’s best friend, they were roommates, and it many believe that Kirby Smart looks past reality and simply respected and honored a friend who used to work for Mark Richt at Georgia and then moved on and failed as a head coach.

“It was just a terrible call in every respect and I think Kirby Smart even admitted that at halftime. It is easy to say after the fact but when you have a quarterback who is struggling, he has made some good plays but you’re not that confident in him, don’t put the game in his hands when you’re only three points behind, and everyone in America saw what happened after that mistake.”

Bobo was coach of Colorado State from 2015-19.