Kirby Smart made an unbelievable coaching decision on a special teams play during Georgia’s win over Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinals, but it turns out it may not have been needed.
Ohio State was leading 38-27 and had a 4th-and-1 at their 34 with just under nine minutes left to play. Buckeyes coach Ryan Day called for a fake punt that looked like it would have worked, but Smart used a timeout before the snap. Had Ohio State converted, the play could very well have been the difference in the game.
The officiating crew also missed a penalty on the play, so it likely would not have counted. Replays showed that Ohio State had 12 men in their punt formation.
As someone pointed out yesterday, the Buckeyes had 12 men on the field on their fake punt. So all Kirby Smart did was burn a timeout. But how can a team obviously spend so much time working on a fake after what happened vs. Michigan and have 12 men on the field? pic.twitter.com/gZG5PdLBSR
— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) January 4, 2023
You can see another angle below:
I'm gonna say the no call for Ohio State having 12 men on the field for the fake punt pic.twitter.com/OJCLJK3q4Z
— TJ McElreath (@TheTeejestDoe) January 3, 2023
It is unclear why a flag was not thrown, but the officials basically cost Georgia a timeout. Play should have been stopped before the timeout was called because there were 12 Buckeyes on the field.
That’s not to take anything away from Smart. He still identified that Ohio State was going to run a fake punt and made sure it did not happen. Whether it was the greatest timeout call in college football history is now a bit more debatable, however.
