Georgia draws big offsides after wholesale substitutions with punt team on scoring drive
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STARKVILLE, Miss. — Georgia football rolled off 24 straight points in the first half Saturday, using some wholesale special teams substitutions that helped draw a Mississippi State penalty and kept a touchdown drive going to cap it off.
It came in a 41-21 victory on Nov. 8 at Davis Wade Stadium.
Georgia sent its punt unit onto the field on a 4th-and-3 at the Mississippi State 38 but then came the offensive unit like it was ready to go for it with under two minutes to go in the half and holding a 17-7 lead.
Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby called timeout.
The punt unit came back on the field after the teams returned to the field.
Then once again Georgia sent out the offense.
Mississippi State junior defensive lineman Jaray Bledsoe jumped offside, giving the Bulldogs a first down.
“It was a huge turning point in the game when we got them to jump offsides and cashed in with (Mike) Bobo’s call on the screen,” coach Kirby Smart said.
Gunner Stockton connected with Zachariah Branch on a 19-yard touchdown with 11 seconds to go in the half to go up 24-7.
“For all the screen haters out there, there you go,” Smart said.
Said Stockton: “I’m glad they jumped. I’m glad it ended up working for us and they had to burn a timeout.”
The wholesale special teams run in was reminiscent of of Notre Dame subbing in 11 players in the Sugar Bowl with their punt team on a fourth-and-1. Georgia had two defenders jump offside in that 23-10 loss. The penalty helped the Irish burn clock late in the game.
Smart said Georgia didn’t run the punt team off just for Mississippi State.
“We keep it, we keep a lot of things like that in our back pocket,” Smart said. “Try to be aggressive and use them. We learned a valuable lesson against Notre Dame. Let’s just say that.”
Georgia added a touchdown on a 59-yard Nate Frazier run with 12:32 to go in the third quarter.
So Georgia owned the so called “middle eight,” of the last four minutes of the first half and first four of the second half.
“I loved it,” Smart said. “The middle eight is huge. We work hard on that.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: How Georgia used punt team to get offsides before late first half TD
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