Another Georgia Bulldogs win, but Kirby Smart wasn’t impressed

Georgia threw for more than 350 yards, scored on its first six possessions, had 15 receivers catch at least one pass and didn’t let an opponent in the end zone for the second straight week in a 33-0 win over visiting Samford on Saturday in Athens.

But Kirby Smart wasn’t impressed, even if the performance vaulted the Bulldogs to the No. 1 ranking atop the college football world, flipping with Alabama after the Crimson Tide’s lackluster performance in a 20-19 win at unranked Texas on Saturday.

“We’re not really mature yet,” Smart, whose team opens Southeastern Conference play at South Carolina (1-1) on Saturday, said. “You know the goal is to come out and show some maturity and come out play with composure, and we really didn’t play very well, especially in the second half.”

While Georgia was far from perfection considering Jack Podlesny kicked four field goals shorter than 28 yards because the Georgia’s failed to consistently finish drives in the end zone, its victory was never in doubt.

“Through two games, I feel like we still have room for improvement,” tight end Darnell Washington said. “We have more room to grow. We can be 10 times better than what we are now.

Georgia has outscored it first two opponents by a combined score of 82-3, representing its largest margin of victory through a season’s first two games since 1941.

Still, Smart really wasn’t that impressed by the Bulldogs’ performance in a game Georgia was favored to win by 52.5 points.

“We didn’t score touchdowns,” he said. “You come off a week like Oregon where every opportunity to score a touchdown, we score a touchdown. And then we take a huge step back and have to kick field goals. Good teams, you can’t do that. You have to be able to execute well. We have to do a better job.”

Stetson Bennett threw for a touchdown and ran for another in less than three quarters. He finished with 252 yards on 24-for-34 passing for 300 yards before being replaced by Carson Beck with 2:34 left in the third quarter and Georgia up 30-0.

“I’d hope that we know that it’s not going to be handed to us, but if we didn’t know then I’m sure this is going to be a good reminder we’re going to have to get back on Monday,” Bennett said. “We still had around 500 yards of offense, we didn’t punt in the first half, we still had a good day. But, it was not our day; it was not the day we wanted to have. We’re going to get that fixed on Monday.”

Kenny McIntosh had five receptions for 61 yards, while tight end Brock Bowers caught three passes for 57 yards. Kendall Milton rushed for 85 yards on 10 carries and Daijun Edwards added 23 yards on six attempts, while Beck went 5-for-7 for 52 yards. Podlesny’s lone miss was from 54 yards.

“Going through this week, we knew we were going to have to run the ball,” Milton said. “We actually were expecting it to be a rainy day so we were kind of already expecting for it to be a big running day.”

Georgia ran for 127 yards and two touchdowns, but Milton’s 19-yard gain was the only big play on the ground.

“The backs did a nice job of running downhill, we just didn’t have a big home-run hitter,” Smart said.

Smart and Samford coach Chris Hatcher, who hired Smart as his defensive backs coach at Valdosta State in 2000, agreed to play a 12-minute fourth quarter — not the standard 15 — due to the lopsided score.

“We didn’t really talk about it. He reached out to one of our staff members and one of our staff members got to him,” Smart said. “He asked about it. I’ve got respect for Chris (Hatcher), and I wanted to be fair to his players. But that conversation, that stays between me and Hatch.”

Georgia’s smothered Samford, holding it to just 128 yards and three first downs, including just one in the first half. It was Georgia’s ninth shutout since Smart arrived in Athens prior to the 2016 season, the most in the FBS during that span and more than Alabama.

Smart, however, wasn’t impressed, knowing last week’s effort won’t be good enough when the Bulldogs face South Carolina on Saturday.

“Our defense overpowered, but it was a disappointing performance,” he said. “We’ve got to practice better and play better.”