Kirby Smart doesn’t lose in Sanford Stadium often as Georgia football coach.
He entered Saturday’s 27-24 shocking loss to Auburn with a 60-5 record between the hedges in his 11 seasons.
His top-ranked Bulldogs lost to rival and unranked Auburn for the first time since 2017 and a first-year coach in Alex Golesh, whose only SEC win this year was against Vanderbilt.
Smart praised Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown who rushed for 132 yards and threw for 150 and accounted for two touchdowns but said Georgia helped him.
“We gave him three turnovers,” Smart said of two Gunner Stockton interceptions and a late fumble, “and some really critical, undisciplined penalties. Like I say, humility is a week away. Auburn played better than us today, executed better than us today, didn’t turn the ball over and hit the red area plays. We had some really, really untimely, undisciplined, uncharacteristic penalties.”
Georgia only had four penalties for 60 yards, but three of them were late hits by Khamari Brooks, Josh Horton and Gabe Harris.
Stockton threw two interceptions for the first time in his career.
Smart said he stared down the receiver on one and the other came on a pass where he was just off target to an open man and overthrew it.
Stockton was 22 of 34 for 272 yards with two touchdowns and the two interceptions.
“They did a good job and took a lot of our run game away and it puts a lot of pressure on him,” Smart said. “
Smart thinks his team will respond after its first loss since the Sugar Bowl to Ole Miss on Jan. 1.
“The guys in that locker room, they know,” Smart said. “We practiced good this week. I was really pleased with it and guys practiced hard. We knew it was going to be a physical game although the outside world didn’t think that. Auburn’s got a lot of pride, they’ve got a lot of experience.”
Brown followed Golesh from South Florida.
“That quarterback has played in a ton of games,” Smart said of the senior. “And he’s a good football player. And when they don’t turn it over and we turn it over three times, it hands you extra possessions on penalties. The Dawgs beat the Dawgs. And that’s no disrespect to Auburn because I thought they were very physical. They did a good job on the line of scrimmage”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia's Kirby Smart says 'Auburn played and executed better than us'