It was the end of a trying few days for the Georgia Bulldogs, who were on site in New Orleans on early Wednesday morning when a terrorist attack left 15 dead on the always popular tourist attraction Bourbon Street in the city’s French Quarter. The Sugar Bowl had been delayed by a day, and when it was played, Georgia was ground down by Notre Dame, 23-10.
The Irish will go on to the College Football Playoff semifinal, and coach Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs will go home and lick their wounds.
But before Smart ended his postgame press conference, during which he was at times irritable, he paused and asked media members in attendance to give special acknowledgement to junior Jalon Walker and senior Tate Ratledge, two of the team’s captains.
“I’ve got one thing I want to say about these two guys before we break …” Smart said. “When we do our captains — and rarely have I ever seen this where we did our captains — and two guys got more votes than anybody we’ve ever had. A combination of an offensive player and a defensive player. Well, that’s picked by the 130 players on the team, so they picked these two guys at about a 95% rate.”
Smart acknowledged that this year, during which Georgia finished 11-3, more losses than he had in the previous three seasons, Walker and Ratledge stood out. “They dominated the room. They controlled the room. They led the room through hard games and situations. There were some hard games and situations,” he said.
“I’ll never forget this guy against Georgia Tech chasing everybody down telling them to stay in the game, hope’s still alive. This guy doing the coin toss and saying we’re about to win this game in overtime. And I know today will be written about and that’s fine, but these two guys right here are as special as they come. Thank you, guys.”
It was a classy gesture for Smart, but as Fox Sports pointed out, SEC fans might recognize the move–it was the same thing that legendary Alabama coach did when his team was eliminated in 2022.
Wrote Fox Sports: “Kirby Smart and Nick Saban will always be CFB legends Even after tough losses in the 2022 and 2025 CFPs both coaches made sure to end their press conferences thanking the two players beside them.”
Smart won’t win a national championship, but he’s become the face of the SEC in the absence of Saban. Not a bad role model.