Experts question if ‘psycho’ Georgia can keep winning in dramatic fashion

Kirby Smart has been all about the “calm amid chaos” since the start of the season, but the college football world is still adjusting.

Georgia’s fourth-quarter drama — and heroics — has been critiqued, celebrated and everything in between.

“They are psycho,” ESPN analyst “Stanford Steve” Coughlin said on a podcast with Scott Van Pelt.

“And they are unbelievably awesome.”

Van Pelt, expounding on the concept of Georgia managing close and chaotic game situations, said, “When the train gets off the track for them, they’re like, ‘let’s play.’”

UGA plays at Mississippi State at noon Saturday in a Davis Wade Stadium that is expected to be rocking loud with cowbells.

The cowbells aren’t supposed to be used once the center goes over the football, but Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, whose team escaped with a (41-34 overtime) win this season, has said more than once the cowbells did affect play.

Smart has said he doesn’t want to make a big deal out of the artificial noisemakers, but his team was exposed to crowd noise featuring cowbells during the team’s Thursday workout inside the practice facility.

Georgia is a 9.5-point favorite, as oddsmakers have obviously taken note how UGA has gone 3-1 in one-score games this season, while the Maroon Bulldogs are 2-3 in one-score games.

Fox analyst Joe Klatt suggested the close games are simply a reflection of how the UGA program has fallen off since its dominant, championship seasons in this era of name, image and likeness and transfer-induce parity.

“It’s Georgia, but is it Georgia? I think we get too wrapped up in Kirby’s history at Georgia, and the great teams,” Klatt said on a recent podcast. “So are we measuring this team against that? Because they are clearly not the ’21, or ’22 Georgia Bulldogs, not even close.

“They are much more similar, almost identical, to last year’s version, which had a lot of flaws and you could even say maybe in some respects overachieved,” he said, “but then got exposed because of those flaws by Notre Dame in the playoff.”

Klatt said that, sooner or later, Georgia’s penchant for playing close games will work against it.

“How many games are we going to sit here and be like, ‘Well, they got to come back in this game, and they got to come back in this game, and they got to come back in this game,’” Klatt said.

“We can say they are hard to kill, they are resilient, all of that is true, but at what point does it come back to haunt them? At some point it will.”

Comparing 2024 and 2025 Georgia

Rank among SEC teams

Points per game

• 2025: 9th (32.5 ppg)
• 2024: 5th (31.5 ppg)

Points allowed per game

• 2025: 7th (19.62 ppg)
• 2024: 6th (20.6 ppg)

Total offense

• 2025: 7th (420.0 ypg)
• 2024: 9th (405.4 ypg)

Total defense

• 2025: 3rd (309.4 ypg)
• 2024: 7th (329.9 ypg)

Pass offense

• 2025: 12th (236.0 ypg)
• 2024: 3rd (281.0 ypg)

Pass defense

• 2025: 9th (215.2 ypg)
• 2024: 6th (200.2 ypg)

Rush offense

• 2025: 6th (184.0 ypg)
• 2024: 15th (124.4 ypg)

Rush defense

• 2025: 5th (94.1 ypg)
• 2024: 8th (129.6 ypg)

3rd down offense

• 2025: 6th (46.7 pct.)
• 2024: 12th (39.2 pct.)

3rd down defense