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The past two years have been tough for Florida fans during the World’s Largest Cocktail Party. Unlike previous editions, the Gators felt genuinely close to pulling off the upset only for things to slip away. In 2024, DJ Lagway got hurt, and Aidan Warner couldn’t throw the ball more than five yards. Last year, Lagway had a wide-open J. Michael Sturdivant, but underthrew the pass, and that was that.
Ahead of the 2026 season, Kirby Smart is going to face his fourth head coach from Florida since he took over. One of the key additions that new Florida coach Jon Sumrall made was Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, who is noted for his explosive offense.
Speaking at SEC Media Days in Tampa, Smart tried to paint a picture of his offense as more explosive than most give it credit for. This year’s Florida-Georgia game is set to be a great test as to whether Smart’s words actually match reality.
Kirby Smart claims Georgia is more explosive than most credit
Smart opened his remarks by claiming that despite all the chaos that surrounds college football off the field, his main priority is what happens on the field:
“What we focus on in Georgia is what wins football games, and that’s my passion and energy. That’s what we love to do. We love to grind it out, play physical football, be explosive in offense, be explosive in defense by how you create turnovers and how you create sacks.”
Now, that statement is a bit all over the place, as Smart wants to grind out games while also being explosive on offense. Those two tend not to go hand in hand. Smart was later asked about the perception that Georgia leans on defense and its running game to win, and Smart pushed back on that narrative:
“Those would be your words, not mine, because I like to think we play good defense and we play good offense. Statistically over the last five years we got the second most explosive plays in all of college football, and that’s on offense. So I think there is a misnomer probably because of the position I coach and my history and the defensive philosophy that it’s like this, oh, okay we’re just — no, we believe you have to run the ball.
In the fourth quarter there were probably four games last year that if we didn’t run the ball for a first down and they know we were going to run the ball because of the clock management, you lose games or you give them another possession. Our identity will be physical. You can be physical in the pass game, you can be physical on the perimeter.
We pride ourselves in these things as well, but I don’t think we’re an anomaly or an exception. We just follow the rule of the book that when you have to run the ball, you have to be able to run the ball in games. There will come a time where every whenever team has to do that. It doesn’t mean you can’t be explosive. We need to be more explosive.
When you do a five, four year study, you look at the numbers, Georgia has been in the Top 5 of all those categories. I like to think our success has come from both offense, defense, and special teams.”
Will Florida be more explosive than Georgia in 2026?
It’s not really clear where Smart is getting his numbers from. Last year, Georgia was 67th in total runs over 20 yards and was 56th in total passes over 20 yards. For further context, FSU had more passing plays over 20 yards last year than Georgia.
More notably, Georgia Tech was ahead of Georgia in both of these categories. The counter from Georgia fans is going to be the scoreboard from 2025, when Georgia won 16-9. The counter to that is Buster Faulkner didn’t have Jadan Baugh, Vernell Brown III, Dallas Wilson, and Eric Singleton Jr. to work with.
The point is that the last two seasons, when Florida got right on the doorstep of beating Georgia and fell short, is that Florida’s offense could just never find the explosive play to put Georgia away, and the Bulldogs had to claw their way back because they themselves lacked the big plays to put Napier away until late.
So heading into 2026, if Smart thinks his offense is explosive and perception doesn’t match reality, go for it.
But if Georgia doesn’t find a way to bury Florida early in Atlanta, don’t be shocked if the Gators find a way to get over the finish line in 2026.
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This article was originally published on hailfloridahail.com as Kirby Smart’s latest Georgia claim sets up a fascinating test against Florida.
