Matt Stinchcomb talks Florida-Georgia, Kirby Smart

Two-time All-American offensive tackle with the Georgia Bulldogs and ESPN college football analyst Matt Stinchcomb talks Florida-Georgia and new Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.

Matt Stinchcomb is a current college football analyst for ESPN, doing games on ESPN U and the SEC Network. He was a two-time All-American offensive tackle with the Georgia Bulldogs his junior and senior seasons in Athens (1997, 1998). Stinchcomb was a first-round pick by the Oakland Raiders in the 1999 NFL draft, playing seven seasons in the NFL with the Raiders and later the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

At Georgia, Stinchcomb got to play with some incredible teammates from 1995 to 1998, including Champ Bailey, Richard Seymour, Hines Ward, and current Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.

Being that it is the week leading up to the Florida-Georgia game down in Jacksonville, Stinchcomb was kind enough to a few minutes of his time to discuss this football rivalry, Georgia’s true freshman quarterback Jacob Eason, and his former teammate in Georgia head coach Smart.

John Buhler: Matt, thanks for taking the time to talk some college football with me. Before we begin, can you please tell us about the great work you are doing with the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team?

Matt Stinchcomb: I’ve had the honor of being part of this team in just about any way you can be. As a player, I received the honor while at the University of Georgia. I’ve had the opportunity to participate as a selection committee member, which is an incredibly difficult job, given the type of work these kids have been doing.

I don’t know if fans across the country and beyond can understand enough just how great these kids have been in recognizing their opportunity to impact others in seizing those opportunities and creating them for themselves in ways they didn’t previously exist, starting in starting their own entities even. To be able to give back to their respective communities and not get a chance to kind of bang the drum to make sure that folks are aware of not only this team that is created by Allstate and the American Football Coaches Association.

Its constituents, the kids that are on there, because that’s ultimately the real story. These kids are more than just great football players, they’re really good people. They are giving back in very generous and meaningful ways, not just around their schools, but also in their communities, hometowns, and countries abroad. It’s an impressive thing to get to be a part of.

JB: You had the pleasure of playing in this rivalry series four times, going 1-3 against the Gators from 1995 to 1998. While this loss still probably stings a bit, what are you memories from Steve Spurrier’s ‘Half a Hundred Game’ in Athens back in 1995?

MS: You know I’ve had to work really hard to try to erase those memories, but they seem seared into my mind. It was my true freshman year and you’re right, the game was somewhat curious. They were still renovating, making adjustments, accommodations for a professional football franchise in Jacksonville. So we played a home and home, which is an exception to the rule in this matchup.

Georgia went down to Florida in ’94 and Florida came to us in ’95. As you’ve already noted in the score, we just assume they have not made the trip because it was virtually over before it started. They jumped all over us.

I remember there being a big punt early on. I think Chris Doering was pretty much allowed line up in the end zone, and then they’d just snap the ball, and throw it to him wide open.

It was not a pleasant experience. The fact that Florida was able to go north of 50 points, wasn’t an ideal scenario from our perspective either. We weren’t real pleased with how it shook out and the game finished off.

JB: The 1997 game has to be one of your favorite games as a player. This game ended Georgia’s series-worst seven-game skid to the Gators. Was there something Coach Donnan said in the days leading up to this game that let you guys know you could beat Florida?

MS: No, it wasn’t anything Coach Donnan said. It was more of what the things that team did. It wasn’t like Georgia was without talent. You look at that team. There are guys that played in that game that will be first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famers: Hines Ward, Richard Seymour, Champ Bailey. Those guys are all-time greats at any level.

We had a guy Robert Edwards at tailback, barring a horrific injury after his rookie season, set the NFL rookie rushing record for touchdowns with New England. He was on the precipice of a great career. You know those guys were out there.

Right of the start, our entire offensive front played in the NFL. It was a really good football team, but we had really good football teams before. You know we would kind of slop our way through a season, drop a couple of games.

Coach Spurrier actually had a great line to something to the effect of “You know, Georgia always gets all these great players. I don’t know what happens to them.” [Laughs] You almost have to laugh because well, you know he’s right. Especially in that series. You sit there going, “How is it that we come in here and just don’t get it done.” It’s like a mental block.

That year, I remember looking at one of my good buddies. We roomed together on the road. Actually, we were roommates back in Athens, too, Steven Herndon. He went on to play in the NFL. I remember we would just look at each other, like “Something about this week, this game. It just feels different this time.” And it did.

We were able to get a pretty decisive victory over Florida in that game. Incidentally, Georgia’s current head coach had a couple of nice turnovers, two interceptions by Kirby Smart in that game certainly came in handy.

JB: You had a lot of great teammates at Georgia, including three future Pro Football Hall of Famers in Champ Bailey, Richard Seymour, Hines Ward and current Georgia head coach Kirby Smart. Was there anything he showed as a 20-year-old that let you know that he’d be a Division I head coach one day?

MS: [Chuckles] You had to read between the lines. To me, he was a college punk like the rest of us. But you could see on the field, around the program, and even in practices.

Kirby and I had the same major, had a lot of the same classes, and the way he comported himself was indicative of a guy who could be really successful in this profession and just about any profession, frankly. He wasn’t just a gym rat, just a football head. He’s a really bright guy and you could tell that he probably would have been successful in other vocations as well.

He was the “coach on the field”. I always hesitate to use that because it implies that he wasn’t that good of an athlete. He was, he was a really good athlete. He was an all-conference player at safety. He was a guy that could run, he had wheels. He was a punt returner for us. It wasn’t just all safe punts. We were actually looking to get some yards.

He was a really good football player, but also had a really great awareness about it. You could tell that he really understood what we’re trying to get done. He had a lot of smart players around him, but he was the guy that captained the ship defensively from the back-end.

JB: Coach Smart and the Bulldogs are in a bit of a rebuilding year. There is a lot of young talent on this team. One player that immediately stands out is true freshman quarterback Jacob Eason. What have you seen from Eason in his first six starts that should have Dawg Nation excited for the next two, three years?

MS: I’ve seen a lot of things from Jacob Eason in his first six starts. We’ll throw in the North Carolina game as well he did not start. It was probably an ideal scenario for a true freshman to play in his first collegiate game and it worked out great. Obviously, Georgia was trailing at the time and had a chance to come back. He had a chance to get in there, supported by a strong running game.

He hasn’t always had that this year. There have been games where the running game has dried up and the rushing yards have disappeared. He’s had to lean on the passing game to try to throw to be able to run. That doesn’t have anything to do with Jacob Eason’s arm talent or the fact that he has a tremendous future. It has everything to do with some of the personnel question marks and deficiencies elsewhere where he’s had to step up.

It was the Missouri football game that has probably been his best football game by a margin of a production standpoint. I think it would be hard to argue against that. He put up some nice numbers versus Vanderbilt, but it’s not been without its ups and downs.

He’s had a lot of growing pains. This is a different offense at a certainly at a significantly different level. The competition he is seeing week in and week out, but without a doubt, we’ve seen moments where it’s obvious he’s got quite a bright future and will be built on this year from an experience standpoint, which is invaluable.

JB: The rivalry game between Florida and Georgia just means more. What makes it so compelling and have the staying power it does nationally?

MS: With that rivalry, you can talk to either side: Florida’s perspective or Georgia’s: I’ve heard plenty of them. Fans can cite instances where they take a count of exception to how the team conducted itself: Either the celebration penalty in ’07 or 70-something to nothing blowout in the 1940s. It spans the decades.

Depending on which fan base you’re talking to, they can cite all kinds of slights, jabs, and inappropriate actions. “Oh, you took a couple of timeouts there at the end just to rub it in.” That’s one thing.

To me, frankly, having been on the short side of the stick before, it kind of gives the rivalry the flavor that it has. If the opposing in a heated rivalry doesn’t take the opportunity to kind of rub your nose in it a little bit, not to the point of it being grossly unsportsmanlike. I’m not a huge fan of that, but then it’s almost an insult. It’s almost like, “Ah, we beat you and we don’t really care beyond that.

The truth is that they do. Those fan bases do. That’s kind of what gives this rivalry its spikes so to speak.

JB: A win in Jacksonville would mean different things for either program. Georgia would get one win closer to bowl eligibility in a rebuilding year. For Florida, the Gators would have a serious shot at winning the SEC East in back-to-back seasons. If they can knock off presumably Alabama in Atlanta, can the Gators make it to the College Football Playoff despite playing only 11 games?

MS: Well, they’ll get that 12 game in with that championship game. The fact that you lose a game to Presbyterian, but you’ll get an SEC Championship Game in there and it will be presumably against an Alabama team. If not an Alabama team, a one-loss team, perhaps an A&M. If it’s a two loss team, maybe an Auburn?

I have a hard time seeing an SEC West Champion being defeated by an SEC East Champion, frankly. If they did, as respected as the West has been, we haven’t seen a CFP Rankings yet. Just to play out a hypothetical, if it’s not Alabama, it’s likely a one-loss West team and a highly ranked one at that. If Florida were somehow able to pull off that upset, which frankly is hard to conceive of, then I don’t know how an SEC Champion doesn’t get into the College Football Playoff.

There’re other contenders of course. You’ve got a couple of teams in the Big 12 in West Virginia and Baylor. Neither team has great non-conference scheduled wins. Obviously, West Virginia went out of conference and beat Missouri, but Missouri is nowhere near the opponent most thought it probably was when they scheduled that game. Baylor’s non-conference, as usual, is not really compelling. So you can eliminate an entire conference there. So you’ve got basically four among the Power 5 conferences left.

Next: Ranking The 25 Best Rivalries In College Football

To me, it would be hard pressed to say that an SEC Champion couldn’t get into this College Football Playoff, especially if you go in and lump in Florida. The fact, yes, they didn’t play Presbyterian, but their other non-conference game at the end of the season would be against FSU. That team hasn’t been quite what we thought it was earlier on in the season. At the same time, it would still be a very impressive victory there to pen a punctuation mark at the end of the year.