Kirby Smart offers a smart man's approach to building a top-end roster
Click here to view Tuesday’s press conferences at SEC Media Days.
ATLANTA — Anybody can spend money. A smart man makes sure to get his money’s worth.
So does Smart, man.
That’s Kirby Smart, the ultra-successful Georgia Bulldogs football coach. He has posted 105 wins during his nine seasons in Athens. He has won two national championships and played for another.
He has attained that success by preaching to his players a message of “fire, passion and energy.”
But what if the congregation refuses to listen? In today’s college football, a player unwilling to meet a coach's demands can enter the transfer portal and get paid big money elsewhere.
Smart knows this. Yet, he made clear on Tuesday at SEC Media Days that his message won’t change. A wise man — or coach — would heed his words.
“They're (players) going to get paid,” Smart said. “No coach is going to stand up here and say they don't want players to get paid. We want them to get paid. I'm completely comfortable with that.
“What I want is them to get paid and that not change how they go about their business, that not change if they’re sensitive to being demanded excellence of.”
Smart said parents of recruits often encourage him to demand excellence from their sons. They want him to push their sons to reach their full potential.
But what if the player pushes back? Georgia recruits typically have other options. Another coach would welcome a once-coveted prospect with open arms and a lucrative NIL package.
“People don’t want to confront and demand anymore for fear of losing a player,” Smart said. “I would rather go get the right player that buys into (his message), and then I've got something special when they do develop and get all those reps.”
No program should understand Smart’s wisdom more than Texas A&M.
Three years ago, former A&M coach Jumbo Fisher signed what some observers considered the best recruiting class in college football history. Five-star prospects flooded in.
But A&M only won 20 games in three seasons since 2022. Only a handful of players from that recruiting class remain on the roster.
Most of those who left transferred to other programs. Some had lucrative opportunities. Some had disciplinary issues. Some had both.
Some didn’t accept the new demands and expectations set when coach Mike Elko took over the program last season.
It appeared there was a lack of fire, passion and energy.
Elko has strived to “change the culture.” Identifying players motivated by getting wins as much as they are by being paid is a giant step in that direction.
Smart said if he needs four cornerbacks in a given recruiting class, there are thousands with tape indicating they’re talented enough to play at Georgia.
But not all can play at Georgia.
“Let's just get the ones that care. The ones that are not transactional, that are relationship-built,” he said. “They want relationships. They want to be coached. They want to be pushed.”
It’ll take a lot more work to identify those players. It would be difficult for a coach to turn away from a talented player who might not have his priorities straight.
A wise coach would. Elko probably would, too.
He’s a smart man.
