TAMPA, Florida – Kirby Smart took to the podium on Tuesday morning as the ‘Dean of SEC coaches’ who also is looking to take his team back to the College Football Playoff mountaintop against a backdrop filled with parity overtaking the sport.
While it’s been four years since the Bulldogs have raised a national championship trophy, that isn’t a part of the current landscape of college athletics that worries the Georgia coach.
And, while he has been tasked with being the vocal leader of the SEC, he’s also not shying away from some of the hardest topics currently plaguing the sport.
But, when it comes to parity, Smart is not going to complain. If anything, Kirby has welcomed the changing landscape, in his own subtle way.
“I think it’s great for the sport,” Kirby mentioned. “More guys can get invited to the party, especially with the transfer portal..It’s not a one team dominate program.”
If you thought he was going to complain about this part of the problem in college sports, you don’t know Kirby Smart. While there can be plenty of excuses made about why Georgia hasn’t played for a championship over the past three years, they at least are thriving with talent during the most chaotic time in the sport.
Kirby Smart supports SEC leaving NCAA if there aren’t major changes: ‘I’m not afraid to break away’
But no, that argument is not going to sit well with the fans in Athens. The fan base knows that Georgia should be competing every season for titles, and Kirby Smart is not running away from the skeptics, even if it fits the current narrative that the Bulldogs can no longer stockpile talent on the roster.
And while he’s now the Godfather of the SEC, I don’t know if he wants the job of being the new Nick Saban.
You might not like him, or think he’s soft on automobile incidents, but the Georgia coach has been around long enough for his opinions to actually mean something.
Kirby is also not a coach that is getting fired within the next decade, so his opinion actually means something to the school president and athletic director. And, when it comes to the current rule-structure, it’s pretty easy to see how many problems need fixing.
The question is whether it will be Congress implementing the rules, or the SEC?
“Until we get governance and we have someone that actually has the power to make decisions, or we can make decisions within our own community, we’re not going to have much control,” Kirby Smart noted.
And, that’s the Georgia head coach just speaking truth. While there are plenty of people that would rather see Kirby Smart just take care of his team, there has to be those willing to speak up on the current issues hurting college athletics.
This is also not a threat from Kirby Smart. If you don’t think these coaches are speaking with each other every single day in some form or fashion, then you aren’t living in reality. Whether it’s the transfer portal, NIL, eligibility, or just standard everyday rulings across the sport, coaches in the SEC are filling up their group chat with questions.
Yes, that also includes Lane Kiffin stoking the fire every now and then.
But breaking away from the NCAA and creating their own rules might sound like a daunting task for a conference that some think are trying to buck the system. In reality, this is just the next move, if Congress cannot pass legislation to help curb the current issues overtaking athletics.
“Yeah, I’ve actually been saying that for a long time,” Kirby Smart told reporters.
Can you blame the Big Ten or SEC for thinking this way? Better yet, what about the ACC and Big 12? How do you think some of those schools from other conferences outside the Big Ten or SEC felt on Monday when a report indicated Senators were discussing a 5-year period in which they’d have to go independent if they were changing conferences?
Exactly.
If Congress is going to filter out new provisions to the Protect College Sports Act on a daily basis to take the temperature of the fans, why can’t conferences discuss enforcing their own rules. Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.
Sitting in the corner of the Tampa Marriott ballroom, surrounded by a plethora of reporters, Georgia’s starting quarterback was soft with his tone, but committed with his words.
The spotlight is not something Stockton runs from. He embraces the chance to prove people wrong, even if his tone of voice doesn’t fully correlate with the opinion. But, if there is one thing that Kirby Smart has had at Georgia over his tenure, it’s mostly-consistent quarterback play with a few stars along the way.
In this case, it’s Gunner. And, even though he’s upgraded his Ford pickup truck and put his old-school ride in the garage, he’s the same southern boy that just loves playing football. For that, Kirby Smart is thankful.
As for being a leader on this Georgia football team, making sure to leave egos at the door before entering the locker room is the only way in which a team might thrive in this era of college athletics.
“I think Coach Smart does a great job with that,” Stockton said of the environment around NIL. “If you’re getting paid, not getting paid, whatever, Coach Smart always says the best players play. I think people have lost the fact of if you’re on the field it doesn’t matter how much or how less you’re getting paid, it ain’t going to help you when you’re playing football.
“I think the fact that Coach Smart has built a good culture at Georgia and I think he’s the best head coach, and that’s for a reason.”
Once again, expectations are on the Bulldogs to deliver.
In the case of Georgia, it’s earned the pressure.
For Kirby Smart, he’s earned a say in what the future of college athletics could at least look like.
