Kirby Smart on UGA’s tough road schedule, navigating NIL, and more

[Music] good morning I appreciate you guys coming out uh I do want it to be duly noted that I got in here without a credential today so first time I've gotten through that uh door there after the news I heard yesterday thanks Greg I really appreciate uh the leadership he provides for us um I've been very fortunate to have nine years years I mean that is just crazy to think about this is my ninth uh one of these and and and you know Greg has done a tremendous job from every meeting I've ever been in from every issue we've ever dealt with with the everchanging flow of college sports the guy's incredible in the room with us and I appreciate it and I enjoyed Greg's message yesterday about all the other sports in the SEC look I am a a son of the SEC I counted 30 years since I went to University of Georgia in 1994 25 of the last 30 years I've spent in the SEC I love bragging about that and I love bragging about our Sports there's not a sporting event that I don't go to in Athens Georgia and watch the highest level of competition in all sports so a lot of credit goes out to all the other sports in the SEC and this event is a chance to honor that and I thought Greg did a great job of that uh yesterday um just had a media member hit me with this and I wanted to share it uh Seth Emerson one of of the national writers just hit me a few minutes ago we were talking about the nine years and he had a great line from the Indiana Jones movie I watched growing up my brother Carl always loved Indiana Jones but uh the great line was it's not the years it's the mileage and I tell you being an SEC head coach that's a true statement it's not the years it's the mileage and it's been a great nine-year uh run for us at Georgia but I'll start a little bit with my family uh yesterday was the 18th year anniversary of my wife and I uh Mary Beth and uh we are excited and uh honored to have spend nine nine of those 18 years in Athens Georgia where both of us were student athletes uh we got to spend that uh that that anniversary in the the great city of Savannah at Little League baseball game so you do what you have to do to spend time with your kids and we certainly enjoy that um my 16-year-old twins who I like talking about they're Rising Juniors now I don't know geography and I I I don't know how well you guys know geography but I have one who is in Fiji and I have one who is in Croatia on trips and I looked at the Globe last night and it's hard for me because I'm a Southeastern Conference baby I'm not a a very worldly uh gentleman but I have one in Fiji and one in Croatia and I don't think you could be two further points apart from each other that they are right now but they're enjoying those trips and uh getting to kind of develop and further themselves my wife loves traveling I don't and uh she kind of won up to me this year when I had a chance to go with my youngest son to Cooper toown which Greg mentioned and I had an unbelievable time in Cooper toown got to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and and uh play in a lot of baseball games and then went to Mississippi with my youngest son for a baseball tournament and spent three or 4 days there my wife decided to go to Amsterdam and go to Taylor Swift concert so she is a huge Taylor Swift fan and took my twins there and said if you're going to go all around the world playing baseball I'm going to go to Amsterdam and enjoy uh Taylor Swift which she's a big fan of the three guys we got here today I want to speak on behalf of those guys but I want to give you a quick story to uh show you when you know you're getting old and it got me yesterday not to pick on uh coach Sabin because I got a lot of kind words to say about him coming up but you know I I always thought that that like oh man coach I thought I saw him as older when he was coaching and I saw myself as younger and now I'm looking at it like man I'm old I'm riding in the car yesterday with Mel Malachi and Carson be we're coming from uh the airport uh to the hotel and and I'm sharing conversation with Michael and Malachi and of course what's everybody talking about yesterday what's all college football players talking about NCAA football game right the the new game that's out and I'm just trying to get in the conversation and talk to him about it and I said man I that game's pretty awesome and they're like yeah I can't wait to get to the hotel and I'm G to play it tonight and everybody's talking about it it's all over it's trending it's all over everything and I was like how do they keep that thing in stores it's got to sell out how they keep it in stores and Mel and Malachi just fell out laughing and they're like coach they don't they don't sell those things in stores anymore they're not in stores and I was so embarrassed but I I was glad they got a kick out of that cuz it made me realize how out of touch uh I actually am with with how far things have come you can just download it go play that simple so the stores don't have to keep it but um the three guys we brought today Carson Beck Malachi Starks Michael Williams you know Carson's parents uh Tracy and Chris done a wonderful job with him he is a great example of college football the day and age when you go somewhere and you jump school to school it's it's it's a popular trend this kid stuck it out he stuck it out now and he didn't get the starting job in a tough moment when the starter went down and he lost the starting job to STS and Ben at the week of UAB game two years ago and then said you know what I'm sticking with it I'm going to persevere I'm going to show resiliency which is one of our court traits and he did that and he he he was able to monetize that value as well in form of nil by staying and succeeding actually where his feet are but he's a great leader for us he's a great example of resiliency in college football please visit with him today um as he's one of the leaders of our team Malachi uh you know he he he's such an incredible kid you know his his mom tishan and Larry they do a great job with him it was a joy recruiting him he's a local kid he started for us since day one so all the knocks and all the things said out there about you can't start as a freshman at Georg is too hard to play on defense the first game he ever was in against Oregon he started and he started ever since he's a quiet humble leader um he's a very Christian young man and he represents our University the right way and I'm really proud to have Malachi here today and then Michael Williams um you know his mom shmika and uh John are both great people and and what a great job they've done with with Michel he's he's become very versatile for us in terms of what he does on the field but there's no greater value than what he does in that locker room cuz he works every day he's physical he enjoys practice uh he's a great leader for us and uh he should be a huge asset for us but please enjoy those guys um visit with them as their they're they're they're indicative of the locker room we have and great guys to be around um couple words I want to say to uh to coach Sabin who meant so much to me in my career um first of all the the the the words he shared at the ESP the other night were incredible uh very touching very moving um but what he's meant to myself my family uh as a mentor as a uh friend as a competitor that drives you to get better you know there there was never a day in 11 years I worked for him that we didn't share a room in some sort whether that was the defensive room defensive back room staff room we didn't share a room in some sort and I think it made me who I am today because the demand for excellence is met by none other than him so that standard that he set for me day in and day out he met himself and every coach that ever worked with him or for him will tell you that he does it all himself as well he doesn't hold you uh to any different standard than he holds himself to so a lot of the success I've had I give credit to him and thanks and uh I know he'll be critiquing me today so I'm looking forward to that as well um but he had started responding to texts and I told people the other day I said that's first time ever either somebody's got his phone or he's learned how to text and that that makes all of us in his little circle of of friends uh proud cuz we get to reach out to him um we're dealing with new challenges this year we don't have a on our shoulder in terms of people trying to use that as motivation I've never used um a failure from the previous year as motivation and I've never used the success of a previous year's motivation we won't do that this year that's not who we are um we want to recreate ourselves um to say uh in the best light we can and this team has been fun to coach I tell people all the time we had 15 really tough spring practices that includes a spring game I probably would only trade one of those in and say could I do it over that we got a lot out of those uh I enjoy being on the grass with this group they're fun to be with uh have a great locker room they love each other and they're working their butt off right now we have four new coaches that's a new challenge uh for us I don't think we've had a situation where we had four new coaches we got four new coaches coming in I'm excited about the energy they brought the buyin they brought learning our culture and uh how we do things at our place some have been with us before some have been similar places but I'm really excited about the 4 new coaches we got and being able to retain uh coach muschamp was incredible because he's still an integral part of our program and he's also going to be able to watch his son play uh for Clark at Vanderbilt so I'm excited about that you know every offseason we do a study and we try to find something to look outside of football to kind of redefine ourselves and reenter and it's great for me you know I really think it's good to study successful people whether that's in the sports industry or whether that's in uh the business industry and this year we took Nike who I've had the great pleasure of meeting uh Phil Knight in his wonderful white Penny and wish I could get some of that nio money that he's sharing with Dan Lanning but um that's another note uh but the study of Nike for us has been incredible I didn't know some of the things about when Nike originated and we took a week by week look in scull sessions breakout sessions as well as together and studied kind of their model and uh one of the first things we studied was the belief of assume nothing and I think that's so important in football because when you when you assume something or you assume you know someone or you assume that you know somebody's name that you're in the room with you can take things for granted it's just like starting over from a previous year assume nothing assume nothing start from ground zero and build this team different than every other team and Nike did that Nike follow that they assume nothing where does a name come from so if you assume that you know everybody's name you you may not know what that name means we had each player get up in front of the team and say what their first middle and last name and where that came from I encourage you if you've never done that exercise in an organization do it because you learn more about somebody when you know what they got their name from and what it stands for and what it meant in their family what it meant in their lineage it's very important and you get a lot of uh deep conversations to know somebody better which when you're on a field with somebody you and you go to battle with somebody out on the field you better be able to uh know what their reasoning is and I really enjoyed that and I enjoyed our study of Nike as we went through so with that I want to be able to be judgmental of you guys time and answer any questions you have so I'll open it up from there thank you thank you coach if you have a question please raise your hand Seth Diego or Nolan we'll get a microphone to you we do ask that you give your name and affiliation uh prior to your question so if we will we'll start over here right here on the front row to our left coach in the very front row uh good morning coach Michael gens with the war report uh in this new SEC uh Georgia got a pretty tough road draw you've got Alabama on the road you've got Texas on the road you've got Old Miss on the road you also have Kentucky on the road can you talk about your Road schedule and how you're preparing your team for this this tough 2024 schedule yeah initially I was wondering how I got that draw you know but uh we're not one to complain we're one to be excited um I think when you step into the shoes of a University of Georgia football player you that that challenge is going to be there I mean we we we kind of embrace that and we love it I mean and what you didn't get to mention is that we open with Clemson too who's one of the top teams in the pro top programs in the country so like we're really excited about that I think that motivates our offseason so that we have uh the right kind of uh approach to the off season and and and you know our guys Embrace that I mean as coaches you want to play the best and people forget that when you spent time in the NFL every week was like that so when Texas and Oklahoma came into the conference every schedule was going to get harder it wasn't going to get easier it was going to get harder and we Embrace that we look forward to it and uh excited for the challenge to go to some really tough places hey coach we'll go right down the center aisle right here on the Nero uh coach smart Drew D Arman wccn radio Huntsville Alabama much like your Mentor Nick Sabin when you compete at the highest level you do have staff changes you mentioned the four guys you brought in what were what was your thoughts on bringing in travarius Robinson what does he bring to your staff well first of all he has a great pedigree as a player he played in the SEC and one of the things you can never really um justify or explain to people is the culture of the SEC number one recruiting it's tough It's hard it's uh Cutthroat and you don't have experience in those battles it's hard to win those battles he was a really good player um he played for Coach tuberville who has a lot of stories about t Rob and the great job he's done I've always recruited against him and had respect for him on the road the way he carries himself the way he presents himself uh the fact he worked for Coach muschamp they have a great relationship coach muschamp vouched for him and talked about the great job he's done and he's brought in a tremendous energy uh into our secondary which is a young secondary and he got the the the valuable time that he got to spend over with Coach sa in Alabama which is invaluable in terms of knowing how our program operates so I'm excited to have t Rob his family he's got wonderful uh family and I know he's excited to be with us coach we'll go to the section just to your right no yeah coach Brook's awesome with dogs daily you mentioned that moment uh UAB with Carson Beck and when he reflects on that moment he thought of it as an opportunity to say hey I'm not quite ready for this I need to continue to develop stuck around for a couple more years before he was a starter is that a repeatable trait or a common trait maybe you can look for in future athletes that you recruit of Cu it's important nowadays guys leave when they don't have an opportunity to play but this is a very unique example is it something you might be able to replicate in the future yeah I'd love to be able to replicate the DNA he has with which to respond to adversity that way like I I don't know you as you go recruit a kid staying power is really important now CU I don't think there's a huge difference in the players we recruit it's a difference when they stay in your program so the retention is really critical because we think the process we go through of the off field training the field training the weight room training the football training is going to pay off in the Years they've been there Carson's a great example of that all those years of practice and third down and pressure periods and Blitz pickups paid off when he got to start it's not to say he wasn't ready UAB he may have been ready we felt like Stetson gave us the best chance to win that game and he played lights out that game and never really looked back after that um who's to say that Carson might not have done the same thing but he certainly responded the right way and I wish we could kind of inject it ship and say that every kid had that response but we know that's not going to be the case coach we'll go back over here to our far left on the front row hey coach CR cofog central.com uh when you look at your schedule and the potential of playing 16 17 games do you think that will change how you guys manage uh maybe a lead or trying to get guys out of games earlier and will it add any importance to the overall strength of your roster prove any what was the ending part of that the overall strength and depth on your roster just from 1 to 85 playing the schedule we play uh in improving the strength of the roster I don't know um if that's the case I think the way we go about practicing is critical I believe in having a physical tough Camp I don't think you back off from that if you do it may not matter about those games if you're not physical enough at the line of scrimmage and you're not tough enough and you don't demand Excellence because during the season there's only so much we can do to create the toughness that we need at the line of scrimmage and the the toughness we need as an overall football team Camp is tough you know and and I think that's important that it remains tough we do have to be smart to stay healthy we have certain areas of our team that we maybe have more depth than others and you got to be smart and calculated about the risk you take of losing guys but um I think every coach is reflecting right now saying okay we may have a longer schedule we certainly have a tougher schedule how we play games is play the win and how we play at the end of the games if we have leads we we've always looking to get guys opportunity and grow players a lot Carson Beck getting into a lot of games when he was behind ston so they're ready when their opportunity comes which we go down the mid aisle over here on Section in front of me about three quers of the way back hey coach rapael Cruz dog time and Lake oone news you lost three senior leaders and Javon Bullard took ta Smith and Kamari Lasser in the secondary who are some of the guys that are stepping in this offseason that you're excited about competing for those starting spots yeah first off I I I'll correct you there two of those guys were were actually Juniors they weren't seniors and that's that's what that's what really gets your program when you lose two juniors in one room that are excellent players and have been unbelievable kids within our program and and they love football now they they they they came to every practice this spring and they were getting ready to get drafted and they were every practice cheering on guys coaching guys the right kind of guys to have uh around your program so they're tough losses um we've got some good young ented players in the secondary it's going to be really important they grow up fast they're going to go against a really high Tempo offense in Clemson to start with um our job is to prepare them they get to go against a really good offense day in and day out with Carson Beck so I'm excited about the guys we have in that room and they'll step up to play we have some experience at the safety position between Dan and Malachi but it'll be the nickel position and the depth at those positions that's really critical going to the section right to your right again on the aisle onar Richards orange Bloods hey coach how do you navigate the world of nil where you have to participate in it to be competitive but you also have players who lead with that and they just want to get paid what are your conversations like with recruits and current players and how do you navigate it all I I think it's a mistake to assume that all players lead with that or that's the primary objective I think that would be an insult to high school football players and really insult to all people being recruited because I I don't experience I don't get to the finish line of official visits where that's the primary objective if it is we're probably not getting to that point we're probably not going to be in the conversation if that's the primary objective is that one of the key decision makers yes and should it should it be yes I'm I'm happy that these kids get an opportunity to improve their situation or uh make money and give back to their families or in some cases their community so that doesn't bother me at all I have no problem navigating that I've gotten less uh attached and said you know what if it's better for that young man because of a financial difference between us and another school I respect that decision and opinion they have to make I have to worry about the players that we do get okay and I worry about the ones that we do sign that they're the right kind of kids and they're coming for the right reason that that includes money but it's not just money okay we'll go down the center aisle and the section in front of me oh John High Fox s Austin coach you mentioned wanting to play the best you have Texas this year do you consider them to be one of the best and what stands out to to you about them every team we play is the best that week please understand that in the SEC humility is a week away I have a ton of respect for Sark and the job he does we got got to watch them play last year against uh several common opponents got to watch them play in the playoffs they have a tremendous recruiting base um they do a tremendous job in recruiting is that that includes nil and everything included in that so they're a big physical team they're built like an SEC football team so we're looking forward to an opportunity to come play them and uh what a tremendous matchup it'll be he we'll go over here again to our left second row hey coach Peter Rus from ao.com what kind of impact did the Auburn game have on you guys' season last year and what kind of challenges did that Auburn team and that new staff pose for y'all well let's start with this Auburn is one of the hardest places to play in the world and I know that from 25 years of being a common opponent at Georgia and Alabama when you step in that Stadium you better be laced up strapped up and ready to go regardless of their record regardless of the expectation regardless of what the people in Vegas say you better be ready to play and I think Hugh does a tremendous job motivating his team he does a tremendous job in the recruiting asset and as he gets more and more of his players and his style of play in there which he got some guys this year they're going to be a force to be reckoned with but that game helped give us confidence that we could play from behind it also let us know that we're vulnerable in some areas and we had to improve on those so I I enjoyed playing in that venue I always have it's one of the toughest places to go play which will go straight in front of me the section Kirk uh excuse me Kirk BS from the Houston Chronicle uh with the 12 team playoff coming at do you do you worry about attrition you know cuz two teams will play at least 17 games and do you think maybe abolishing the conference Championship game for all leagues would would help the matter you know I'm not for doing that I still find Value in winning an SEC Championship the unique thing about the career that I've had in coaching I've almost won as many SEC championships as national championships and I've won two national championships when I didn't win SEC championships as a program I mean that that that's that's unique I mean it it doesn't it's not supposed to happen that way so do I worry about attrition in terms of having more games I worry about attrition having four teams okay every coach worries about attrition right you have to do a good job of maintaining your roster staying healthy um practicing the right way being smart uh and and and I think being Watchdog is part of my job as I'm not a coordinator anymore I want to watch the drills we do I want to see how we practice I want to make sure we can maintain Health it's hard to do in the SEC but that's why you get an opportunity to recruit to 85 scholarships so that you have depth can you get your younger players ready faster than your opponent is a huge Advantage but no I don't want to see the conference Championship go away because I think it's one of the greatest venues in all of college sports in all of sports I mean the game that we've played in Atlanta have been some of the best most memorable games that I've ever been a part of and to take that away I I think that that there's going to be teams that look back on that SEC Championship and it's very meaningful and I don't want to take away from that meaning right we'll go over here on our left along the aisle Lawrence Holmes 670 The Score Chicago Kirby your defenses throughout your whole career have been incredibly Innovative I was wondering with offenses evolving do you react to them or do you want them to react to you and where do you go for the inspiration do you go forward or do you go all the way back to the beginning of the game that's a long question that I can spend a lot of time on you know and I learned a lot from the defensive guy in the back of the room back there that uh you're always adapting you have to adjust to them but you have to dictate to them as well if you sit back nowadays and let offenses dictate to you they can do enough things to to drive down the field and be explosive and make big plays and score quickly then it can become frustrating you have to have ways to create negative plays I think every defensive coach would say that but I do think looking forward and backwards is really important you know we have a a relatively young defensive coordinator in Glenn Schuman who spends more time on zooms he loves Talking Football he spends time with NFL coaches High School coaches some of the best ideas we've ever gotten defensively came from great High School Minds in the state that we were coaching in because they came up with really innovative ideas because they defend these offenses sometimes before we do and uh I've always been enamored with that in-game adjustment of what we can give a kid or give a defense to help them against something they're doing you're always reacting but you do want to dictate at times too by the way you pressure in the things you do we'll take one final question in the center aisle about three quarters of the way back coach Joe Gaither BAC central.com you've played a lot great games against the University of Alabama in your time how do you expect the those matchups to change with the with Co coach cayin dor in charge um I don't expect them to change that's two great universities I mean you're talking about uh two teams that have been at the Forefront of uh college football and it's probably going to be that way uh for a long time both great universities both committed the commitment to Excellence at both places is really high the standard that that the coach created there at Alabama and the standard we've created those two are going to be matching up for a long time and I think it's what's great about College athletics coach thank you for your time this morning thank you guys thanks Kevin