Exclusive: Kirby Smart on Georgia's Football Dominance, Recruiting Strategies, and Personal Insights

all right coach Mark what's up all right growing up in College Park I saw all the six and Five Seasons back in the day that Georgia was having now with the recent success that you guys have had how tough is it on you to maintain your level of dominance and dealing with that type of pressure yeah that's uh you know the expectations grow when you have success and um you know when I took this job I I knew the expectations that were there and um you kind of embrac those because you can't you can't run from that the fact that uh Georgia high school football is Elite it's one of the best high school football in the world you know you're going to get good football players and uh no excuse not to win at the University of Georgia you do have to demand excellence and you got to stay on top of things but it the program was winning before I got here so Coach Rick and his staff did a tremendous job we've just taken it uh to another level and and also caught some breaks with the way the playoffs set up to get more teams in with four but um I'm proud of what we've done but I'm also looking forward to what we're going to do uh speaking of the playoffs last year you guys missed come up that much short then you go out in a bowl game and go nuts what was your message to get the team fired up after kind of a disappointed loss yeah I don't know that I had to come up with a great message we had really good leadership so for me it was like all right what do y'all want to do CU we can look at this one or two ways we can sit back and uh pout and whine about not making it and our our last game against the SEC or we can we can go attack this thing and go do something special for the seniors and to be honest with you a lot of the the the Javon Bullards the Kamari lters the Brock Bowers the Marius Mims all those guys man they were like lad like we got one more chance and they love football I think if you build your program around kids that love ball and love that culture of like just playing football then you don't have to worry about moments like that you know because they're not motivated by just winning a championship or motivated just by nil they're motivated to win right with your thirst for winning like you are like a Kobe level type winner when it comes to your attitude and mentality what's been your biggest Focus this offseason personally for you to get better for this year I think studying the game trying to figure out better ways to maybe reach my players um you know I spent a lot of time in the offseason with my family studying other sports studying other businesses listening to podcast um I mean we've studied changes in the game to minute um so you try to pick up things from other people and um I I'm less into the the scheme part of it where coach Schuman or coach muschamp or t or Dante one of those guys wants to do a new scheme or coach Bobo's got a new play I'm I'm a lot more interested in like what's a new way we can reach our players what's something we can do in scho sessions that maybe impacts them off the field and keeps them making better decisions and I spent a lot more time thinking about that so you talked about reaching your players uh Carson Beck right now is the betting favorite to be the highest uh Trophy winner what does a successful season from him look like to you well I always say success is defined by being the best you can possibly be and uh I thought he probably exceeded those expectations in terms of that last year for a first year starting quarterback he did a lot of great things well you this year you got a lot of high expectations again for Carson Beck and for Georgia so um we don't run or hide from the Heisman talk as something that he Embraces we Embrace we know that if we play really good defense and get turnovers he's going to have uh better performances if offensively we're able to run in pass the ball and play action and be be be really good on third down again he gets more opportunities so he knows the more success we have as a team the better that gives him a chance at some of that Heisman talk and he's he's certainly de deserving and worthy of that and um it's not something we run from all right coach you talked about the team and you talked about some of the pieces the defense how they can actually assist Carson and achieving his goals talk to me about the transfer portal Georg is very very selective in the portal what's your mentality or your thought process when you go to look for help in the portal and talk to me about some of the guys who you may be excited about from the portal yeah first thing is culture culture culture I don't want to sacrifice culture this place I love my locker room I love my players I mean I tell them all the time and I said this during spring practice if we could keep every single player here I would be completely happy because you went through our training you went through our practices you went through our December bold practice you went through every bloody Tuesday we've had like you are the core of what we have we want to develop you from within it's also an inevitable that a kid is going to make a decision that maybe he has a better chance of playing somewhere else and in the case that happens I'm not going to punish the rest of the team and be deficient in an area so we go into the portal and we look at it and say okay who can help us who fits our culture first question we ask is why did you go in the portal and I sit back and listen and you know if if it's blank blame blame blame blame blame so all the coaches all them I'm really not interested you know cuz that that that them would become me at the new place I want to hear them out and and kind of hear what their reasoning is uh and when they have good reasoning for why they're leaving and they fit kind of the the unselfish culture we try to promote then we're interested in them when you talk about the culture it's really important to bring in the right pieces one of the major pieces that you brought in this offseason was Trav Robinson from abama what was your thought process and deciding on him being your guy and what's he brought to to to the staff so far well he's full of energy enthusiasm uh he can do a lot of different jobs um he's well liked on the road recruiting he's well respected he's a really good football coach you know he worked under coach muschamp he's worked under coach Savin those are two guys I had as mentors and I I just saw it as it was a really good fit and a really good timing from a standpoint of him getting to come over here continue to grow as a coach he he'd like to be a a head coach one day he's been a defensive coordinator and done it at a high level uh and he sees it as a pathway to get there he's also invested in these kids but his reputation probably is what led me to hiring him is that the people I trust said really good things about him so I I thought that was important you talked about uh T Rob's prowess on a recruiting Trail last year you got one of the biggest wins ever with KJ Balden and you actually said he may have a chance to help you this year what has KJ done to earn trust as possibly being a true freshman to play yeah he uh he practices really hard he's very intelligent he understands um coverage in the football you know comes from a great program in Buford uh he he he learns quickly for a young player I think that's a big hurdle for so many guys they might be athletically uh qualified to play as a freshman but they maybe can't learn all the different nuances of our defense or maybe what the offense does to us he's had no issues picking that up he and this is a really talented Freshman Class Ellis has done a great job there's a lot of guys in this class that we think are going to be able to provide depth or help or maybe even play on special teams so KJ had a worldwin recruitment it was crazy when did you know you were getting KJ I don't know that I you ever know until they step in front uh of an audience and tell somebody or they sign the dotted line um we had great Communications with his mom and dad both great people great Communications with KJ I felt uh strongly that he wanted to come here um but it's one of those things you don't really know until they sign and and that's probably when I knew 100% is when he signed the doed line in this era nil is everything and when I talk to like I I've interviewed 70 of the top kids in the country they when they mention Georgia nil is usually like the last thing if they bring it up how have you been able to keep the main thing the main thing in terms of recruiting and bringing in players for your program honesty communication um you know I don't know we don't really know how other teams do it nil's so young and new within the last three to four years you don't really have this like Cookie Cutter this is how everybody does it so we don't know how other people do it we just know how we do it and we don't put uh a huge emphasis on it and and when it becomes the emphasis it tells us that you know what we might have to be careful here because he might not be here long if it's just about the nil so we try to try to not make it about that for any of the players that you've recruited in the past you don't have to say a name where nil was their emphasis what's been the craziest kind of ask or demand that you've heard from one of these recruits um well there's some staggering numbers out there you know it's like people throw out numbers that another school uh is is is wrapping into a three-year or a fouryear deal and they throw they add it all up and it's foolish to me to think that somebody's going to say well over four years you're going to make X anybody can make those numbers seem what they want to seem and seem very staggering to a a high school family that's saying oh my gosh I can get this much money over four years but um some of the thing I mean whether it's cars or uh uh tickets you know that that's the one that gets me is like NCA says you get four tickets that's what you get and and then when somebody comes in talking about well I need 50 yard line seats that's not within my control that's not within our power you can't nobody's going to do that cuz the boosters and the the fans that are paying for those are paying a whole different rate when you go to the NFL they make you pay for your tickets so when you when you want to go out there and you want to have eight family members there in the NFL you're paying $120 a pop for those tickets it's a whole different world than getting your four comp tickets coach you've had the pleasure of being co of working with uh Bobby Bowen and Nick Sav what would you say their plus trait was in coaching for each of them and how have you integrated that into your coaching style yeah um I was really young with Coach Bowen uh sponge um and just his demeanor and the way he carried himself daytoday uh ultimate Optimist very positive um joy to be around um just enjoy being around the players and the coaches and you know his staff meetings were very unique um I thought they're really cool because we started every staff meeting you know with a devotion that each each person in the staff had to lead and uh he had he had some great characteristics that um taught me a lot about there's more uh to life than than just football you know life after football piece um coach saving so many things I spent so much more time with him and um you know his attention to detail and his ability to focus on whatever the meeting or task was at time he could go from 11 o' to 12:00 on academics and then 12 to1 was the the defensive meeting and then one to two was the Special Teams and two to three was the offense and he could transition through those uh really quickly you're really close with Coach sa like you said tell me about a time he had to get onto you oh uh well that was usually when I deserved it you know that's that that's the key to that is like there's a standard of Excellence and he doesn't drop that standard for anyone on his staff you know he holds people um to a high standard and and he holds himself to that standard so I mean I don't know one time specifically but there's there's there there was times when we didn't do what we were supposed to do or maybe uh the attention to detail wasn't at the level we thought you know his saying was always if you're not coaching it then letting it happen and he would say that often and and and if you're not coaching something you're letting it happen it it can cause problems on your offense defense or your organization and he was great about holding that standard now that he's retired have you guys had any conversation about you potentially breaking his National Championship record no that that that that didn't come up in conversation not something uh that's talked about very often that's a long way away for what he's done and the years he's put in and uh he did it during a time when there's a lot of parody in terms of um not like one dominant team he he he won a lot of championships at one place and uh pretty special coach Sav has been known to cut a rug his his Electric Slide is really like you can tell he's been to a few cookouts yeah now I saw you dancing after the game and Y your Jump Around was pretty nice coach I ain't going to lie to you yeah our dance styles are completely different though he's he's old school he's like the guy that hits the backboard and basketball and uses the glass I'm not I'm not a bank player I'm trying to strip strip the net and go same thing in dancing he's he's old school he's got a patented dance that he can do and uh he does a great job of that and I think Miss Terry probably taught him but myself is uh sometimes a little more uh kind of fly by the fly off the handle a little bit just do what comes to me no I like that a whole lot all right so 2016 Luda comes uh you guys have a great spring game your dream concert three people dead or alive um um well for me I would probably go keep the Georgia people and the Georgia flavor with quo okay okay and then I would keep uh fan base and uh uh entertainer of year Luke Bryan involved in that and then to go back a little bit to the to the college days and make sure I keep the the staff happy uh we go with Tupac you said that or alive so yeah I like that I guess he's dead I don't know maybe he ain't all right coach what's been your greatest compliment just the consistency we've had here I mean uh the the ability to hire really good staff members I mean I've had man I've had some good staff members come here work with us help us be successful I I've been blessed with an Administration here so like the greatest compliment is your consistency you know we've been finished in the top seven for seven straight years I mean that's hard to do when you look back over history there usually you have a blip in the radar you have somebody that has a fallof year we really haven't had that in terms of top seven and that consistency is the greatest compliment youve got everything coach the money the program you're living a great life what keeps you up at night you know I I think reaching the full potential for each player individually like like you know what championships are great winning games are great uh kids getting drafted are great obviously kids graduating is awesome but did he reach his full potential and did I impact him did we as a a program at University of Georgia impact that young man uh as much as possible I saw especially the other day Lorenzo Carter Atlanta Falcons and how he's got his own Farm now and he's he's he's doing his own thing and I'm like man that's really cool I got to be part of his life and hope that I had some impact on him to make him work harder in life speaking of Lorenzo he's in the NFL every year Kirby Smart to the NFL is all you hear coach smart NFL what keeps you at Georgia my passion for Georgia like like I I love investing in these kids and and I know when they come here it's like you know what I get to pour into them I get to see them graduate become men it's the age you know they're they're at an age when they're here that I think you can be more impressionable our staff can be more impressionable and leave um a Mark that lasts forever a little more than the the NFL side that's transactional now I do think that college has become a little more transactional and like a business but it's not quite what the NFL is all right in the alternate universe you wake up coach uh Kirby Smart is now the GM for the St Louis whatevers you got to pick one player on offense that's currently in the NFL and one player on defense if you had to start your team who would you select man I'd have to stick with uh I think I go with two bulldogs I'm gonna start on offense with a quarterback and I'm gonna go with Matt Stafford just because I think his leadership and his wisdom and the amount of play time he's had yeah he might not have a ton more years um available but the years he has he he's been there and done that and I think he's uh Elite at leading it um defensively I go ran just because it starts in the middle you better have somebody that can lead direct command respect um and do a lot of things and I think those two guys are are guys you build around all right you mentioned the Georgia quarterback I remember seeing a story where it said that coach offensive coordinator Mike Bobo put some hot sauce in your drink one time what did you say to him I was mad as hell I didn't know I didn't know who it was at the time I was a freshman and uh we were staying in the dorms and all the all the guys you know you carried your tray and you went through the line and I was moping around cuz I was a freshman he was a little older and we all always got fruit punch and uh I just remember coming back and and and getting the fruit punch and I started drinking everybody started laughing and it hit me and I was like oh man so I didn't really want him to know that it affected me so I just took it on down and Dr it all you know and just played like it didn't bother me but later on I found out it was him cuz he was the Jer oh man all right coach before we get out of here you come to Atlanta off what's your go-to spot for wings ooh in Atlanta I don't know I get I I I got places around here I go for wings I don't get to get get many wings in Atlanta but if I had to say it' probably be American Deli that's what that's what that's what I think our guys like oh man all right Coach man I appreciate everything can you give a message to uh College well actually the Georgia faithful yeah uh we need you this is going to be uh one hell of a season it's going to be some great Road games and we're getting ready to start up and uh I my expectation is for us to take over um Atlanta and Mercedes-Benz when we play Clemson and uh have an unbelievable atmosphere uh and create it to be like a home game for us thanks a lot coach thank you apprciate