Kirby Smart's Georgia knows 2024 SEC schedule is difficult because of this

let's talk through day two of SEC media days it's going to be the first of a couple of segments maybe three maybe four of the day following SEC media days day two because it was loaded we had Georgia we got Tennessee Missouri Oklahoma and I kind of want to get started in the order that we got to see the coaches mostly because Georgia was dealing with news that Kirby Smart had to talk about you'll remember that I made a segment last week following the news that a 22nd Georgia football player had been charge with a driving related offense since January 15th 2023 when Devin willick and Chandon lroy uh died in a fatal crash while racing I thought that perhaps that was going to be a bigger story going into the SEC media days because it is a media event and Georgia by many measures is the standard in the SEC even as they weren't able to win the SEC championship last year and yeah Kirby Smart chose to address it at the days on Tuesday in Dallas uh the quote was our classic City Collective for over a year has been substantially finding guys for those things that's not something that's new that's something that's been ongoing outside of my jurisdiction that they decided to implement and have done to a considerable amount mostly what he's saying is there's only so much I can do about this he also did not necessarily allude to there wouldn't be any internal suspensions or punishment that be handed out but this is kind of like what Mike gunny did with Ali Gordon and talking about it at least it's hey I'm not going to have that dude missing games because the justice system is going to do what the justice system does and there's going to be plenty that he's going to have to answer for in due course in addition to whatever he might have to do in house he just didn't want to talk about what those punishments might be you can speculate on what those things should be you can also speculate on what you think a head coach should do in the situation but as far as I'm concerned I don't want these coaches to treat these players like children I call them kiddos because I get to know them when they are 12 13 14 years old and all of them are kiddos to me like I I often say that parents go through recruiting once I go through recruiting 300 times a year I want them all to do well I want them all to be smart I want them all to have everything that they have earned and deserve that said I get really upset when we start talking about treating 18 19 20 to 24 year olds like children because they are not once they' turn 18 they are adults in this country 21 they get to make their own decision for the most part are they in the best position to make those decisions Maybe maybe not but it's not up to you you don't get to tell somebody what they're going to do with their life and you certainly have to let them answer for the consequences like there are a lot of folks that are up in arms about name image and likeness and the money that the players are making I'm going you sound jealous you sound like you don't want them to have it because you didn't have it you sound like you want to take away their rights to do what they would like to do with their lives because it didn't go that well for you look in the United States we can give a a person a right rle and send them into combat if we can do that get out of their way about all this other stuff man and if they're going to make stupid decisions like breaking the law then they will need to answer for those stupid decisions like breaking the law I I think that's the long and the short of it now Kirby also one of the takeaways I got from him is in on the name image and likeness like the the money that is being transferred from one group to another we could talk about that but he also made a point of saying look we want players that want to be at Georgia and don't take it hard anymore that players want to transfer because of playing time or want to transfer because they're might be getting paid a little bit more than we're willing to pay them but he also made clear that there's a hierarchy in place that is old school like he he said you don't come in and make more money than the starters you earn what you get the longer you stay the more opportunities you get and you're like wow it sounds like Kirby Smart has the keys to the checkbooks because it kind of does like I'm I'm doing a a lot of research on name image and likeness and collectives and what I'm mostly coming to find out is that the folks that run these collectives go to coaches and say we have this much in the budget how do you want to divvy it up and then they divvy it up as they see fit depending on who's there who's returning and how important that person is to winning to say nothing of how important it is to get them all graduated one of the unforeseen outcomes and really a great outcome as we're talking about being up and armed about academics and Nick Sav going on about oh my God we work so hard to make sure that people were going to graduate now they're going up and smoke no it's not there's this thing called the Austin award where universities can pay their student athletes for good grades as a matter of fact I've seen this work okay the University of Tulsa didn't make a bowl game or wouldn't have made a bowl game a couple of years ago because the APR score was on the floor and this is at a place that likes to build itself as the har of the Midwest I hate that by the way there's only one har and we don't need to be co-opt and the University of T is just fine pretty damn good academic institution also this year the football team had its highest ever GPA what happened they started paying kids to have good grades people will respond to Financial incentives that's part and parcel to capitalism I think Kirby Smart knows this as well in the football way I think George is in a really unique place because in the SEC they know that they're going to get everybody's best every week but he's really picked up this Mantra that he lives by which is hey uh better is just a week away everybody in the SEC can beat you and I would amend that to everybody but Vanderbilt in the SEC can beat you I'm just Vanderbilt's getting under my skin guys I I need them to be good I I I need them to be decent I need them to show a pulse you can't just win two games in two seasons and play in the best conference in football it's a privilege right now man I I just don't see vanderbel holding up there in especially as the commodor they don't need no more money they got all the money if they want a good football team go get one right I also think that smart is benefiting from well coach sa ain't across from him on a sideline anymore but he does not expect Alabama to take a dip if for no other reason then coach sa got to most help hand pick his successor in kayin dbor and you've seen what kayin deor has been able to do in the transfer portal and in recruiting they haven't really missed that much of course we're all going to miss Nick Sabin who's the greatest college football coach of all time but given the circumstances of when he retired and what kayin dbor was Will had to work with phenomenal job and Kirby Smart is choosing to be reverent of that they gave 65% of their total production back from 2023 big part of that is Carson Beck right Carson Beck threw for the nearly 4,000 yards was outstanding I also think that this is going to be a year in which we get to find out whether or not Carson Beck is good because they're able to keep him upright last year just giving up 13 sacks and four of those five starters are back so that offensive line is going to be good but you know who's not Brock Powers right let's not act like that's not a big deal let's not act like the safety blanket was the guy that basically beat Auburn by himself is I mean is Carson Beck that good I don't think he's that good but we got to talk about him being that good because he's starting quarterback on what is going to be one of the three best teams in college football we think this year alongside some really Heavy Hitters and a lot of other quarterbacks that are going to be good but this is also an SEC that is deep at the quarterback position you go from Carson Beck to Jackson Dart to Quinn ERS to Jackson Arnold like you can keep going down gut Garrett nus me nicoo eam malova like I I can keep going like it's a really deep league on that but I guess the question that I really have for him is okay what are they going to do with Trevor Eon because it sounds like they're going to use Trevor eten the way that they Ed James Cook but there's only one James Cook and I don't know that Trevor eten has that kind of juice to be a guy that can catch the ball out of the backfield and run between the tackles seven and a half yards deep but he could be right and if you got a great run game at Georgia you know that the defense is going to keep up there in it's who Carson Beck is going to be mostly throwing passes to and it looks like it's gonna be Dylan Bell but it's Dylan Bell Brock Bowers is a guy that didn't catch 40 balls all last year going to turn into George Pickins we're going to get to find that out and see 14 of those starters return from last year's Squad again they're in a great spot at safety they're a little light but they are talented they get Malachi Stark's back who was A Thorp award finalist their best defensive back and KJ Balden according to Kirby Smart is gonna help them he has an opportunity to play right away mostly because they need him to but also he said that KJ Balden excuse me KJ Balden is farther ahead right now than where Malachi Starks was at the same point in his career and if that's any sign they're going to be really outstanding at the safety position and we know that Kirby is an old defensive back so those guys are going to be ready and rare in to go alongside guys like Ells Robinson I fourth who I think could be one of the really fun defensive stories to break out in the SEC this season if there's a weakness on the Georgia football team it is defensive tackle okay let me make sure I get this all right because I'm not talking about Michel Williams I'm not talking about Edge I'm talking about in the middle the Jordan Davis the Jaylen Carter position in years past they have been excellent I thought at one point Jaylen Carter should have been up Jordan Davis should have been up for the Heisman Trophy because they were that good at the nose in that 34 but in 2024 you're talking about Nazir Stackhouse is your best interior defensive uh lineman he started every game last year but he notched just two sacks 2023 all SEC second team next best on the list though is Warren brinon who posted just two sacks in 13 games last year and they came against UAB and Vanderbilt you're going to need those guys to step up in a big way right you're going to need those guys to take the leap if you expect to play for a national championship let alone an SEC Championship last thing I took away from the SEC media days was just the chemistry between Kirby Smart and Nick Sabin on the SEC now uh set those guys are a buddy cop show like it was great I I really enjoyed hearing them go back and forth because it's not a whole lot that a whole lot of opportunities you get to see two guys that have accomplished quite a bit in this sport who not only share a chemistry and camaraderie but they have a tremendous amount of respect for each other so much that they could tell jokes about each other Kirby Smart got up on stage and started with hey there's coach samon who helped raise me also I got in without immedia credential and then he told that story on set turned out that he found out what the story was about the guy that stopped Nick sa being a four-star recruit and he's like man I don't know and his Sid was next to him when they met that guy at the credential gate and he showed Kirby Smart's credential but Kirby wasn't wearing it so they let him in so that's how Kirby Smart was able to get in without a credential and Coach D has been taking it really well I think he is is on it when he says look he's the best assistant that I ever had and he's had some good ones he also ranked them he had Kirby at one he had Steve sarkeesian at two he had Lane at three and I'm sure that Lane's gonna catch feelings about that but uh we also get to learn what Co coach coach Sabin life has been like since he uh left coaching he's texting people now apparently and Kirby told a story about how he and Lane kein have a side conversation every time that one of them gets a text from coach Sab they talk about it because it's that big a deal he says getting the first text message in your life because coach saan has gotten his own email he's got his own text messaging he's doing a lot of he's taking out the trash this is the new world for Coach Sabin and I'm here for it having a lot of fun with it I'm going to be back with more later today talking about Tennessee talk about Oklahoma maybe even talk about Missouri if you like the Channel please be sure to subscribe we're marching toward 100,000 subscribers here on the number one college football show