Kirby Smart Shares His Thoughts on College Football's Current Schedule
Nick Saban's departure from Alabama created a void in college football. Not just on the field, but also in leadership. Saban was the leading voice in the sport, always fighting and using his platform to try and keep the experience for the coaches, student-athletes, and fans as healthy as possible.
With Saban gone, many have turned to Georgia head coach Kirby Smart to pick up where his mentor left off. While Smart may be quick to deflect anything that compares him to Saban, his success at Georgia has put him squarely at the front of the sport. In a recent interview with Josh Pate of CBS Sports, Smart discussed the health of the sport, more specifically the immense time requirements for college football coaches.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey shakes hands with Georgia coach Kirby Smart at Lucas Oil Stadium before the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Indianapolis, on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022.
© Joshua L. Jones / USA TODAY NETWORK
"I don't believe in whining and crying. But I do believe in doing things the best way possible... And a lot of people have different opinions of the right things, the right ways to do things."
Whether or not he picks up Saban's mantle, Smart has acknowledged what Saban meant to the sport.
"I give Nick [Saban] a lot of credit, Nick was very impactful for my career. But every meeting I ever sat in with him, on a staff, or as a head coach in the SEC for eight years where we shared seats and shared ideas, he was always in pursuit of what was best for the student-athletes. And that doesn't mean necessarily best means [the] highest paid, most money, it's overall, what's going to allow somebody to have more success in the rest of their life. And that is such a fine line."
Like many other coaches, Smart singled out the month of December as a particularly brutal time. It's the most important time on the football schedule, as teams play conference championship games and bowl/playoff games. It's also the most important time of the year for recruiting with the early signing period.
"In some ways, our calendar's worse. December has become a little bit of a nightmare. And that's not a complaint, because I love hard work. Like, I grind I am into doing it better than the other team. But it's almost unimaginable what we asked some people to do. For instance, we're asking kids that are ready to play for a national championship against TCU and Alabama, to sign a piece of paper saying that they're not coming back next year, so that we can bring in a mid-year, you know, like, like this kid's been here. And we know he's going out for the NFL Draft. And he's a senior and his eligibility is up, but he needs to be worried about the game. But no, we can't bring in a mid-year without removing someone else. So it's called a voluntary withdrawal. They're required to sign it. It's very tough environments like that your roster managing, and you're having to do things that you're like, 'Well, why does this matter right now like this, this is not the most important thing', but every team is in a different spot. So it makes it very challenging."
"I can't sit here and say that it's perfect. And I think there's some ways to make it better. But some things are just... change inevitable. And change is inevitable. And it makes it harder."
