Kirby Smart evaluates how new clock rules have impacted college football

Coming into the 2023 college football season, there was a major change to the clock rules. In the past, the clock would stop after first downs. Now, it runs after first downs outside of the final two minutes of a half.

It’s a topic that’s been on the minds of many fans and coaches around college football. That includes Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart, who has been looking for an answer as to how big of an impact this change has actually had on the sport.

“I actually sent a text to the analytics people we have a subscription to, and he sent me a text back immediately, I asked Week 1 and he said, ‘Well, it’s more than they thought but you can’t judge it on one week,'” Kirby Smart said. “And after Week 3, last weekend’s numbers were in, he texted me right back and said, ‘It’s right where we thought.’ He said 21-22. I want to say he said 175 — 175 snaps a game, maybe, and they’re at just 170.”

Kirby Smart emphasized that he doesn’t know any of the numbers he’s quoting are completely accurate. These are just the numbers he’s been told.

“So, it’s five snaps a game after three weeks. And you can quote me on it because I said it but I don’t know if it’s fact. I’m going off what somebody told me. So, they told me 175-170, so it’s actually [a] five place difference. Is that the same thing you’re hearing?”

The reporter responded that they had heard three players per team were being lost per game.

“That makes sense because they’re saying 5.5, so three per team is six and what I was told is 5.5. So, that’s not substantial but I don’t know why I even feel like it’s more than that,” Smart said.

“Maybe they should study it by possession, and I have not done the math on possessions, not plays, because it seems less. It seems faster, you know what I mean? But I don’t know what impact it’s had. If you do it by number of plays, that’s minimal. I mean, that’s just minimal. Three plays per game. That’s three plays per game per team. I don’t think that’s a major deal.”

Several coaches have loudly taken issue with these new clock rules. UCLA head coach Chip Kelly complained about the lack of possessions in the Bruins’ first half of their opening game. Meanwhile, Ryan Day at Ohio State has argued that fewer possessions is leading to fewer points.

For his part, Kirby Smart agrees that possessions matter but doesn’t know what the difference is from last year to this one in terms of the number of possessions.

“Possessions matter, but I can’t tell it here and tell you the possessions because I didn’t ask that number if possessions are down. If three plays are down then it shouldn’t be possessions down.”

Kirby Smart on transfer portal scouting

Another major change in college football has been the transfer portal. This has left Kirby Smart wondering if teams can be proactive in transfer portal scouting.

“Everybody’s got a new staff that goes and evaluates every player. I’ve been told there’s teams out there on the sidelines of our games scouting our players in warmups because that’s their job for their team, is to know something about that kid if he goes in,” Smart said.

“We’re not that advanced. I’m not really that interested in it. Obviously, there’s never a kid that goes in the portal we would not consider unless we didn’t like him coming out or had some reason not to recruit him coming out. But I’m not going to go in advance and do that, because you might scout 1,000 kids and 10 of those 1,000 end up going in. I could take that 10 minutes and go watch them when they go in.”