Kirby Smart explains challenges of recruiting high school players in NIL-centered world

The Georgia Bulldogs wrapped up their 2023 spring practice series on Saturday with the G-Day game. But before the event got underway, head coach Kirby Smart recently had a sit down with Athens, GA, local radio station show 680 The Fan.

During his appearance, the Bulldogs head man addressed the state of his team heading into the G-Day game. But he also took a moment to highlight the challenges of recruiting high school players in the new NIL-centered world.

“Well, I think you think about it, but the biggest thing is education,” said Smart. “I don’t know that every kid that’s being recorded understands what the rules and regulations within NIL are; it’s new. It’s new to everybody. It’s in its third year, which… that’s relatively new. And you’re trying to make sure they understand that that’s not the way this works, that we can’t do this. Like you need to understand what it is.
“So I’m not just completely turned off if they misunderstand. No. I’m gonna educate. And if they continue to think that way, then we’re not interested. We can’t run around throwing money out to people before they get here; we can’t do that. So the key is that they earn NIL the right way and they do it the correct way, which is having a better understanding of it. And I don’t know when you start talking about high school prospects, the awareness that everybody has. There’s no textbook (or) handbook on it that they get to go by.”

Smart and the Bulldogs don’t appear to be too impacted by the new landscape of recruiting in college sports. According to On3 Industry Recruiting Database, the Bulldogs had the second-ranked recruiting class in 2023. And although the classes are not official yet, they currently hold the top spot for 2024.

Smart says there’s more recruiting to come

Smart will have to do some heavy evaluating following G-Day, and the head coach will certainly take his time. But before he can, the Bulldogs’ head coach will have to put his recruiting hat back on for Georgia and hit the road.

“Yeah, we’re gonna be recruiting,” Smart said on 680 The Fan. “I mean, the first thing we do is we have kids that come on campus and want to make sure they are serious. We get to spend time with their families while they’re here. We’ll have a couple of official visitors which ties into Sunday, meaning I get to spend time with them on Sunday and help welcome their families and embrace them and what I hope is tremendous weather and tremendous opportunity for some guys to grow up and play. 

“You know, I’ll worry about the tape of the game probably on Sunday when the recruits are gone and take my time and look at it and watch it say okay, look, this is how far we came from scrimmage one to scrimmage, three. And where do we need to go to get where we need to be?”

Smart and Georgia look for national title No. 3 together in 2023, which would be the team’s third straight championship. It’s a feat never accomplished in modern day college football.