Kirby Smart explains having Sylvester Croom talk to Georgia players

As the first black head coach in SEC history, former Mississippi State head coach Sylvester Croom is a legend in the conference. This offseason, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart decided to bring him to Athens to speak to the Bulldogs.

During the Week 1 SEC teleconference, Smart explained the logic behind bringing Croom in to speak to the team.

“Well, I’ve always had a lot of respect for Coach Croom and played against his teams while I’ve been at other universities,” Kirby Smart said. “Followed his his career and have a lot of respect for the things I’ve seen him do, coach, lead young men, and knew he was a talented speaker that could capture the audience. And he did just that.”

Sylvester Croom played at Alabama under Bear Bryant where he would get his start as a coach in 1976. After his time at Alabama, Croom went on to become a longtime NFL assistant coach before becoming the Mississippi State head coach in 2004. In five seasons there, he compiled a 21-38 record with a Liberty Bowl win.

Smart highlighted Croom’s legacy as a leader and his personal history as the first black head coach in the SEC as phenomenal reasons to have him share some wisdom with the team.

“He is very experienced in the coaching profession and leading young men. I was glad to get him over and once our players learn a little bit about history and the things that he’s done, it made him a great candidate to reach them.”

This season, Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs are going for their third straight national championship win. That journey starts Week 1 against UT Martin.

Kirby Smart on the importance of a three-peat

One of the biggest topics of conversation in 2023 will be Georgia trying to three-peat. That’s a goal that Kirby Smart tried to put into perspective.

“When you think about how many times it’s been done, I think that’s the precipus you say, ‘Well why is it so hard to do, what makes it so difficult?’ It’s a lot of the same things that make it hard to repeat. You get two, that’s not a common feat either. But you know as well as I do, we don’t focus on that, that third one, or trying to get a three-peat. That’s not a focal point for us. We really don’t talk about it. We don’t worry about it. I get the hype around it, because when you think about how little it’s been done, it can be a special thing. But we’ve got a lot of new players,” Smart said.

“So a lot of those new players are hungry, and you know, my biggest concern right now is fighting complacency. Because you’ve got this senior and junior class, who’ve all won one. We had a really interesting speaker come in the other day, Sylvester Croom, and I thought he had great insight and great perspective, having been at Alabama as a player, and he won three consecutive SEC championships, and debatable national championships in a row, because they were voted. But he talked to our team about that, and how he felt like that third year, that there wasn’t a lot of hunger on the upper-end of the leadership, and I thought that was really interesting.”