Kirby Smart weighs in on Hugh Freeze's suggestion of spring scrimmages vs. in-state foes

Georgia and head coach Kirby Smart have been getting ready for its spring scrimmage this weekend. But could the intersquad be a thing of the past?

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has raised the idea of playing spring scrimmages against other in-state colleges to raise money for charity.

Smart was asked about the idea on 680 The Fan earlier this week and was asked his thoughts on the idea of the spring scrimmage.

“I’m open to that idea,” Smart said. “It’s not something that I think about a lot and think about often. I think anything that benefits the greater good of your state or your community, locally, — when I say locally, I mean, state of Georgia — then we should be for that. If we have an opportunity to help organizations that need help funding and we can do that through the sport of football, then then I’m usually looking for a way to help out.

“I certainly don’t think that it’s an opportunity to just be a moneymaker. It’s an opportunity to give back if our players can give back and have a game or scrimmage where you get to go against other people and the enjoyment the betterment of that goes to Children’s Hospital or whatever it may be, that’s usually a positive. I’m okay with the way things are and I’m okay if we move towards that and then gives the chance to give back. I’m not one that kind of thinks it has to be one way or the other.”

Kirby Smart not the only coach open to spring scrimmages vs. in-state foes

Kirby Smart is not the only coach who has been asked to weigh in on his thoughts about the possibility of doing spring scrimmages against in-state foes for charity.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban gave a similar answer to Smart, saying he is always interested in opportunities to help out the community.

“We’re always interested in helping people in any way that we can. If that’s the purpose of what they’re doing, that’s certainly a good thing,” Saban said. “We try to do a lot of things to create opportunities for people in our foundation and will continue to do that. If there’s something along those lines in the spring game that would be helpful to somebody, I think it’s a great idea.”

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher is against the idea, saying that he is not interested in losing control of the controllable aspects of the intersquad scrimmage.

“Unless there’s a significant financial value to it, or something of that nature, I don’t know the advantage of it,” Fisher said. “Maybe you get a guy some game times that are young guys but you’re you won’t play your starters. It’ll probably be like, what do they call it, the Hall of Fame Game. Some of them don’t play or they’ll get one series or you won’t get them. Now you play all the young guys which if that’s your object, then it could be good. There’s a lot of different avenues look at it. If it comes about and I’ll think about harder.”