Kirby Smart on Phil Knight, Nike: 'I wish I could get some of that NIL money he's sharing with Dan Lanning'

Kirby Smart might want some more dollars at Georgia in NIL money, like what Phil Knight is prepared to give Oregon.

The Nike founder was set to give “unlimited NIL” to the Ducks in his later years. Dan Lanning, the head coach of Oregon, coached under Smart at Georgia.

So Smart took a playful jab calling for Knight and his former coach to send a check.

“And this year, we took Nike, who I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting Phil Knight and his wonderful wife Penny,” Smart said at SEC Media Days. And I wish I could get some of that NIL money that he’s sharing with Dan Lanning. But that’s another note.”

The “unlimited NIL” comment came from former coach Rick Neuheisel, who claimed Knight, 86, was willing to do whatever it takes to get Oregon a national championship. Despite that, Knight has not confirmed that himself, nor are there any reported figures of “unlimited NIL.”

All jokes aside, Smart was thankful for the study of Nike for giving him and Georgia great insight.

“But the study of Nike for us has been incredible,” Smart said. “I didn’t know some of the things about when Nike originated and we took a week by week look in-school sessions, breakout sessions, as well as to gather and study kind of their model. And one of the first things we studied was the belief of assume nothing.

“And I think that’s so important in football, because when you assume something or you assume you know someone or you assume that you know somebody’s name that you’re in the room with, you can take things for granted. Just like starting over from a previous year. Assume nothing. Assume nothing, start from ground zero and build this team different than every other team and Nike did that.”

Kirby Smart thankful for Nike study, while joking about Dan Lanning

Smart utilized the Nike model to improve the organization, as in how his players and staff memebrs get to know each other. It produces cohesion in the locker room, the football facility and on the field.

“So if you assume that you know everybody’s name, you may not know what that name means,” Smart said. “We had each player get up for the team excited what their first, middle and last name and where that came from. I encourage you if you’ve never done that exercise in an organization, do it. Because you learn more about somebody when you know what they got their name from, and what it stands for, and what it meant in their family, what it meant and their lineage.

“That’s very important. And you get a lot of deep conversations to know somebody better, which when you’re on the field with somebody, you go to battle with somebody out on the field, you better be able to know what their reasoning is. And I really enjoyed that. And I enjoyed our study of Nike as we went through.”

Nike might have great messaging to help Georgia, but maybe Smart still wants some of those NIL dollars from Knight. Safe to say, it’s hard to keep up with Nike financially!