Kirby Smart on NIL promises: ‘Some people are willing to spend beyond their ability’

Georgia coach Kirby Smart isn’t going to make NIL promises he cant keep. However, according to the Bulldogs head man, not every college football program operates the same way.

Asked if he had missed out on players in the portal or recruiting due to existing NIL rules, Smart was open that he has. But the coach also added that he’s seen cases where a university promises a certain dollar amount to recruits that they ultimately can’t fulfill.

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“It’s all about what you have available,” he said in a Tuesday press conference. “Some people are willing to spend beyond their ability to raise it. Unfulfilled promises. We’re not gonna have unfulfilled promises where guys reach back out and say, ‘They said they could do this and they didn’t. They said they would do that and they didn’t.’

“So we’ve lost some in those regards, but I don’t know that it was an inability to do it. It was a not gonna step over our skis or our body and put too much out there and say, ‘OK, we’ve committed to this’ and you can’t do it. It’s a hard world out there because you don’t really know what you can and can’t do. People make promises and nobody has a bounty sitting out there that big where they can pay everybody that.”

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One of the biggest public examples of what Smart is referring to comes from the Bulldogs’ biggest rival, Florida. The Gators reportedly promised former four-star quarterback Jaden Rashada, who is ironically now at Georgia, a $13.85 million NIL deal over four years upon his commitment to the university.

Florida allegedly offered a $1 million partial payment to Rashada that he was supposed to receive after signing his letter of intent. However, he never got it and later asked for his release from the team.

Rashada later sued the university and coach Billy Napier for failing to honor the agreement.

That in mind, Kirby Smart will continue to take a different approach in his use of NIL to recruit players. Ultimately, the coach values players who aren’t as concerned about the money they will be making.

At the same time, it’s a part of the game now and he realizes he has to be smart with his budget.

“You try to be judgmental and you try to make good decisions on players,” Smart said. “You want people in your program that are not really making it about just that. Because when it’s just about that, you’ll never stop. That’s not gonna change based on what the governor does. With the governor’s thing, it’s not like it’s gonna be this open surplus. It’s just helping us be competitive with others and I’m sure Georgia Tech feels the same way.

“You’re out there competing in a really competitive environment and there’s times you feel like you want to do something and you can’t. Now hopefully we’ve got the capabilities to do what we need to do.”