Kirby Smart scoffs at coverage of comments to Texas coaches taken out of context
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart made headlines on Tuesday in Texas at the annual Texas High School Coaches Association convention with his comments on the toll that coaching in College Football has taken on him. Speaking specifically about the month of June 2021 – the first opportunity for recruits to get back on campus since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – Smart said he was ready to step down and resign. He eased any concerns that Georgia fans might have had saying it was hyperbole and scoffed at the way the situation was covered by some.
“You guys are searching, boy. I tell you what any material out there is good material,” Smart said. “I got to speak at the Texas High School Coaches Association. They had 16,000 something coaches. A great opportunity for us to talk. We actually did a Q&A and one of the questions was talking about workplace balance and lifestyle balance.”
“I think a lot of coaches have a sentiment and feel like last June (2021) was probably the toughest time we’ve had. Not this June. That’s a common mistake with that comment because it was very different. Last June was the first time in over 14, 15, 16 months that kids had been to campus,” he continued. “A lot of our coaches and a lot of coaches in the profession, it was just unrealistic because they had things called OCEs (On Campus Evaluations) which allowed you to work out at any time they wanted to work out. Nobody really talked about it much, but a lot of their Texas coaches knew about it. They asked specifically about that and so when I said it, I said it wore us out. We were all done. So nothing much meant by it. Just frustrated with how it was and happy with the way it was this June because this June I wouldn’t say was much easier, but it was much better. We were much better prepared to handle it because there weren’t as many kids coming.”
Smart did say in Texas that he gave his staff extra time this summer to counteract the craziness that was created the summer before. Georgia coaches took every Monday off working Friday, Saturday and Sunday each weekend with official visits on the books. On Fridays, he told his staff to stay home until late to get energized for the weekend.
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“We only had 10 days of camp this June. And I told our coaches, ‘Look guys, we’re not working Monday and we’re not coming in Friday until afternoon.’ So we can be with our players Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then we can be with our recruits Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” Smart told the Texas coaches according to a transcript tweeted by Sam Khan Jr. of The Athletic. “I felt like that got some ability to recharge a little bit like, ‘Man, I’m gonna be better Friday night if I took Friday morning off.’ If I try to work the whole 24 hours, I’m not gonna have any juice or any energy to even present.”
As a result of the hard work that Smart and his staff put in last summer, Georgia finished with the No. 3-ranked recruiting class in 2022, signing four five-stars according to the On3 Consensus. Georgia currently sits at No. 3 in the Class of 2023 as well with 15 total commits.
