Kirby Smart shares what life looks like for college head coach this time of year

College football coaches across the country are on the road for a recruiting evaluation period. That is, except for head coaches. They aren’t allowed to do so by NCAA rules which means Kirby Smart’s life is a little bit less chaotic this time of year.

“It’s interesting, the time after spring practice to May 1 was not relaxing. It was the portal, all the stuff going on with final exams, that’s really hectic. May is the one time that’s different for me because my coaches are out on the road for 20-25 days grinding going to see spring practices and I don’t get to do that,” Smart said on Monday during an appearance on 680 The Fan at the 7th Annual Pollack Family Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic. “It becomes, ‘Ok I’m going to play in this golf tournament. I’m going to speak at this event.’ We have three fundraisers for Presidents events raising money for the University. And then on the flip side we have NIL that we’re trying to raise money for. You’re constantly being at somebody’s beck and call to try to try to improve your status with the University raising money. So that’s what May has been about.”

“I like to watch tape and see guys,” he continued. “Our coaches are out on the road evaluating players and guys are going up and down our board based on how they practice, what kind of grades they got, what kind of character they got. So we’re trying to make decisions based on that right now, but May’s different. June we’ll change gears and it becomes on campus recruiting.”

Smart played last week in the 2023 Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge at Reynolds Lake Oconee alongside several of his coaching colleagues. He was at the Pollack event on Monday in Athens before heading to The Drummond Company Celebrity Pro-Am at the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Ala. on Wednesday. He’s one of three coaches that’ll tee it up at Greystone Golf and Country Club with the others being Auburn’s Hugh Freeze and UAB’s Trent Dilfer.

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Later this month though, the focus changes big time. It’ll be important for Smart and his staff to be locked in completely with recruits coming to campus left and right for nearly a month straight. The Bulldogs are expected to host several of their top targets May 19-21 for the annual scavenger hunt event before June is filled with camps and official visits.

Added element of the transfer portal…

Along with the recruiting of high schoolers, there’s also the added element of transfer portal recruiting – even on your own team. It’s been just over a week since the spring portal entry window closed after being open for two weeks. The two weeks aligned with the end of Georgia’s spring practice which meant that Kirby Smart and other Bulldog coaches met with each of their current players to discuss where things were at, where they were going and what was in the best interest of everybody involved.

Smart has no problem with the transfer portal. He wants what’s best for the player. However, he doesn’t necessarily agree with the idea that there should be a second set of decisions made in the spring after there just were decisions made a matter of months before.

“The two weeks after our spring game which we the 15 days of the open portal, I think across the board talking to college coaches it’s a little much,” Smart said. “You have 92 meetings. Every meeting revolves around a different thing. It’s a second time you’ve had it in four months. In any job or profession you have, how many times do you go renegotiate or go talk before you have any performance? It went from performance to portal to spring practice to portal again. I don’t know that’s the right – we’re still feeling this out. They tightened the windows up after year one. Maybe they do some other changes to make it better because I’m supportive of the portal and I’m supportive of kids trying to go different places, I’m just not supportive of it being all about the NIL with where you go.”

This is the first year that transfer portal entry periods have existed. Previously, the portal was open year round with deadlines that had to be met for eligibility purposes. The SEC added another layer to that for transfers within the league’s 14 teams before NCAA rules created the two windows for transfer to regular when players were allowed to enter.