Kirby Smart talks pressure of third title pursuit, if this offseason is any different

Pressure is a privilege. It’s a saying Kirby Smart has taken to heart over his time at Georgia. But, as the two-time defending National Champion and in pursuit of a third straight – something that hasn’t been done since the 1930s – Smart says he doesn’t feel a greater sense of pressure to perform than any other year. To him, the success they had last year (and the one before that) has nothing to do with his team in 2023, and the three-peat is just outside noise.

“It’s no greater pressure than it was last year. Every year is independent of the previous. You start from scratch. You look at your team. You do the best job you can,” Smart said in a radio interview on 680 The Fan earlier this week. “You probably need a little luck just like we had against Ohio State. At the end of the day, I could be sitting here had we lost that game and I’d still think we had a successful season. Certainly success is measured by rings and championships, but internally we measure it by, ‘Did we get the most out of our team?’ We’re going to do the same thing this year with our team that’s coming back.”

Every offseason is a little bit different. One year you might have eight NFL draftees on defense to replace while the next quarterback may be the bigger concern. Sound familiar? It should.

However, for Smart, his approach to the offseason isn’t any different. Whether they were coming off of a championship like the last two years or had come up short the year before, the routine for Smart and his coaches doesn’t change in pursuit of another.

“It’s really the same routine as every year,” he said in another interview, this time on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning at the Regions Tradition golf tournament in Birmingham, Ala. “It feels like you’ve got the same events booked, the timeline with spring practice, May recruiting, June holy hell. It doesn’t stop. You know what I mean?”

Kirby Smart shares what this time of year looks like for him

Smart has described what this time of year looks like for him. Once things settle down after the National Championship celebration and the closing of the first open window for the transfer portal, it’s all about recruiting ahead of the February signing day. Then it’s on to spring practice, another transfer portal window and more recruiting.

May is different for him though. Because head coaches can’t go out on the road during the month – only the 10 on-field assistants – he’s got a little bit more down time to spend with family, as well as on the road helping fundraise for both the University and NIL ventures for his student-athletes.

“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.”

Georgia is 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. Then, attention turns back to the pursuit of a three-peat with his current team as fall camp starts at the beginning of August.