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How ‘tough coach’ Kirby Smart has modified championship player management skills
System
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How ‘tough coach’ Kirby Smart has modified championship player management skills
ATHENS — The Kirby Smart Georgia football fans see on the sideline is every bit as charged up and invested as it appears.
Comments
This article has me thinking. Would you rather have 3 stars who really want it and 1st year- scout team. 2nd mop up duty and some special teams, 3rd, key rotational player, 4th year starter.
OR
4/5 stars that speed up the process and leave after 3 years (maybe even transfer due to lack of playing time )
maybe a mix of both? I think the culture and leadership from the players would come from the 4 year players.
Kirby rather have 4 and 5 stars that really want it and his recruiting allows him to see the cream rise to the top. I still think about how Tindall patiently worked and worked and eventually got his pay day even though not starting where and when he wanted. If you work hard enough and long enough though the competition is fierce your reward will be greater for you then if you had transferred where the competition was light.
Steel sharpens Steel...
All I know is most people that worked or coached with his intensity would have an early heart attack. He's still young and I don't think he'll ever lose his fire just learn to utilize it. Players know he's cut from the best and they want to play for him and be part of history.
It seems like, with every new class of recruits, there are fewer and fewer guys that have the mental make up of patient guys like Channing Tindall or Quay Walker or SVPG or CBeck. Those kind of guys seem the exception to the rule these days.
With each class more guys want immediate NIL, playing time, recognition. Fields and Alexander immediately come to mind.
I am sure this factors into who UGA recruits and why they don't recruit higher rated guys in some cases. It can be frustrating to some fans to see the elite recruits from the state of GA go elsewhere year after year. Especially since some of those elite GA HS players (Trevor Lawrence, Derek Brown) could've been the difference between winning a championship or not.
But this is the new reality of recruiting in 2023. It will be interesting to see how the different styles of team building (Deion, CKS, Saban, Freeze, Dabo) impact the CFB world as we progress through this decade.
@UGADad20 mentioned Deion Sanders as a coach to watch on the way he's handling the portal (I assume), rather than Lane Kiffin...which I found interesting for this reason...
On ESPN's web page, there's a headliner, in Bold, at the top...on Deion Sanders and that very issue. And, I'm just wondering...why. What has Colorado...or, Sanders done at the Power 5 level to warrant that kind of attention?
Sure...Colorado should win a few more games from a talent standpoint. But, from a "coaching standpoint", Sanders hasn't proven his worth or "paid his dues"...yet. (IMO)
Maybe he will...maybe he won't....but, providing him with millions of dollars in free advertising that isn't afforded other Universities in his Comference...in better condition, going into the 2023 season, I might add...seems like overkill. Even for ESPN. What's up with that? Lol
And...here goes another one...
Another ESPN Headline story, involved a Michigan Running Back that played part of 2022 with a partially torn patella tendon (or something to that effect) and had surgery to repair it. As if....lmao. I thought to myself..."who DIDN'T play through injury, in 2022", now that would be a story.
So, I was curious. I looked to see if ESPN did a story on Brock Bowers 2021 shoulder injury...(the one he had surgery on, immediately after the CFPCG). Lol...everybody did a story on Bowers injury status after the '21 season...EXCEPT ESPN! I've always called ESPN out for blatant bias....but, this takes the cake.
I think ESPN actually is rooting for us to be the first modern 3-PEAT. They may not have been rooting for us before but I think that has definitely changed. ESPN sees us similar to Alabama but with a longer future payoff since Kirby is younger. So times change and we are definitely getting a lot of love now. If Deion gets blown out by TCU is the first game and humbled all year the bloom will be off the rose. Deion had better win and win big by year 3 or he will just be another big mouth failure.
Kirby has always been fairly coach speak. A few quotes have jumped out every now and then but his teams have backed them up so far so all is well. I thought he was setup to really put his foot in his mouth over the Saban and Alabama questions recently and he availed himself well.
I mentioned Sanders because he has been the most aggressive and extreme (revolutionary?) in how he is trying to build CO. Using the TP and running off players. A few examples mentioned that immediately came to mind and not everyone. Dabo doesn't use the TP. CKS used it, Saban uses it more and many others are using it as much as they possibly can. Most top programs "encourage" players that are being passed up on the depth chart to leave. MJ Sherman (and others) comes to mind. Deion runs them off in droves.
Deion is using the system to try a quick fix and build a "team" of mercenaries. Just like he was. I cannot see those players ever putting the team over themselves because their coach never did. CO may have some success but if Deion can build CO into a decent program he will parley that into the FL St job or another, better job.
Deion will recruit better than most because he is a name w/cache and a HOF'er. His methods will not be championship successful on the CFB level. His ultimate goal has to be to be an NFL coach.
Fans don’t know the locker room and aren’t privy to the coaches’ evaluations of the rostered players. About all we have to go on is a player’s rating/ranking coming out of high school and mostly conjecture by sports bloggers who need to write something even when there’s nothing to write about in order to produce clicks to generate money for their employer to keep their jobs.
Like lemmings, we follow story lines about former blue chip recruits hitting the portal and transferring out of the program as if the sky is falling. In reality, those transfers are needed because those former blue chippers have been recruited over or transfers are brought into the program and roster spots are needed to get down to the 85 scholarship limit by fall practice. All that’s changed recently is the wording. It used to be a player “left the program”. Now, it’s a player “entered the transfer portal”.
When I see former blue chippers hit the portal I assume they can’t take the tough coaching Kirby demands, they aren’t dedicated to Kirby’s philosophy of team first, or they just weren’t as good as advertised. Regardless of the reason, we can only take 85 scholarship players into the season and the way UGA is recruiting and bringing quality SEC players in from the portal, the transfers out of the program are necessary and I trust are best for the program in the long run.
@ShoottheHooch & @UGADad20
Man!!! You guys are on fire tonight. Lol
I agree with everything you guys said. Particularly, about Sanders. Lol...flavor of the month at ESPN. Let me be clear, though. I DO NOT agree with the way Deion is rebuilding his roster. I think it's complete BS.
It's hard to make the argument, that 70% of your roster couldn't play to YOUR standards...after just a few months and one Spring session. That's just hard to swallow.
Something else is going on there, in Colorado. The question is...does anybody have the balls to report on it honestly? Or, do we have to wait 5 years or until he's fired to find out about the unreported abuses...as usual? I swear...the media in this Country is Useless. Lol
It's all about NIL and the less restrictive transfer portal. Studies have shown less than 65% of 5 star rated HS prospect ever make it to the NFL and an even lower percentage of 4 & 3-star players. HS football players need to make money from their athletic career as soon as they are able because doing so doesn't reduce their ability to make an NFL roster. and maximizes their career earnings as an athlete. However, what this incremental $ value is will be different for every athlete and their specific circumstances and personal judgement.
I've watched the Dawgs for 50+ years, not as an expert, but maybe as more than a "casual" (as "some" would put it). I have to believe that Kirby Smart's fire is one of the principal reasons for UGa's successes. His predecessors are better men than I, but sometimes it seemed that their lack of fire was one factor that stopped the Dawgs just short. My two cents.
I don't think it is that. Richt had a lot of fire in private and people just don't give him credit. His teams would have been in 4 or 5 playoffs of 12 teams. A couple different bounces of the ball and he could of won a NC. Anyways, I think Kirby's fire is definitely a plus, but, and this is a big one, he is an even better recruiter and the combination of relentless recruiter, relentless coaching and good fortune is how he ended up where he is. Make no mistake about it those 4 NCs that he won with Saban he had a big hand in also which makes one think about the potential dynasty he is building now.