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Kirby Smart defends his roster-building process after latest rule change
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Kirby Smart defends his roster-building process after latest rule change
Depth has been one of the key tenets of Kirby Smart’s coaching philosophy.
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Through hard work, commitment to culture, inherent "destination" attributes, a substantial bank account, and practical sense, Smart has a roster good enough to win championships, probably the envy of all but maybe a few schools in the entire country. Plenty to be happy with there. Go Dawgs!
Hard to look at Miami taking all the five stars, but we'll see.
If those 5-stars get hurt or under-perform, and/or the culture is wrecked because other kids just as good and working just as hard get paid far less… could be a problem. So yeah, we'll see. Kirby prefers to gamble on lots of kids, whereas other schools like to gamble on a few. I personally think the skill difference between a 5 star and a 4 star (or even a 3 star, for that matter)— because they're all elite and we're supposedly talking about the top 1/2% versus the top 1%, with gobs of potential error in those measures— is over-rated (no pun intended) and not worth betting the ranch on a few. Go Dawgs!
some of their 5 stars have already been dismissed also. I’m all for getting great, highly rated players, but they have to be the right ones.
Agreed. And I like to think (though could be way wrong) that by "right ones", Kirby is able to get some 5 and 4 stars that aren't entirely about the money (i.e., willing to play at Georgia for less money than ceiling because of the rest of the UGA deal), not chasing shiny objects primarily based on hype… that way you have your cake (elite talent) and eat it too (less risk). Go Dawgs!
wel those highly rated players are going to get a lot of money regardless. Always have. But it takes special talent to discern who can handle and/or deserves that kind of investment and I think that’s where Kirby and company shine.
Graham Coffey had a long piece delving into that post sec media days that really sold me on the process.
Can someone explain to me the difference between Dabo’s recruit and retain process the last 10 years and the current Kirby process? I truly hope Kirby can make it work better than Dabs has
The people assigning stars know high school football. They’ve watched an enormous amount of talent, and within that context their evaluations have real value.
What they cannot know with certainty is how a five-star prospect will translate to the next level.
That transition is where the projection gets tested.
Some five-stars become threes. Some threes become fives. It happens every year. NFL scouts miss, too—and they are evaluating older, more physically mature players with years of college tape.
What the stars really do is get a player noticed. They help determine who gets the first serious look.
After that, the coaches and analysts have to decide what is actually there: frame, movement, instincts, competitiveness, development curve, scheme fit and ultimately whether the player can become an SEC starter.
Kirby is exceptionally good at identifying that upside. He misses, because everyone misses. He just seems to miss less often than most.
That is why 2026 is so interesting.
If this team makes a deep playoff run with the roster being assembled under this newer model, we may be watching the beginning of Kirby 2.0.
But 2027 is the real test.
If Georgia remains exceptional after another major cycle of players leaves and the next wave steps in without a meaningful drop-off, then the new model has proven it can reproduce itself.
At that point, it is no longer just another good Georgia team.
It is the beginning of the second Kirby Smart dynasty.