Kirby Smart has remained loyal to the players he recruited to Georgia throughout the major changes NIL and the Transfer Portal have brought to college football, and fans should forever be thankful for that.
Let's do a quick flashback to 2018. The Georgia Bulldogs came up one play short of a national championship just a few months prior. They did that with the best running back room in the country and a true freshman quarterback in Jake Fromm.
Fromm was a Georgia kid from Warner Robbins. He stepped in when Jacob Eason got hurt in 2017, earned his spot and never lost it. However, the Bulldogs had just recruited the best player in the country that offseason, five-star quarterback Justin Fields, another Georgia kid. Throughout that 2018 season, through good times and bad, several Bulldog fans were screaming at Kirby Smart and the Georgia staff to make a QB change. They never did, and Fields transferred to Ohio State at the end of that year.
Cut to today, and that was not the last time Georgia faced controversy like that. When JT Daniels, a USC transfer, came to Athens, fans begged for him to be the starter. And sure enough, he had won that job in 2021. However, injuries occurred and a Georgia kid got his shot once again, former walk-on Stetson Bennett.
As soon as Daniels was healthy again several fans wanted him back, even though Bennett was excelling at his starting position. Once again Smart was loyal, and this time it won him a national championship in two straight seasons. Carson Beck and Gunner Stockton have both since taken that mantle and ran with it. Guys who waited their turn, and were given what was rightfully earned.
Fans can be angry about this for many reasons. They believe that even though these guys waited and earned their shot to start that the Bulldogs have the resources to go out and buy higher talent with NIL and a new college landscape. In my mind, we should be proud they are not that way. Despite a changing landscape, Georgia has remained the same. The Bulldogs have been a program that represents honor and loyalty, and that is one of the best things about the program Smart has built
Lane Kiffin, LSU sign NFL tight end and ignores program loyalty
Just recently, Lane Kiffin and LSU have brought in former Ole Miss tight end Dae'Quan Wright. What makes this so shameful is that Wright had just been playing for the Cleveland Browns in there preseason game before the announcement was made public. LSU went out and brought a professional football player back to play college football due to an NCAA eligibility loophole.
While some LSU fans might brag about the fact they now have an amazing tight end room, it is disgraceful what it did to those who waited their turn. Fans won't mention what it did to Trey'Dez Green, a Louisiana native who had waited his turn. He signed with LSU right out of high school in 2024.
Freshman year he had a couple of reps and he showed promise sophomore year with over 400 receiving yards. 2026 was supposed to be his year. However, less than two weeks before the college season starts, he is replaced by a literal NFL player. A player that has no ties to the state or the university. In fact, the player played for the rival of LSU just a year ago. Yet, loyalty means nothing to LSU anymore.
LSU is not the only team. It is becoming an unfortunate trend in college football, this just so happens to be the most recent case. Indiana won a National Championship a year ago. Instead of pointing out the fact how much money they spent to have a new roster and how old the average age of that team was, we celebrate Curt Cignetti as one of the best coaches in the league.
Former Georgia defensive coordinator and now Oregon head coach Dan Lanning has rightfully spoken out against Wright's move to LSU. Oregon and Georgia are two programs that can say at the end of the day that they did things the right way.
Long story shorter, Georgia fans should be proud of this university and its undying loyalty. You can be ticked all you want about how Georgia has not spent near the amount of NIL money as some other programs, or how they have kept coaches like Mike Bobo on staff. The Bulldogs are winning more than any other program over the last five years, and they did so without having to find any loopholes.
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