Kirby Smart is attempting to build Georgia's roster in a way that most other programs are afraid to do. He doesn't want to conform to the new norm of buying rosters with massive NIL offers, instead he wants to build Georgia's roster by adding players who care more about playing for Georgia than they do about making money.
In theory this is a good idea because it is what has led Georgia to winning the SEC the last two years, but Smart's recent comment on this subject took things way too far and should have fans extremely concerned.
“Look, we’re going to find the right people,” Smart said via dawgnation.com. “We only need to find 25. We need to find 22. And there’s thousands of them good enough out there. Like the difference in the top thousand players... I just need to find 22 that want to be here.”
Kirby Smart took things way too far when discussing how he wants to build Georgia's roster
The message Smart is attempting to get across makes sense. He wants his program to be built around players that truly care about Georgia and aren't just there to collect a check.
That is becoming increasingly difficult to do, but he has made it clear what type of player he is looking for.
But Smart took that message way too far by saying he only needs to find 22 players that fit this mold. He is referring to the 11 starters on offense and defense being the only players that need to conform to his standards in order for Georgia to be successful, but that is a gross miscalculation.
No team can win championships with 22 good players. They need to have a slew of backups that are able to play at a high level as well because no one only plays 11 players for an entire game.
Smart more than likely is just exaggerating to try and make his point, but what if his point is completely wrong? What if instead of doubling down on the culture he wants to build he instead starts changing his thought process on NIL?
Kirby Smart may have to get on board with increasing NIL offers to recruits
Georgia recently has lost a lot of big recruitments with players who prioritized NIL. Players like Jared Curtis and Donte Wright both flipped to programs who aren't on Georgia's level mainly because of a higher NIL deal.
These are just two of many examples, but this trend doesn't look like it is stopping anytime soon.
Any one of these losses really isn't a huge deal for Georgia, but adding them all together paints a very different picture. All of these losses combined is extremely detrimental to Georgia as they now are unable to stack talent like they once were, and if that continues other teams will eventually have too much talent for Georgia to compete with.
Georgia still has plenty of talent to compete with anyone today, but overtime that could change. Smart may need to change his tune on NIL soon or it may be too late for him to catch up to other programs in the future.
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