College football fans love to talk about stats. In fact, most head coaches also love to dive deep into very detailed stats as well. Kirby Smart however doesn't subscribe to that philosophy.
Georgia football was well on their wait to shutting Marshall out last weekend, but the Bulldogs gave up a late touchdown en route to their 45-7 victory. A lot of fans were a little saddened by this because they would have loved to see Georgia pitch a shutout in the first game of the season, but Smart didn't care whatsoever.
In fact, Smart shared on Tuesday that this late touchdown from Marshall didn't bother him at all.
"Yeah, I learned a long time ago. I've never been into stats here. Like, we don't do that," Smart shared via 247sports.com. "We play more players when the game's in hand than probably anybody in the country. I think of those opportunities as development opportunities. It's why we've been really one of the better programs at turning players over in terms of what we put into the draft and lost early outs and having someone ready to go."
Kirby Smart cares more about development than stats
At the end of the day, does it really matter if Georgia wins by 45 or 38 points? Sure pitching a shutout looks better on paper, but Smart believes Georgia accomplished much more while they were giving up that late touchdown to Marshall.
Georgia could have left their starters in the game longer which more than likely would have prevented Marshall from ever scoring, but Smart chose to put UGA's backups in the game instead. While this is the reason Georgia gave up that touchdown, it gave Georgia's backups the live reps they need to develop and work towards becoming better players in the future.
This is the strategy Smart has used throughout his tenure, and this is why Georgia has had more first round NFL Draft picks than losses during Smart's tenure.
Holding a team to zero points is one of the most thrilling things that can happen during a game, but long term success is far more exciting and that is what Georgia accomplished on Saturday while giving up that late touchdown to Marshall.