For better or for worse, NIL has taken over college football. No one can deny that players making money off of themselves is a good thing, but it is definitely up for debate if NIL as it is today is what is best for the sport.
Regardless of what anyone thinks, NIL is here to stay and it is benefitting some programs while hurting others. Thankfully for Georgia it seems like it is a net positive, but there are other programs with more money that they are using to steal recruits from UGA.
But that is completely fine with Kirby Smart. He doesn't want the players that only care about money, he would rather have guys come to Georgia who want to compete and get better each and every day.
Defensive lineman Christen Miller is the perfect example of that, and during his press conference at the NFL Combine on Wednesday he indirectly said why NIL is overrated.
🗣️“Coach Smart prepared me for this moment”#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/JnSotviRFi
— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) February 25, 2026
Christen Miller makes his pitch for why NIL doesn't matter
When speaking with the media on Wednesday, Miller gave a nice shoutout to Smart. He said that Smart is responsible for preparing him for this moment as he is days away from showing his abilities to the NFL organizations this week.
No amount of NIL money can prepare a player for the NFL. It takes elite coaching from top to bottom to get a player ready to make the jump to the NFL, and that is what Smart has given Miller and every other player that comes to Georgia.
This sentiment is what Smart has built his NIL streategy on. Yes Georgia is able to pay players large amounts of money, but that isn't what their reputation is. Their reputation is built around winning and sending player to the NFL, and this statement from Miller is the perfect representation of that.