Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart doesn't hold back on NIL money while issuing stern challenge to his players
Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart understands that lucrative NIL deals are part of the fabric of college football. Regardless of what anyone thinks about NIL deals and their impact on the game, they aren't going anywhere. NIL is here to say. Smart gets that. He's not fighting against it. But he also understands that […]
Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart understands that lucrative NIL deals are part of the fabric of college football.
Regardless of what anyone thinks about NIL deals and their impact on the game, they aren't going anywhere. NIL is here to say.
Smart gets that. He's not fighting against it. But he also understands that NIL deals don't win football games. Sure, NIL might be necessary to land elite talent, but ultimately, winning games is all about who wants it more, who is going to play the hardest.
That's why Smart challenged his players this week (as spring practice gets underway) to forget about their "NIL revenue stream" and simply show up and play harder than everyone else.
"I want to see the fire," said Smart. "I want to see the passion, the energy. I want to see who wants to be a good football player, who really cares about this game. They care more about the game than they do about their NIL revenue stream. Like, if you really, really, really care about the game and you want to be good, it doesn't matter about any kind of money. It matters how I play the game.
"And more and more we're seeing across college football, the purists, the ones that care about the game the most, play the hardest. And usually the team that plays hardest wins. I know everybody thinks it's just whoever's more talented, but there's a whole lot to how hard you play and how much you care about it. So my goal is to find out how hard do you want to play? How much do you really want to be great? Because if you, do it'll show by how you practice."
I think Smart is absolutely spot on with those comments and his challenge to his players.
Look, NIL deals are great for players. College football is a big money industry. From high priced tickets for games to mega TV contracts, there's plenty of revenue being generated by the sport. But there is no product without the actual games. This industry is possible only because of the players. Without the players, there is no product, there's no reason to pay coaches millions of dollars, there are no sold out stadiums. So yes, the players absolutely deserve a piece of the pie.
But at the end of the day, this sport is all about competition and winning games. There's a lot of talented teams in college football and having elite talent is certainly necessary to win a national championship. But playing hard — playing with intent on every single rep — is ultimately the secret sauce to winning it all. And it seems no one understands that better than Kirby Smart.
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