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Georgia is trying to win a third straight national title under Kirby Smart, something that has not happened in college football since Minnesota last did it in 1935.
Smart was at Southeastern Conference Football Media Days in Nashville Tuesday and talked about that and more. Remember his Bulldogs host Kentucky Oct. 7.
Q. Number one recruiting class, back to back Natties, more kids in the NFL in your first seven years than any my coach in the modern college ball era. That being said, with all those accomplishments is there anything you improve on as a coach?
KIRBY SMART: “So going back to the original question of you want to know what we can do better or what I can do better, well, there’s a lot of things we can do better. We can play much better pass defense late in the season. We can grow as a team and continue to get better on our special teams assets. It’s like a constant improvement for us, right. Better never rests. We firmly believe that. “We’ve done a lot of studies this off-season at things we can do better and things we can improve on. Our kids understand that, that we don’t want to be just a football factory. We want to produce people that are quality citizens, that do a great job in the community, and I’m constantly evolving as a coach. And I’ve talked about it several times here today, that I think the best thing I’ve done is allow coaches to do their job. Take a step back and say, you know what, maybe it’s not better that I sit in this meeting and tell somebody what I think they should do. It’s probably better that I let them do it and just oversee it and spend more time with the players so that I know Kamari Lassiter’s why, I know Brock Bowers’ why, I know Sedrick’s why. I can probably get more out of them by spending more time with them as players.”
Q. You talked a lot about complacency after winning back-to-back National Championships. You obviously did the same thing at Alabama as defensive coordinator in 2012 and 2013. What lessons are you maybe taking from that part of your career and maybe what lessons are you taking from Saban in battling that complacency?
KIRBY SMART:” I can’t even remember that far back. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t remember that next season or anything that carried over from that season because you’re not thinking about the last season. I think sometimes as media you guys want to make it about, well, what are you going to learn, how are you going to combat this. All we’re thinking about is the next 24 hours. Like how can we get better in the next 24 hours. I’m not sitting here thinking of some motivating factor.
“People are like, what are you going to tell your team this year? Are you going to tell them people are going to say you’re going to be 7-5? No. I’ve never said that anybody thought our team was going to be 7-5. We expect to be good at the University of Georgia. We want sustained success. So we have to do that by winning every day. That’s not going to change whether we win it or not this year.”
Q. I was curious if you talked to your team about history, if you’re a history major in college football, and talk about trying to do something that hasn’t been done since the 1930s and the relevance of all that.
KIRBY SMART: “We have not addressed that with them. We’ve certainly looked at some three-peat scenarios of teams like the Bulls and different sports teams that they might actually know about. No offense to the Minnesota 1935 team, but I don’t know if it’s going to resonate with my audience.
“We’re going to try to — and I don’t care about the three-peat, the two Pete or the one Pete. I care about complacency. If the focus is on that and the outcomes, I think the rest will take care of itself in terms of allowing our guys to focus on being the best they can be.”
