Kirby Smart: 2022 NFL Draft was an 'infomercial' for Georgia

On3 imageby:Justin Rudolph05/21/22

The 2022 NFL Draft has come and gone, and one of the biggest winners from this year’s draft are head coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs. During a recent interview on the Paul Finebaum Show, Smart talked about what it was like for him at the events leading up to the draft. He also suggested that the 2022 NFL Draft was an ‘infomercial’ for Georgia.

“Yeah it’s pretty impressive. It was a credit to the entire organization — our university, strength staff, and nutrition staff, the player development staff,” said Smart. “So many people had a role in those kids lives. To have that good of a group at one time was really unique. I’m excited for the next group we’ve got coming up. But the draft was really special. It was an infomercial for our program and what they’ve been able to do.”

Smart has found a silver lining to losing good players after winning a national championship. And that trade-off is that the better they perform during the regular season, on the way to a championship, and in the scouting phase of th draft, the more eyes that will be on your program. That bodes well when it comes to future recruiting. If incoming players want to envision themselves as successful at the college level. Then what better way to do that than to join the defending national champs, who also had an impressive showing at the scouting combine.

Smart explains what needs to be accomplished at SEC meetings on NIL, transfer portal

As the SEC spring meetings come around the corner, NIL and the transfer portal are likely to be two of the biggest talking points. Last week on The Paul Finebaum Show, Georgia coach Kirby Smart discussed some of his ideas to change those two aspects of the game.

The conversations about NIL and the portal tend to go hand-in-hand when talking about the state of college football, especially with the evolution of NIL collectives. Many coaches have voiced their support for NIL in college football, and Smart is one of them. However, he thinks there need to be some ways to keep it in check to avoid a de facto free agency.

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“What can we do to protect our game?” Smart told Finebaum May 13. “It’s really tough because the naysayers out there think we’re trying to limit kids or take opportunities away. That’s not anybody’s intent. No coach wants to take an opportunity from his players who play a tough, physical, rugged sport. I just want to make sure that the game stays at a point where we can control it.

“And I think everybody would agree that college football is one of the greatest sports there is. It’s very pure, it’s amateur and now it’s drifting the other way. It makes it tough. We had a lot of players get an opportunity in name, image and likeness. I would just not want it to be a decision based on where I’m going to the highest bidder. If we can control that in some kind of way, it would be much better.”

The SEC meetings are coming up at the end of the month, and it’ll be interesting to see what coaches and league officials do about the current landscape with NIL and the portal.