Kirby Smart on Georgia's success: We're not a one-hit wonder

During a recent interview with the Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum asked the Bulldogs headman about the staying power of his program. Georgia and Smart are fresh off of a national championship and enter next season as the top dogs in college football. But how likely is their reign to last longer than one season? Well, according to Smart, don’t expect Georgia to be a one-hit-wonder.

“…A lot of that will go into the Oregon game. A lot will go into how we play next year,” said Smart about the push in expectation the Bulldogs will face. “But we’re a program that is built to sustain. We weren’t built on one hit wonders. We weren’t built from one guy one player. Our program is not gonna be make or break by one player. So we think we’ve got really good infrastructure. We got a great thing to sell and great education, playing a great conference. I mean look at our state. We had 30 players drafted from our state, which is incredible from the state of Georgia for the number of people in it. So there’s a great product being put out there by our high schools and we get the blessing of that being the State University.”

The Bulldogs enjoyed a historical draft on many different levels. Georgia notched a new NFL draft record with 15 players being selected. And after the Atlanta Falcons selected tight end, John Fitzpatrick, in the sixth round, the Bulldogs became the first school to have a tight end taking in four straight drafts. However, arguably Smart’s most crowning achievement from the 2022 NFL Draft is when Georgia set the record for the most defensive players selected in the first round, with five taken.

Smart: 2022 NFL Draft was an ‘infomercial’ for Georgia

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.