Seth Emerson shares latest on Kirby Smart, Georgia contract talks
What’s the latest of the future of Kirby Smart at Georgia? Seth Emerson of The Athletic detailed what negotiations are looking like regarding the coach of the Bulldogs, explaining in detail during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.
“The president, Jere Morehead, was asked yesterday about a number that’s been thrown around, like ten years, $100 million, and that’s only been speculated based on what you’ve seen from other coaches,” explained Emerson. “Like, what Ryan Day got, and Mel Tucker. Two coaches who have not yet won a national championship. Mel Tucker is not even really getting close. Morehead didn’t like, blink at that figure. So, I don’t know whether it’ll be around that. I do have a feeling it’s going to be very long term. It’ll be flexible. Maybe there’ll be language in there that’ll say he’ll always need to be something like top three, top four in the SEC. Something like that. But that’s just again, speculation.
“I think the top line, headline figure will be the sexy headline for everybody. But it’s kind of the details of Georgia maintaining a commitment facility-wise, and kind of going forward with NIL and collectives and all that, kind of being the next phase of the arms race in college football.”
Kirby Smart is about to be a very happy, very rich man — and Georgia isn’t going anywhere. He’s earned every dollar coming his way, building the Bulldogs back from the doldrums into a bonafide championship program.
Kirby Smart on Georgia’s success: We’re not a one-hit wonder
Moreover, during a recent interview with the Georgia head coach, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum asked Smart 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, as Georgia notched a new NFL draft record with 15 players being selected. 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.
Now, Kirby Smart — and the Georgia Bulldogs — won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.