{"id":62965,"date":"2025-05-19T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/62965\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T18:46:10","slug":"kirby-smart-shares-why-he-and-georgia-have-resisted-a-recent-hiring-trend-in-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/62965\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirby Smart shares why he and Georgia have resisted a recent hiring trend in college football"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat I define as a GM role, if you are talking about evaluating talent and watching talent in the portal, or on other rosters that might go in the portal, or the guys in high school, we have that,\u201d Smart said on Birmingham radio station WJOX last week. \u201cThat\u2019s what a GM does, (and), we have people to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

ExploreCatching up on House vs. NCAA case, college football changes<\/a><\/p>\n

Several college programs have hired general managers to help identify and secure incoming personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s going to the NFL model,\u201d Duke GM John Garrett told the Sports Business Journal.<\/a> \u201cAnd rightly so, because it\u2019s no longer amateur sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that athletes now can be paid, through name, image and likeness legislation, has complicated roster management in conjunction with more liberal transfer rules, which has created free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the fastest-growing industry in college football,\u201d Texas Tech GM James Blanchard told ESPN.<\/a> \u201cWe\u2019re hitting the golden age of the personnel world, as far as college football goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Smart and his Georgia football program have continued to secure elite talent, through the recruitment of elite high school talent in addition to the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

ExploreWhy Georgia should take interest in national QB rankings<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bulldogs combed through available talent this past offseason in adding key players at the receiver, outside linebacker, tailback and safety positions, most notably.<\/p>\n

One of Smart\u2019s primary reasons for wanting to continue to oversee all player transactions is his emphasis on relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want a GM tagged to say, \u2018This guy is going to be a negotiator, he\u2019s going to go and close the deal and sign the deal,\u2019\u201d Smart said. \u201cIt\u2019s still a relationship business for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smart said if college football operated like the NFL, he would take a different approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were drafting and we could go across the state and say, \u2018OK, this is our draft pick,\u2019 (then) I think a GM role is really, really important,\u201d Smart said, \u201cbut when you have to have a relationship with somebody, how does that GM have a relationship with somebody?\u201d<\/p>\n

Smart points out that most NFL GMs don\u2019t typically have relationships, \u201cso they become transactional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it\u2019s more of a business deal at the NFL level, whereas collegiate programs identify talent earlier in the players\u2019 careers.<\/p>\n

College programs still invest in building relationships with visits to the players\u2019 high schools and inviting the prospects and their families to observe practices and check out the campus and academic programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find our niche in our culture,\u201d Smart explained, \u201cwhich is relational, and trying to have a relationship with somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

But no, Smart said, it\u2019s not a matter of him trying to do everything by himself, even if he is regarded as one of the more hands-on head coaches in college football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people that do GM (roles),\u201d Smart said. \u201cWe don\u2019t sit here and say, \u2018Well, coach Smart does everything.\u2019 I can\u2019t do everything.<\/p>\n

\u201c(But) have people that talk numbers and do different things, we just don\u2019t have somebody that\u2019s making the ultimate decision because that guy doesn\u2019t know the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat I define as a GM role, if you are talking about evaluating talent and watching talent in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2566,7,629,49,48,896,1401,20062],"class_list":{"0":"post-62965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-ajc-freelancer","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-georgia","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-new-orleans","14":"tag-notre-dame","15":"tag-sugar-bowl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}