Kirby Smart has consistently been reeling in elite classes since he took over at Georgia in 2016.
How he does that is hard to pin down, but he tried to explain how past success helps pave the way for future success on the recruiting trail as well.
I’m going to hit you with the entire quote in a minute, but there’s a few things that stood out to me in it that I think you should look for.
Smart talked about how there’s not one major difference in Georgia compared to say, a Tennessee, which finished with the No. 10 ranked class compared to Georgia’s No. 1.
He spoke about how it helps when you have a great product to sell academically, which Georgia does.
Smart also mentioned how important it is to have some level of consistency on your coaching staff. Georgia loses different assistants each year, but Smart does a decent job of holding on to his staff for as long as possible.
Kirby also talked about how what platers do after they’re gone help recruit for Georgia also. He specifically mentioned Nick Chubb and Sony Michel in that regard.
Here’s the full quote with a lot to dissect.
Read it over a few times. You’d be surprised with how much you can learn from Kirby.
“Do I think this has something to do with it? Absolutely, it has something to do with it. What that ranking is? Or when that happens? Or how it plays about? I don’t think that necessarily correlates. I think that you having a complete staff, keeping your staff together and also being able to do it year after year is a level of consistency and a level of support that you are getting internally to make sure that we can do the things we can do. It’s hard to go out and recruit at a high level year in and year out because so many people recruit against you based on who you signed. You better have good product to sell which academically we do. Really, there’s not going to be a separation between one through 10 in these recruiting rankings that really matters. What matters when they leave is, number one, how many of them are present? How many have graduated? How many lives did you change? They’re not going to be judged just on wins and losses. They’re going be judged on what kind of people [they are] when they leave your program, because that’s what’s going to allow you to recruit the next kid. When Nick Chubb and Sony Michel leave your program and do great things, that’s what’s going to sell to the next kid who wants an opportunity to come in and do those same things.”
