Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media on Tuesday at SEC Media Days 2026 at the Tampa Marriott Water Street and JW Marriott in Tampa, Fla.
Smart touched on several subjects, including the landscape of college football, the Georgia-Florida game, player updates, and more. Below are his comments provided by the SEC:
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the podium head coach of the University of Georgia, Kirby Smart.
KIRBY SMART: Thank you, Greg. Appreciate that warm introduction. So proud of both my young children. That will be a new experience for me that I’m looking forward to. I can’t say that my wife Mary Beth is. She’s very concerned about emptying that nest a little bit with two leaving. I’m excited to have one in Athens and then one in Chapel hill, so I am proud of both those young ones.
About Greg Sankey, I want to say a couple comments about him first and foremost. I think I’ve talked before in this setting about the cost of leadership and shared that with many people a couple years ago.
I think nobody embodies that any better in this country in terms of college athletics than Greg Sankey. I think in terms of leadership, the role he has taken on for our conference is incredible. He takes sometimes bullets he doesn’t deserve and he stands in front of a challenging group between presidents, ADs, and other administrators and football and basketball coaches in a changing landscape and does an incredible job of holding down the fort, keeping people combined, and has to make really tough decisions for all of us.
I’d like to thank you guys for the job you do. You guys make this the best conference in the country, probably in the world when you talk about competitiveness and how our conference is strengthened really across all sports. I don’t want to isolate that just to football.
But the coverage that this room gives our conference makes it really uncomparable to others, and you guys do an incredible job for us. I am actually excited to be in Tampa. I don’t know how everybody else feels about that. I get all these texts from different coaches, but I’m excited to be in Tampa. My mom is from Plant City. I spent my summers in Plant City. If you don’t know where that is, it’s right down the road.
I got to go to Reds spring training, watched Pete Rose when I was a little kid and see the Reds in spring training. Also go to the Strawberry Festival.
If you don’t know, you don’t know. And if you know, you do know. The Strawberry Festival is special, and I grew up coming down here two weeks out of the summer, and some of the best memories of my childhood are outside of Tampa.
So excited for that.
I also want to thank our administration. I know everybody brags on their administration, but mine has been aligned for quite a long time now. Have an incredible president who is very involve. President Morehead, if you guys don’t know, sits on a lot of committees. He helps try to improve the future of college athletics. He sits in a lot of roles that most presidents don’t want to be a part of. I know he cares about athletics and he cares about the University of Georgia.
He’s made it into a premier institution with the standards he’s created and the rigor he creates academically and how challenging it is to get into to be a top 15, top 20 public institution.
And then our athletic director, Josh Brooks, has made it one of the best athletic departments in all of the country. We were top 10 in Learfield Sports and Learfield Cup, which I know he’s proud of; I’m proud of.
I am a college sports enthusiast, and I love the University of Georgia and I love it when our other athletic programs do an incredible job.
Commissioner Sankey mentioned the College World Series. Wes Johnson’s team, baseball team to win our conference and be the football and baseball champions of SEC for the first time. One school did that in over 15 to 20 years, whatever it was. It’s an incredible feat for us. I am proud of his staff and all of our athletic department with what they’ve done.
I also want to mention Darrice Griffin. She is a superstar in athletics, a rising star, and we been saying rising star for a while now, so she is a veteran star and she is senior deputy director, athletic director within our department. She does an incredible job for me. She is there for me during tough times and good times, and really proud of the work she does.
So our administration is second to none.
The other thing I want to talk about real quick is our staff. Not enough is made about the University of Georgia staff. When people talk about roster retention, I like to talk about staff retention. We have been blessed to retain our staff and stay intact almost completely for three to four years now. I think that matters.
I think the growth, the biggest challenge you have when you retain not only your roster, but your staff, is you have to be willing to grow. You have to be willing to experience, try new things. You can’t just sit back and do the same old things and expect to get the same return.
My job as the leader of this organization is to challenge our staff, to make sure we’re thinking outside the box, make sure we’re exploring other alternatives. I’ve got a staff that has been incredible. I’ve got three or four guys been with me for nine to 11 years, and those guys are the rock and glue that makes our place go.
And the support our administration gives us to keep them and retain them, because a lot of our guys have had opportunities to go on to other jobs, maybe pro NFL opportunities, and they’ve chosen to stay at the University of Georgia. That’s because of the support we get, it’s because the school systems in our community, and the way you can raise a family in our family environment. So I am proud of that.
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about our three players here. One is a returner. It’s very rare you get a second SEC media days. Gunner Stockton is doing that. He embodies what leadership is, and he doesn’t do it through his mouth. We can’t get the guy to talk half the time. When he gets around the players, they know. They see the toughness he plays with. He embodies our program. Just love everything he stands for. Quick story about Gunner. We took a leadership group to go white water rafting this offseason. We went up into North Carolina to go white water rafting. They said, okay who is going to be at the front of the boat? They explained this was the most risky position. You may fall out. When you go over a rapid you’ll ne nose down and you’re the first to go down into the water.
Obviously had a life jacket. Made it as safe as we possibly could. But he chose to jump into that seat. I think that says a lot about who he is. He leads from the front. He takes hits. He embodies everything our program is about in toughness, in culture, and the love for his university.
So I’m glad he’s here to share with you guys today and be around you guys.
Another young man near and dear to my heart is Raylen Wilson. I’ll say this: All three of our players have graduated and they all graduated this spring or the previous spring. They are four years or longer in our program.
Raylen is from down in he likes to say Monticello, Florida. Most of you don’t know where that is. I say he’s from Tallahassee is really where he’s born. Raylen has grown up a lot in our program. He started and played a tremendous amount against Alabama four years ago in an SEC championship that was a really tough game for a freshman to start and play in, and now he’s a veteran leader. He and a couple other players are the voice of our defense, and I am proud of what stands for and how he leads.
Last but not least, is Drew Bobo, son of our offensive coordinator. He is tough, he has been through a significant injury, and he is back from that injury. He also embodies the toughness that we want to have within our program.
This guy is a position that gets no credit. Gets most of the blame at center. Only things can go wrong. He owns up to it and reflects the University of Georgia in the rate way. So we are proud to have those three guys here, and I’m certainly proud of those guys and all the guys that aren’t here. We got one of the best leadership teams we’ve had all along.
Couple accolades this team is coming into at our highest spring GPA we’ve ever had at an academic school that is one of the toughest in the country. Very proud of our spring work we did as a team, and continue to do with that group of men.
I think this time in college football, the landscape of college football, that’s all the talking heads want to talk about. Everywhere I go, TV, media, everybody wants to talk about the landscape of college football. It’s sad it’s forgotten what wins games. Maybe that becomes boring, mundane but not at our place.
I’ve had questions about expansion, more SEC games, portal, college and federal legislation to navigate the NIL era we’re in, players leaving, coaches leaving.
That’s all people want to talk about. What we focus on in Georgia is what wins football games, and that’s my passion and energy. That’s what we love to do. We love to grind it out, play physical football, be explosive in offense, be explosive in defense by how you create turnovers and how you create sacks.
At the end of the day, I don’t enjoy talking about all these things that are the landscape of college football. I enjoy talking about what wins and what allows our team to have the best chance. The consistency and performance is probably what I’m most proud of over the last 10 to 11 years, including this season.
Consistency and performance is what Georgia has been built on. Can we repeatedly do and be successful regardless of who comes in and out of your program. This season like many others, we chose to study a successful brand or team or follow someone, and this year the reigning NBA champions at the time was the OKC Thunder and they talked about being uncommon and how you can be uncommon in today’s world.
Our guys took a week by week section of being uncommon, believing in the success of others is greater than the success of yourself in a day and age when that’s not normal. That is uncommon to be more proud and have a little bit of mudita we call it, that we enjoy the success of others more than the success of ourselves, and that’s what our team and program is built on.
With that, I’ll open up for questions.
Q. Who is one player on both sides of the ball that people might not really know about now but will be a household name in, let’s say, mid-October?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I wish I know that too. If I could answer that I promise you I would be — well, no, I can’t sports wager, but I would be much better off if I knew that.
I think that’s going to play itself out. I can give you some guys that have had really good spring practices and have stepped up and grown. I am excited to see what some of the young freshman that played defensively have done. I am excited to see one of the best playmakers we’ve had over the last two years KJ Bolden on defense, and he’s done a really good job.
I think back to a play he made on the Te4xas overtime game that people don’t talk about where they ran a cross screen to the back and he came out of the top. One of the most instinctive plays I’ve seen a player make, and he made that as a true freshman. So I am excited. I know that’s not your question because you want guys that aren’t household names and those guys have to earn it, and you earn it by what you do in the fall not what you do in the spring.
So excited to see those guys grow.
Q. They’ll have my hide in Oklahoma if I don’t expand on the Thunder stuff. Two questions: How does a football coach at Georgia have time to even know what somebody like the Thunder is doing? Number two, are there similarities in that you had a powerhouse going? Sort of college football was hit was rampant change three, for years ago. You’ve stayed great but you dominance has slipped because of so much parity. How difficult is it to maintain what you want to do with the changing landscape of what is going on with parity, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Texas Tech, all kinds of new — Indiana — all kinds of new people are able to compete at a very high level.
KIRBY SMART: I think it’s great for the sport. I think having everybody competitive, more guys can be invited to the party and get to the party, mainly through the portal in a lot of ways. Let’s be honest, there is some footprints in some states that don’t support their program through their own state. They have to go find other ways to do it, right?
They’ve got to be great in the portal. Got to be able to recruit nationally. We’re very fortunate in our state that we can still stay within our footprint. Each team that finds a way, it seems to be, okay, they did it through age. Okay, they did it through quarterback play. Everybody finds a niche. That’s makes the stories more interesting for you guys, right? It’s not a one-team dominant program. It’s really everybody.
To your question about the Oklahoma City Thunder, we study successful programs all the time. If you’re not studying how other people are doing it and you’re just fixated on your own team and your own roster, I think you’re missing out.
We’re always trying to grow in our program. We don’t want to stay the same. You need to it study how other people are doing it and maybe the ways they’re doing it in creating roles for others.
It’s very unique what the Thunder was doing, especially when they won the championship in terms of leading in so many categories, but most importantly selflessness. That’s what we try to emulate.
Q. You talked about how to win. Are ya’ll a little bit of the exception or outlier in the way you stress the defense, and more running game? It’s such a passing game trend in now college football. Running back hadn’t won the Heisman since Derrick Henry in 2015. Do you feel like in some ways you are an outlier against that trend?
KIRBY SMART: Those would be your words, not mine, because I like to think we play good defense and we play good offense. Statistically over the last five years we got the second most explosive plays in all of college football, and that’s on offense. So I think there is a misnomer probably because of the position I coach and my history and the defensive philosophy that it’s like this, oh, okay we’re just — no, we believe you have to run the ball.
In the fourth quarter there were probably four games last year that if we didn’t run the ball for a first down and they know we were going to run the ball because of the clock management, you lose games or you give them another possession. Our identity will be physical. You can be physical in the pass game, you can be physical on the perimeter.
We pride ourselves in these things as well, but I don’t think we’re an anomaly or an exception. We just follow the rule of the book that when you have to run the ball, you have to be able to run the ball in games. There will come a time where every whenever team has to do that. It doesn’t mean you can’t be explosive. We need to be more explosive.
When you do a five, four year study, you look at the numbers, Georgia has been in the Top 5 of all those categories. I like to think our success has come from both offense, defense, and special teams.
Q. Has there been a moment this offseason where whether on or off the field you think is a reflection of this team as a whole?
KIRBY SMART: I wouldn’t say one moment, no. I would say a collective group of practices. We have 15 tough practices in the spring. We have really good offseason workouts, conditioning early in the morning. I’m proud of what those guys and leaders have stepped forward and put out there. We got a lot of guys in new positions. A lot of guys on defense having to step and take on new roles with a couple defensive players that left that were maybe bigger personalities.
I think offensively we got a good core group back. The best part is the continuity we were able to keep through our retention. People say you’re just a retention team and you don’t believe in the portal. Absolutely. Our most explosive offensive player last year was out of the portal. Or second most explosive player last year was out of the portal.
So we still have guys that we need. We still believe in the high school philosophy. I think when you look across the state of Georgia and the NFL per capita, the state of Georgia is by far and a way the greatest producer of NFL talent in my opinion, in really a five-hour radius of our university, which includes some other states.
So I don’t think we have to go outside that all the time to get it until we need a special player or we have a special player who has interest.
Q. Hope you’re doing well.
KIRBY SMART: Doing well.
Q. Wanted to ask about the wide receiver room in particular. One of the bigger question marks that I have is how would you assess the wide receiver room heading into fall camp?
KIRBY SMART: I am just very thankful for people like you, Steve, that keep questioning them, because the more you question them, the more it helps me motivate them. So everybody says they don’t listen to you guys. The wide receiver are listening, so they’ll have a new challenge issued based on your question.
Q. Getting the Florida-Georgia game in Atlanta this year, what do you sense for the enthusiasm for the players, the coaches, fan base? And having played a few regular season games in there, what’s the regular season environment like at Mercedes Benz, do you think?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I’m excited for that opportunity; change in venue. Florida has a large contingent and fan base in Atlanta, so, you know, I think that’s more of a media and fan deal than it is players. I don’t think any of the Florida or Georgia players are sitting back, going, Okay, we’re playing in Atlanta this year. What does that change? It doesn’t. Let’s be honest, just the venue we are playing in will be different.
Sometimes down there wind is a big factor, heat. Going to be indoors in an incredible stadium and venue that we’ve gotten play in multiple times. So I’m excited for the opportunity, the change. Then we will be back down here the following year in another environment.
Q. Looking at that schedule there on your right, looks like there is no Tennessee, which I’m sure is extremely bizarre for you. What’s are you thoughts on not playing them? Does that feel like it’s one less win being taken away off the schedule?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, you said that, not me. It’s a tough place to play and tough team to play. I got a lot of respect for Josh and their staff. I mean, they’re a tough prep. They’re really hard to prepare for. I’m glad other teams get an opportunity to do that, and then we get some new teams to play.
Very unique scheduling. Looking forward to the new format and the matchups that are created through the new format.
Q. I know you said you don’t want to talk about the landscape, but given the landscape, how that impacts program building and predictability, does that make — what does that do to your job I guess?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I want to be clear. I’m not avoiding the talk about landscape. I’m only saying I think it’s — the position I’m in as the veteran SEC remaining coach, I don’t mind talking or speaking to it. All I’m saying is at events like this it eats the air and takes away from what actually wins and loses football games.
I respect the fact that the landscape matters and I do think that it matters, the position that the senior veteran coaches across the country take.
Now, with that, I need that question again.
Q. Talk about the landscape however you want, but how does it impact the coach’s ability to produce a program basically, especially when you don’t know what’s going to be going on in three years or three months?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, I don’t know that we knew that ten years ago. It’s changing more rapid, yes, but what wins football games has not changed. Has the role of the head coach changed? If you want it to it can. You can be as involved in offense, defense in coaching and remove yourself from the all this changing landscape, or you can dive over here and spend your time in the changing landscape and try to navigate it better and let your coaches coach. Each coach has to decide within their own program what they want to major in, because you cannot sit back, call it eight years ago, six years ago, pre-COVID I would say, and say that I’m just going to do this. I’m going to focus on this and just do this.
You got to be able to wear multiple hats, more than I ever imagined. You got to chose which hats you want to wear the best. Maybe that is dictated by the strength of your staff. Like if you’ve got really strong continuity and coaches and X and Os and schemes and recruiters, then you go focus on the relationships with the players. You go focus on maybe raising money and doing things with the owners.
You have to chose what you want to, and I think that’s the strength of our program. I’m not afraid to change what we need to change to be successful. If I need to spend for time with one player because he plays harder and less time with the offensive staff or the offensive coordinator or the defensive staff or the defensive coordinator, special teams, I’m willing to do that.
I don’t have an ego that says you have to do it my way. I want to hear how you want to do it, and let’s find the best way. What I am worried about is what kind of product do we put on the field in terms of physicality, toughness, all those things, how we practice, that’s non-negotiable for me. The landscape is kind of over on the side.
If you get really lost and caught up in landscape and you’re constantly arguing and fussing and complaining and tweeting and doing all that, guess what you’re not the worrying about? What matters. We’re going to worry about what matters first all our place.
Q. Coach, you won the last two SEC Championship games, and yet there is a perception that maybe Georgia is not where it used to be because the College Football Playoff. How do you put into perspective your conference success measured against how people are now evaluating college football?
KIRBY SMART: I don’t know that I can put that into perspective. I think you forget we also lost to a SEC team within the Playoffs. So it’s another tribute to the fact we won the SEC because we beat that team, and then won the SEC Championship and turned around and lost to an SEC team that was a really good football team, and obviously one of the top four teams in the country, especially at the end year with the way they were playing.
I don’t get hung up a lot on just the finish. I like to look back and say, okay, what did with do well in those games and what did we do poorly and how do we improve on it? That’s no differently than I do week five, week six, week seven.
So I would love to see — and I don’t make this an excuse — but I would love to see the flow of the season go like a football, a week to week, maybe a bye week in there, but a continuous thing. No sport that I know of shuts down for 25 to 30 days between performances.
We have not had our best performances when we needed them most, and I don’t want it blame it on that. I would love to see a flow of a season be like, okay, which team is the strongest continually playing and going week to week.
We’ve got some opportunities to do that in the future. I hope we can get to that point. But the format we play with now is great. When it was a two-team format I was part of it. When it was four teams i was part of it. You can also argue the opposite, especially if it doesn’t go your way. That’s not who I am.
Q. Non-landscape question for you, how should we in the media talk about Mike Bobo?
KIRBY SMART: You know, I don’t think that’s my decision. I look at things through facts and through what I see with my own two eyes. I was blessed to work for the greatest college football coach in the history of all of college football, I don’t think you can even debate it. But I learned from him that you evaluate things from inside out. I do think football intuition is one of my strengths, and knowing that, I know we got the right offensive coordinator.
What you guys want to write and talk about is completely up to you. I look at the production he’s had, the success he had, the team success where he doesn’t worry about, he worries about winning football games, and the way he coaches our players day-to-day is unmatched in this country.
Thank you guys, and go Dawgs.
—
The Georgia Bulldogs are scheduled to open the 2026 season on Saturday, September 5 against the Tennessee State Tigers at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. The game will kickoff at 3:00pm ET and will be a streaming-only event on SEC Network+.