By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The players seated on a dais in front of him no doubt have big-time visions of their futures, starting with a college career paving the way for an eventual payday.

          Kirby Smart’s been there, seen that, and experienced it, like with players Georgia has sent to the NFL the past few years.

          Don’t, he warned, be in such a hurry.

          He told a story about talking to seniors about the routine of walking around the Georgia Center, the Bulldogs pregame home at home, before home games.

          “I said, ‘you guys are going to miss this,’” Smart said Monday night as the featured speaker at The Macon Touchdown Club’s year-end jamboree. “I said, ‘Every guy that came back to Alabama after they left, they missed it. You’re going to be in the NFL, and you’re going to be there for awhile, but you’re going to miss this.’ ”

          He was on a group text with Sony Michel, Nick Chubb, and Isaiah Wynn, who initially chuckled at Smart’s declaration. But when Georgia juniors started making decisions to leave early? Smart got texts from the trio.

          “ ‘Coach, you tell them boys we’ll come back and trade spot with them right now. We’ll come back and trade spots with them right now.’ It’s never as pure as it is in college, and for you guys, it’s never as pure as it is in high school.

          “When you get to college and you get to the pros … it’s not like you think it is.”

          Smart talked for more than 45 minutes to a crowd of about 475 people filling the gym to the brim at the Methodist Home for Children and Youth. He directed different thoughts to different factions, including to – sort of, since he’s not allow to talk to prospective recruits right now – the assorted student-athletes, from near and far, who were honored (see list).

          He talked of how former Macon County standout Roquan Smith didn’t really want to leave after his junior season for the NFL.

          “I promise you, Roquan Smith sat in my office … and cried his eyes out because he did’t want to go. He said, ‘I don’t want to go. I’ll never get this year back.’”

Smith was a top-10 pick, so in the big picture, he had little choice but to go to the NFL, his stock at an all-time high.

          In leaving early, the decision-making process is often made cloudy by bad and agenda-driven advice. When in doubt, return to school.

          “You’re one year closer to your degree,” he said. “And last time I checked, the degree is valuable.”

          Smart raved about the club, breaking some news to the crowd that he’s coming back for at least three straight years, and that he’ll never turn down the chance to visit.

          “If it was up to me, I’d be at this event every year,” he said. “I’ll be here every opportunity. I’ve been offered three years in a row. You don’t have to worry about me turning this event down.”

Granted, there’s a clear recruiting aspect, but Smart also said such opportunities are only decreasing.

“Back in the day, when I was playing high school football, 20 or 30 years ago, they had touchdown clubs all over the place,” he said. “What’s happened is (that) touchdown clubs have gone away in most places.

          “This is one of the best, most active, well-run organizations, not only in our state, but in the country.”

          In addition to the record-level attendance and the accompanying ticket sales, Smart’s visit was a doubly profitable one for the club. A shiny red Georgia helmet signed by Smart was auctioned off for $2,000, and another one signed by Herschel Walker – obtained by club officer Russell Deese while on a business trip to South Georgia in the fall – went for $2,400, funding within a few minutes about two scholarships.

          Smart got to see the father of his first employer, Edgar Hatcher. Chris Hatcher was a young head coach at Valdosta State when Smart was cut from the Indianapolis Colts and needed a job.

          For $9,000, Hatcher got Smart as an assistant coach and academic advisor. The memories were fond ones, if not a few lifetimes away from today.

          “At Valdosta State, we had to run a program very similar to these (high school coaches) in the room have to with their high school programs,” Smart said. “We didn’t have much of a budget.

          “Chris wanted better locker rooms. Well, at Georgia, we went out and raised $63 million to have a better locker room. You know what we did at Valdosta State? We build the dang lockers ourselves. We went out and got the wood and built the lockers ourselves.

          “He wanted to have a better opportunity for those players. … You don’t have to have all the money in the world to be successful.”

          He said success is based much less on what most think, more on being, as he said a number of times, a blessing rather than a burden, and of buying in.

          “The more blessings you have on your team, the better you have a chance to win. I know nobody believes that. I know everybody thinks it’s Xs and Os, and everybody thinks it’s (recruiting ranking) stars and all that, but it’s not. It’s not that.

          “You get a team that buys into that, you’ve got an opportunity to have something special. … I’ve said this here a ton, and I’ll say this every time: together, everyone achieves more (TEAM). You have that, you have a chance.

All-Central Georgia specialists

All-Central Georgia defense

All-Central Georgia offense

All-Central Georgia honorees

Central Georgia all-region teams

          “I’ve seen it first hand. The teams that believe that … Like Clemson did this year. They believed that, that ‘TEAM’ - together, everyone achieves more – they’ll beat the more talented team every time when you have that.”