By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

For two straight years, the introduction of Kirby Smart included the obvious reference – to the delight of those on hand with a tendency to suddenly start barking – to national championships.

But this time, that wasn’t the case for Smart’s yearly visit to the Macon Touchdown Club’s Jamboree. Smart wasn’t bummed out, though. While threepeating was the goal, he had more praise for the team that didn’t than some might’ve expected.

“The character of that team showed me more than the other teams,” Smart said, citing the insistence of senior Kamari Lassiter to play in the non-playoff bowl against Florida State, which didn’t have any seniors insisting on playing that final game, a staggering 63-3 Bulldog blasting. “They just didn’t win everything. I don’t measure our season by success, based on national championships.

“I measure it by, did we get the most out of that team that we possibly could. That team was really special to me.”

He pointed out that the 2023 Bulldogs had the winningest senior class in Georgia history.

“A hundred and thirty something years,” he said, “and they’re the winningest one to ever do it. They were different. … That group will be special for a long time”

As has been the norm, Smart again donated the speaker’s fee to the Methodist Home, with whom he has become involved with beyond the yearly visit.

He spoke for 40 minutes, taking questions for more than half of the visit.

Smart said that former quarterback Stetson Bennett, who has been mysteriously absent from the Los Angeles Rams picture because of a “non-injury related football issue” that has his future hazy, has worked out in Athens and seems steered in the right direction.

He said Bennett is “doing well” and returned to Dallas to intensify training, while watching the Rams add to the quarterback room.

“He’s hopeful that he gets an opportunity there,” Smart said in his brief reply, “or that he’ll get picked up by somebody else.”

Former Washington County and Georgia legend Terrence Edwards was in the audience, supporting a former player who was being honored by the club, and asked – with seeming intent to trip up Smart in some funny form – who was the best player Smart played with, and had a story about.

It was Champ Bailey, Smart’s travel roommate one season.

Smart was all fired up to set the defensive backs weightlifting record, and was confident, considering his workout routine and the fact that Bailey was running track that year, and split time between the two sports.

That meant he was absent from regular a regular lifting regiment, which led Smart to believe that he’d cruise to that record he coveted.

“He never was at one workout. So the ‘max’ day … I was so fired up.”

Smart powercleaned the 315 pounds he envisioned putting up on the scoreboard. Then Bailey strolled through with the track team.

“They put 320 on the bar, he power cleans it first try,” Smart said. “I was like … Man didn’t work out one time. Man didn’t lift one time, and broke the record with ease, and was just smiling about it. Did it perfect form, too.”

Top: Perry’s Kevin Smith is the state coach of the year (Photo: Monica Moore Smith)
Middle: FPD’s Brett Collier is the TD Club’s local coach of the year
Bottom: Mary Persons’ Duke Watson was among the statewide Super Seven honorees (with Club vice president Hank Puryear; Photo: Michael A. Lough/Central Georgia Sports Report)

As he likely does with every public speaking engagement – and a fair amount of regular media sessions – he talked of the NIL and portal, and the NFL draft process, among other topics, including the flurry of staff changes in the offseason, Nick Saban’s retirement, and the legend of Ladd McConkey’s rise (see video).

The windy afternoon led to a less than smooth flight, and opened the door for Smart to crack on a natural topic. He was in a meeting in Athens before hopping a short flight from Athens to Macon’s airport.

“It was the bumpiest plane ride, windiest plane ride I’ve ever been on. So I was thinking: could I have gone in the parking lot, of my players’ parking lot, maybe got a Lamborghini and drove down, and come down really fast?”

It was a joking reference to the new $300,000 set of wheels – courtesy of the burgeoning Name/Image/Likeness explosion – purchased last month by UGA quarterback Carson Beck.

“I thought about it, but I would have had to drive, and I don’t think I could drive one. I don’t think I could fit in one of those.”

On the flight, he reviewed the several years of that trip, and did the math regarding the seven state players the club honors each year.

Honorees

Bobby Gene Sanders Memorial Scholarships
Gabe Howard,Mount de Sales; Griffin Moore, Stratford; Henry Lewis, ACE; Patrick Thompson, FPD; Silas Risper, Westside
OrthoGeorgia/Edgar Hatcher Back of the Year
Jakhari Williams, FPD
OrthoGeorgia/Bill Turner Lineman of the Year
Jacobi Jones, Mary Persons
OrthoGeorgia Special Teams Player of the Year
Tony Mathis, Westside
Marvin Davis Coach of the Year
Brett Collier, FPD
Bobby Pope Coach of the Year
Kevin Smith, Perry
Special Recognition
GIAA Class AAAA state champion FPD

Special Recognition for Appointment to Air Force Academy
Christiaan Krietzer, Rutland
Elmo A Richardson state player of the Year
Julian Lewis, QB, Carrollton
All-state
RB Bo Walker, Cedar Grove
WR CJ Wiley, Milton
RB Duke Watson, Mary Persons
TE Ethan Barbour, Alpharetta
OL Juan Gaston, Westlake
OL Mason Short, Evans
WR Thomas Blackshear, Calvary Day

“Twenty percent of the guys who have sat in these seats have had the opportunity to be drafted, or play in the National Football League. “there’s another 80 percent that sat right here on this (stage) and every single one of ‘em would have told me they were gonna play in the National Football League. Eighty percent of ‘em didn’t.

“When you think about your pathway, and you think about your goals and aspirations, you have to think past just the nfl. You have to think, ‘How am I going to impact the lives of the people I’m around?’ Well, the only way for you to do that is to make good decisions, be successful, and put a team before yourself.

He veered toward what the staff’s theme and message became, courtesy of the team’s study of Nike and founder Phil Knight.

“Assume nothing,” he said of those early days in Seattle for the sneaker company. “For us, ‘assume nothing’ is as little as ‘do you know everyone on your team’s name?’”

He listed a few examples of related communication failures, including one regarding a former Bulldog on an NFL trip who basically after about a day’s worth of hours around the general manager, head coach, and position coach still didn’t know their names.

“For me, I reflected upon that as I failed that young man,” Smart said. “For all the stuff we taught him … somewhere in that, you miss repeating someone’s name to yourself, or simply saying, ‘Sir, I can’t remember your name, what’s your name again?’

“Because it’s so critical to your success in the real world that you’re transparent, that you connect, that you know someone’s name. Sometimes, we just let the simplest things go by.”

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He said the Bulldogs went on that 46-2 run because they assumed nothing, and knew each other.

“I would encourage you as you leave here tonight, connect with someone. Know their name. Know your teammates’ names. It’s bigger than you. It’s always bigger than you, and it’s gonna be that way, regardless when happens in college football in the future, and you grow.”

Smart made a point to praise and give thanks to veterans, and teachers and coaches in the audience, recalling how important his father, a longtime coach and teacher in Bainbridge, was to many players who needed a calming leadership figure growing up.

“At the end of the day, you don’t get to take what you make with you,” he said. “There’s no room in the coffin for dollar signs and commas and money. You take the relationships and kind of your impact on people with you.”