Kirby Smart, NIL and Transfer Portal Make it "Excruciating" on Coaches

At this week's SEC spring meetings in Destin, Florida, Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart addressed the challenges NIL and the NCAA transfer portal have posed for college football staffs.

The emergence of NIL and the NCAA transfer portal has sent collegiate athletics sailing headfirst into volatile, uncharted waters where uncertainty, gross inequities among schools and states, and a stark lack of accountability threaten to sink the entire enterprise. For college coaches, perhaps the most immediate and consuming challenge presented by the combination of NIL and the transfer portal has been the roster instability wrought by the twin reforms. In a press conference Tuesday at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Florida, Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart explained the challenges that NIL and the transfer portal have created for college coaches.

According to Smart, the opportunity players now have to explore and take advantage of options at other institutions in the pursuit of financial incentives has changed the dynamic between college coaches and the players they are charged with developing and caring for.

"Yeah, that's tough. We spend a lot of time on connection and having a conversation,” Smart explained. ‘We’ll ask 'Where are you? Are you happy with where you are? If you're not, what can we do to improve that and improve you as a player? Do you think that you're being developed?'”

Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart spoke to the media on Wednesday, May 30 at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Florida and addressed the impact that NIL and the transfer portal have had on college football

The Georgia head coach also made it clear that neither NIL nor the transfer portal in isolation would have wreaked as much havoc throughout college sports as the combination of the two has.

It's a lot more energy now in terms of spending with your own roster and just trying to maintain it. It's not just the portal. It's the combination of the portal and the NIL and everything going on that makes it at times excruciating."

In terms of the specifics of his discussions with players considering entry into the transfer portal, Smart explained that in his conversations with players unhappy with their situation at Georgia, he points to examples of past Georgia players who resisted the desire for immediate gratification and whose hard work and patience was eventually rewarded.

“I always throw Quay Walker out because he was a kid that never started until his third year and went in the first round. Most kids are ready to leave if they're not starting by their third year. That was a great example.”

Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart often uses former Georgia ILB Quay Walker as an example of staying the course despite not finding immediate gratification at Georgia

The potent combination of NIL and the transfer portal has engendered nothing short of a revolution in college athletics, but Kirby Smart is determined to adapt to the situation in order to keep Georgia at the top of the college football landscape.

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