Kirby Smart jokes about driving Lamborghini, updates Stetson Bennett, more on UGA football
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart went from a team meeting in Athens to an appearance at the Macon Touchdown Club on Monday night in about an hour after flying to his annual speaking engagement.
He told the crowd it was the windiest, bumpiest ride he’s been on, but maybe it was just to set up the joke.
“I was thinking, ‘Could I have gone in my players’ parking lot and maybe got a Lamborghini and drove down?” Smart told the Macon Touchdown Club’s Jamboree, according to a video posted on YouTube by the Central Georgia Sports Report, referencing quarterback Carson Beck's much-talked about new car.
“I know that’s an inside joke for some of you. I thought about it, but I would have to drive and I don’t think I could drive one. I don’t think I could fit in one of those. There’s definitely a different parking lot when it comes to players and the world we live in right now, but I don’t look forward to this flight home. I’m thinking about catching a ride to Athens if anybody is heading this way.”
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Smart touched on other topics during his Q&A with the audience:
➤ On two-time national championship quarterback Stetson Bennett, who missed last season with the Rams while on the non-football injury/illness list for unspecified reasons. Bennett has returned to train in Dallas while the Rams recently signed Jimmy Garoppolo as a backup to Matthew Stafford.
“He’s hopeful he gets an opportunity there or he gets picked up by somebody else,” Smart said.
➤ On the 2023 team not reaching the playoff after back-to-back national championships.
“I think people mistake a year that we had for a bad year,” Smart said. “It wasn’t a bad year, it was a great year. It was a year we maybe didn’t reach all of our goals, but the way they finished, it made me prouder than the other two. The other two finished as national champions and went through the playoffs and did all that. This group had way more adversity. To not make the playoff, have to make decisions.”
➤ On the downside of NIL: “When you’ve got a guy who’s been starting for three years and he may not be getting the same thing that a freshman gets. It can destroy your team from within. It’s like a cancer. I’m very transparent about it. I’m like, look, this is the way things are right now, but they’re ever-changing.”
Smart said he would like to tie NIL into academic performance and supports revenue sharing.
“It has to be done in an equitable way and a fair way because sometimes young men, young people don’t know how to handle the success or the things they get," he said.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirby Smart on Lamborghinis, why he's proud of UGA football 2023 season
