ATLANTA - Georgia football coach Kirby Smart had college football by the throat. Just a few years ago Smart's program won back-to-back national championships and just missed a shot a possible three-peat.
Back then Smart had more talent, depth, and a quicker path to the championship game. Now, with NIL and the expanded playoffs, a lack of motivation along with major injuries have kept teams from being at their best at the end of the season.
Like many others across college football, Georgia's been hit with the injury bug pretty severely this fall. They did get starting safety KJ Bolden back for their big win over Florida , but now starting cornerback Ellis Robinson is dealing with an injury that kept him out of the second half.
Smart had a lot to say after Georgia's big win about the state of college football, injuries, and more.
"I mean, everybody's practicing less, but everybody's getting injured more, and it doesn't make sense," Smart told reporters after Georgia's big win over Florida. "It doesn't add up because we're not at the point of the ninth game yet. Nobody's played any more than they normally would have right now. So I don't have a good answer for that."
"It's going to be interestingas this thing goes down the stretch because I think depth will show up and teams are going to have to make a choice how you want to practice, and do you want to practice at all, or do you just want to try to save everybody?
"I don't know that the players are any different. I think about the teams we had in '21 and '22, how physical they were and how they practiced, and I'm like, we can't even get close to that now. I don't know. I mean,is it different culture that guys don't want to as much? I don't know, because they were definitely hungrier because there was a motivation to make it and you know, a lot of these guys, honestly, they make more than I made till I was 40. So it's just a different day and age."
For a lot of players now, the money increases year over year, while the hunger and motivation appears to decrease year over year. The ability to leave or transfer when times get tough doesn't help in that department, either. Times are different, and it's clearly made things tougher for head coaches across the country. More responsibility. More roster management. More stress. And more injured players.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/georgia as College Football Carnage: Georgia Football Coach Kirby Smart Tells The Truth About Injuries .
