On Tuesday, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart provided UGA fans with an uneasy feeling when he said that he considered retiring before the 2021 season.
“I was ready to step down and resign,” Smart told the Texas High School Coaches Association. “I was done.”
The period Smart was referring to was June of last year when he faced a grueling schedule after the NCAA lifted the recruiting dead period.
But Georgia fans have no reason to panic. DawgNation spoke with Smart about the quote and the head coach clarified that “his comments were not meant to be taken literally.”
Via Mike Griffith of DawgNation:
To be clear, Smart clarified with DawgNation on Tuesday that his comments were not meant to be taken literally, so much as within the context of the workplace balance question.
Additionally, Sam Khan of The Athletic, who was present at the event when Smart made this quote, viewed the comment as a “hyperbole, but a way to illustrate how challenging last June was.”
When one high school coach at the THSCA Coaching School asked Smart if there’s such a thing as a healthy work-life balance in college football, Smart did not mince his words.
“No,” Smart replied, per FootballScoop.
Smart said that he was hosting recruits every day from June 1-28 and was simply fatigued. This past June, Smart took a different approach, scheduling every Monday as an off-day to allow his coaches to catch their breath. Additionally, Friday mornings were optional as he wanted the coaches to be energized enough to host players Friday night.
The full quote:
“But the work/life balance, for instance, this summer, in June, we had official visits on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I told the staff, ‘We’re going to take every Monday off, because we’re working every Friday, Saturday, Sunday.’
So last June – the coming out of COVID June – I was ready to step down and resign. I was done. I was done.
We had kids every day from June 1-June 28. We had caravans showing up from the Atlanta airport at midnight and they wanted to go in our indoor and workout at midnight because they had to go to another school at 7 in the morning and another school at 10 in the evening and they were trying to make the stops.
If we weren’t there at midnight, we weren’t going to see them. So what are you going to do, say no? Those kids are flying from Washington and California. Nah, we were there with them. And it drove our staff crazy.”
Smart spoke about ways he makes it possible for his coaches to spend more time with their loved ones by allowing families at practices.
“First off, families are always welcome at our office, they can come to our practices. I got coaches’ kids who come out to the practice and do the drills with the coach because I’m like ‘You won’t get to be around your son otherwise.’ So if he wants to come to practice, he can come to practice any time he wants. He can be a part of anything as long as he’s not in the way or a distraction. I want our families, I want our wives to bring their kids out there at the end of practice. Because our players need to see that.”
Exaggeration or not, Georgia fans are thrilled that Smart did not step down from coaching prior to last season.
