Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is usually the hard-nosed football coach that is all business when his Bulldogs are on the gridiron. However, in the offseason, Smart knows he can joke around from time to time.
That was the case on Monday night in front of the Macon Touchdown Club, where he joked about taking another form of transportation from Athens, Georgia, to Macon after a turbulent flight.
“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, my players parking lot, and maybe got a Lamborghini and drove down really fast?” Smart said.
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Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart reacts in the first half against the Samford Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium on Sept. 10, 2022 in Atlanta. (Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
The joke hit the audience, but Smart noted, “That’s an inside joke for some of you.”
“I thought about it, I don’t think I could drive one, I don’t think I could fit in one of those.
“(But) there’s definitely a different parking lot when it comes to players in the world we live in right now.”
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Of course, name, image and likeness (NIL) deals being allowed for student athletes to profit off their own personal brand is the talk of college sports, especially in the football realm where many top stars in the game are being paid big bucks to play at their respective schools.
The inside joke goes even further, as Smart’s quarterback, Carson Beck, bought himself a Lamborghini after negotiating to stay on for another season with the Bulldogs.
Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart looks on during the second half of a game against the Florida Gators at EverBank Stadium on Oct. 28, 2023 in Jacksonville, Florida. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
“I love cars, and I got a car, that’s really all it is,” Beck said about the Lamborghini Urus Performante he purchased, which retails at $270,000, at the team’s spring football press conference last week. Beck is considered a 2025 Heisman Trophy frontrunner.
Beck is believed to have agreed to one of the richest NIL and collective deals in college football, and his social media pages featuring more than just cars as expensive items proves he is certainly cashing in on his talents while in Athens.
As for coaches like Smart, NIL deals have been either a major challenge or something that has been embraced. Alabama legend Nick Saban admitted he lost his love for developing young athletes, as he found many were only worried about how much they were going to make playing for the Crimson Tide instead of why they wanted to join his program.
“I just want to make sure that the game stays at a point where we can control it,” Smart said in the past. However, the game is getting out of control, as the transfer portal is allowing student athletes to jump between colleges and universities, and usually it has to do with how much money they can make going elsewhere.
Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs on the field prior to the game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Bobby Dodd Stadium on Nov. 25, 2023 in Atlanta. (Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
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The Bulldogs, though, have enjoyed recent success, winning back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022. They were looking for the three-peat this year, but a loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game ruined their perfect season and a spot in the College Football Playoff.
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