Kirby Smart did it. He stopped the 1980 chants and brought UGA back to the top of the college football mountain. He won back-to-back national titles and did it by recruiting the best players, coaching them up and building a culture of winning in Athens. And because of that, he has a target on his back.
The culture at UGA is amazing — from a football standpoint. Guys play in meaningless bowl games when they have to, they come back for an extra year at times when they could head off to the NFL and they treat every game like it’s their last. The older players coach up the younger ones and a lineage of talent is passed on year to year. Kirby Smart has built this from the foundation of recruiting and not trying the easy way out with portal shortcuts or massive NIL promises. In a sense, he’s done what he was taught to do by Nick Saban. And he’s done it well.

As a result, people hate Kirby and his program. Those who aren’t UGA fans want to see it burn and continue to be outraged at each new off-field incident. Tragic drag racing and potentially tragic DUIs have morphed into child cruelty and domestic abuse and the number of arrests have been outlandish since the confetti first fell for Smart. People outside of UGA are calling for change and rightly so. But why? Is it their feigned concern for traffic safety or for other situations they have no knowledge about? That’s doubtful. It’s because of jealousy and it’s the price of winning.
I’ve found myself a bit outraged at arrest after arrest. I’ve been tempted to write a column about how Kirby is lax in his punishment and doesn’t send a strong enough message to his team. I’ve allowed writers on my site to go after Smart and compare this UGA era to the Urban Meyer era at Florida that UGA fans mocked out of their own jealousy. And then I wondered why? Why was I so outraged? Why did I want to hammer Smart? It came down to some soul searching and it’s because he is a winner. And fans of winners embrace them and those who aren’t fans or don’t have that fandom become jealous. It’s just human nature.
I don’t like or dislike UGA. My college football fandom as a Boston College diehard died long ago as doing this job just made me not care who wins or loses anymore. It sucks but it is what it is. I’m not a fan anymore. I thought it was kind of cool that UGA won it all for the first time since I was 10 and watching Herschel Walker. And then they won it again. And maybe, just maybe, I began to want to see them lose. The same thing happened with Nick Saban and Alabama and Urban Meyer and Florida and before that with Miami and Nebraska. Maybe we don’t like dynasties if we aren’t a fan of them, whatever the reason, it became easier for me to be judgmental of Kirby and the Bulldogs as they won more and more. So back to the point of this column.

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It’s awful that so many UGA players have been arrested and it’s odd that so many of them have had speed or alcohol (or both) as the reason. It’s like an epidemic. And when something like that is allowed to becomes uncontrollable, a different situation like that of WR RaRa Thomas and his multiple arrests on domestic counts seems even worse. All of it is bad separately. Lumped together it’s awful.
Has Smart been strong enough in handing out his punishments? Probably not. Although we still have murders in the United States despite executing criminals for that very offense. Punishment won’t always curtail results. But most of us can agree that a suspension for a half of a game or internal discipline like running gassers isn’t quite the method needed.
But I’ll tell you this much. If Kirby were a 8-4 or 9-3 coach annually with maybe one playoff appearance and no national titles, this national outrage wouldn’t occur. This is the nature of the business. You win big and you’re suddenly “winning at all costs” and that’s where we are now. Oh and if he were that 8-4 or 9-3 coach, the UGA fans wouldn’t be defending him so vehemently and he’d be on the hot seat like his predecessor. Win or go home.
No one feels sorry for Kirby Smart. You won big, you make more than $10 million a year and now you’re the target of everyone. Such is life. Mark Richt was a saint and never won big enough for those at UGA and there isn’t a Georgia fan who would take him back over Kirby. We are in a “win at all costs” world and that’s the way it is. But let’s all be real with ourselves for one moment if we can. We hate you cause we ain’t you. And if it was your coach winning this big but having these issues, you’d be just fine.