Kirby Smart almost quit last Summer?

Now this is news.

Sooooo glad he worked it out.

Coaching at this level is all consuming. Very tough to strike a balance and stay competitive.

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Sooooo glad he worked it out.

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With all of the radical changes going on and how cynical I am about the future of this sport, I can’t imagine how Id be dealing with a gut punch like that if Kirby had tapped out in June and left us hanging

Just so thankful to him for finally winning one when he did. Before college football picnics at HHM for good

Matt Luke quit Georgia and walked away from coaching a few months ago. Now the head coach tells a group of high school coaches aspiring to get to the next level how terrible the work/life balance is in college football. And reveals that he even had thoughts of resigning last June. Like a Bob Stoops or a Spurrier did recently

This is also the same head coach that has been very vocal in saying that he did not set out to be a football coach in the environment that NIL anf free agency is bringing. That its taking away what drew him toward the profession in the first place.

Yep. Nothing to see here. All is well.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see more coaches retiring young in the future. They're making generational wealth and they work damn near 24/7/365.

Doesn’t help that Saban is held up as the standard everyone is trying to meet, either. You’re talking about a guy who is, of course, incredibly talented as a coach, program manager, and recruiter. But he is also maybe the most successful case of right place, right time in sports history - landed at a program hungry enough to sign an endless number of blank checks at a time when the sports’ super powers were in flux and the SEC dominance was in its infancy. He seized the opportunity and built something so ahead of its time that even when everyone else caught in to what he was doing, he was so far out in front that nobody has been able to catch up to what has essentially become a self sustaining force of nature in the sport in college football.

I think as of today Kirby and UGA are probably the closest thing to replicating Alabama’s model but even then we aren’t going to replicate their results. Like if Kirby notches 2 more titles in his career, it’s an insane, exhausting accomplishment and still it’s going to forever be measured against what his mentor did

I do think it was hyperbole and don't think someone as incredibly driven and hyper-focused as kirby would call it quits so early in his career, but I do think the game changing to such a massive degree is going to make some lesser coaches bow out. This barely resembles the sport we all grew up on. Players can freely transfer for any reaosn they want so you not only recruit HSs every year but you have to recruit your own roster ot stay, in addition to recruiting other college players that are in the portal. It's the wild west with openly and freely paying players. Not just players but recruits. Pretty soon some schools are going to have regular season conference games 2,000 miles away since we're going to all be in mega corporate bland super-leagues. It just sucks. If I was 45 or 50 years old with a few kids and a few dozen million in the bank I'm sure I'd want to hang it up too

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It was taken out of context a bit, he was referring to the summer recruiting period during Covid when they hosted recruits for 28 straight days.

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Not only that, but after an extended covid dead period where they all got to rest on their laurels and get complacent. Then to be slingshot back into a 28 day hustle after sitting on your arse for months.

Yea, he was going to resign 13 months ago…but now he’s signing on to be onboard for another 10 years through the meat of NIL, transfers and other things……This is bullshite. You can talk all day long about how many hours he has to work and do other things, but he had and still has ZERO intention of quitting coaching.