Kirby Smart weighs in on NIL culture vs old school physicality

Jason Jones

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Kirby Smart weighs in on NIL culture vs old school physicality image

Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs dominated No. 10 Texas on Saturday. While Texas is not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, the 35-10 loss to Georgia complicates their chances. After that game, Smart gave some indication as to why he thinks Georgia was able to dominate the Longhorns.

Georgia is second in the SEC standings behind only undefeated Texas A&M. Their lone loss is to the 4th place team Alabama. The Alabama and Tennessee games are the only games where Georgia hasn’t at least flirted with doubling their opponents’ score. Georgia is hitting on all cylinders at exactly the right time.

As of Sunday, Georgia has moved into the 5th seed in the college football playoff rankings. With remaining games against Charlotte and Georgia Tech, the prevailing expectation is that Georgia will win out and could potentially have a very favorable seeding.

Smart’s team has dominated most of their opponents this year. In Smart’s post-game press conference following the Texas win, he gave some indication on why he thinks they were able to dominate Texas. In doing so, he suggested something might be missing from Texas and it’s not NIL money.

Aggressiveness and physicality is what won the day. Georgia put up a hundred more rushing yards than Texas, while not giving up hardly any rushing yards on defense. Georgia had 128 rushing yards to Texas’ 23. Receiving numbers were similar between both teams. However, it was Georgia winning the individual battles when they needed to that made the difference in the game.

Texas jumped out to a quick FG lead early in the game. Once Georgia went ahead of that score, they never looked back. Dominate might not even sell it. Texas appeared out matched relatively early. After the aggressive on-sides kick Smart called after going up +11, Texas looked beaten. After the on-sides kick, the Longhorns just didn’t look the same and coach Steve Sarkisian appeared to be at a loss for options or adjustments.

Georgia’s next game brings Charlotte to Athens Georgia. That game is scheduled to kickoff at 12:45pm ET and broadcast on the SEC Network.

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Contributing Writer