Kirby Smart ponders how Big Ten passed SEC atop college football | Rushing the Field | NBC Sports

0:00 Kirby Smart, Georgia head coach, uh,

0:02 who's something of an elder statesman now in the sport.

0:05 He had some really interesting observations about how he sees the Big

0:10 10 in the SEC and and everyone's place in college football right now.

0:14 The college football landscape has really really changed.

0:18 The Big 10 has won three straight championships straight.

0:21 I mean, that's just crazy.

0:22 The SEC dominated

0:23 your theory on that.

0:23 Let me hear it.

0:25 Why?

0:25 You really want my theory?

0:26 I want your theory.

0:26 Yeah, I want to hear it because we just had more draft picks than them.

0:29 Not Not in the not in the first.

0:31 That was a flip in the first cuz they had more in the first than SEC did.

0:34 But why why Okay.

0:36 So So here's my theory.

0:36 As a football coach, you're not going to like my theory.

0:38 I'll go and tell you.

0:38 Okay.

0:39 I like all theories.

0:40 Um I I I think back in the day when he is so setting you up to cut you down.

0:45 I know.

0:46 He's going to bring up the pay paying the players.

0:48 Well, everybody was paying players.

0:49 I'm not saying like only Alabama was or only Georgia was.

0:51 Everybody was paying players.

0:52 But I think there was almost a handshake

0:55 agreement like Alabama and Auburn to a certain

0:58 extent were going to let it go on because they knew each other were doing it.

1:00 But by god they weren't going to let Ohio State come down here

1:02 and get a player or Georgia and Florida they knew battling over South Georgia.

1:06 We're look we're both cheating a little bit but we're

1:08 not going to let Michigan come get a player.

1:09 Well now it's free game.

1:11 Is there any validity to that?

1:12 Is that a bad theory?

1:13 I don't know.

1:13 I I I can't figure out what it is.

1:15 I I just think they have a more competitive uh conference.

1:18 Like the top of their conference there's more good teams.

1:21 It used to be Ohio State was good.

1:23 Yeah.

1:23 You know, like Michigan was really good.

1:24 When Harbaugh, they had a great team.

1:26 Indiana's good.

1:27 Like now they got Oregon.

1:28 They got a draw.

1:29 They they they have an ability to attract good players coming now.

1:32 No, NIL has a factor, too, for sure.

1:34 But but so does Miami.

1:36 I mean, so does Florida.

1:37 I mean, people have money.

1:38 More people have money.

1:39 So, I think that the the talent is spread out thin where before in the SEC,

1:43 it was a magnet to talent.

1:44 The disparity was so great that it was like you couldn't mess it up.

1:47 You'd win regardless.

1:49 And now it's like, okay, it's more even.

1:51 It's just been three in a row they did.

1:53 But it's crazy like when you were over here as a defensive coordinator,

1:56 you would not have taken the Indiana job under any circumstances.

1:59 No, probably not.

1:59 There is no way they would have pried you away from Tuscaloosa.

2:01 You were waiting for a better job than that.

2:03 I I agree with that.

2:04 And now it's a national championship program,

2:06 so it just shows you how quickly things can change in That's true.

2:09 It can change quick, but that doesn't explain why the big No, I agree with you.

2:12 That doesn't explain why the Big 10's been able to do that.

2:14 And that's just, you know, I have so much respect for them.

2:16 I'm like, are they better coaches than us?

2:18 Are they?

2:18 And that's what all our coaches say.

2:19 They're like, I think Joel Clatt says that.

2:21 Yeah.

2:21 I mean, people have said that.

2:22 I don't think that's the case because I don't think they're taking

2:24 they're taking they're taking less talent in theory and doing more with it.

2:28 Now, the other theory is, and this is what nobody likes to hear,

2:30 is a lot of SEC coaches say this in my meetings.

2:33 They say they don't have the grind we do.

2:36 There's no way.

2:37 They play three of their nine games are hard.

2:40 Their bottom four games are not our bottom four games.

2:43 I'm going to play at Starkville and Vanderbilts

2:45 in my bottom four and I'm holding on to my butt.

2:48 Yeah.

2:49 To be able to play at noon on on Saturday at Starkville and playing

2:52 a good team who beat Arizona State who goes and plays these other teams.

2:55 So I there is a theory that we're beating each other

2:58 up and it's like the intensity and it wears you down.

3:02 Yeah.

3:02 So there's a lot there.

3:03 I actually thought it was like a really interesting conversation.

3:06 And that was Kirby Smart on the next round, I think,

3:09 at a golf tournament in between giving us

3:11 some thoughts on the state of college football.

3:14 Uh, so Josh, where do you want to start on this on where he was?

3:17 Um, I mean, I think we we can talk about the way

3:20 that the talent has spread out and draft where he started,

3:25 you know, round versus overall the depth of the conference.

3:28 Yeah, it's the thing that we said all season long and the thing

3:31 that came true was that at the the very top end the Big

3:34 10 had the better players overall and and those players were concentrated

3:38 among a few teams for sure and that played out on the field.

3:42 But we also knew that the SEC probably had

3:44 the better depth of players like you know you you look

3:47 at the way the draft shook out and I think

3:50 this would explain the way that the conference is built too.

3:52 Like Wisconsin they they didn't have any

3:55 any players that went in the draft, right?

3:57 like that was also true about their team.

3:59 They weren't a good football team.

4:00 You look at SEC programs and they at least

4:02 all had a guy get drafted at some point.

4:06 So, um I think that is a factor.

4:10 Um I don't I don't know if you have any more there just on the the talent alone,

4:15 but the idea that the Big 10 is able to get more

4:17 guys that can change the game than they did in the past.

4:20 And I I'll say when I was playing, um,

4:22 Urban came in in 2012 and one of the things that he was

4:26 very loud about was how the Big 10 was not a recruiting conference.

4:29 It was too regional.

4:30 Uh, guys had these handshake agreements

4:32 where they wouldn't poach each other's recruits.

4:34 They were scared to go into certain places down south.

4:36 Some of the coaches wouldn't let them recruit the high

4:38 schools down south because they weren't familiar with them.

4:41 And we they couldn't get guys.

4:42 And he was very adamant about everybody in the conference recruiting better.

4:46 And now you see what happens when you can get some premier gamechanging guys.

4:50 You're able to compete for championships

4:52 in a legitimate way year in and year out.

4:54 Yeah.

4:54 And I think it's it's um but to your point about the regional versus national.

4:58 I mean you think of like Harbaugh coming in and the satellite camps like

5:01 you don't even really need to do that anymore because so much more is national.

5:06 Um and you have a conference in the Big

5:08 10 that now literally stretches coast to coast.

5:11 And again, like historically, conference footprints have been more where you're

5:16 recruiting and where your players are coming from.

5:19 Um, so that that all has changed and obviously

5:21 money has changed a lot of that too.

5:22 But but you're totally right, Joshua.

5:24 I mean, if you think about there's a couple things

5:26 that we've been using to kind of measure the shift.

5:28 One is the draft and again the Big 10 won the first round of the draft.

5:32 So that's the high-end players.

5:33 Also, the Heisman races.

5:35 Couple years ago, there were no SEC players in the top 10 in the Heisman race.

5:41 So, that is the high-end players.

5:42 Those are the best players in the country, the gamechanging players.

5:46 SEC programs have missed on quarterbacks or quarterbacks have underwhelmed.

5:50 That's been a problem for some of these top teams in recent years.

5:54 And you know, it's interesting.

5:55 I was I was talking about this with Rody Jones

5:57 on SiriusXM earlier this week and he brought up how,

6:01 you know, again, kind of the urban era,

6:02 but maybe a little before, maybe a little after as well.

6:06 Some of the Big 10 teams were consistently very good,

6:08 but they did not have great quarterbacks.

6:10 So, it was kind of like a limiting factor for those teams.

6:13 Now, you're putting some really great quarterbacks on some

6:15 of these teams and they're able to elevate.

6:18 I mean, and you're you're thinking like what does matter, the depth, right?

6:21 the SEC.

6:22 Yes, the bottom, the middle and the bottom is stronger than the Big 10,

6:26 but the Big 10 at the top, I mean,

6:28 Indiana went from bottom of the conference to the top.

6:30 Like, they missed that second tier.

6:32 Um, and and the top tier added Oregon.

6:35 It should USC should be there, right?

6:37 Like the West Coast editions made the top stronger, too.

6:41 So, it's a really interesting like confluence of events

6:44 that create the very top being stronger in the Big 10.

6:48 Um, the idea of beating up on each other

6:52 is an interesting one because we it's it's it's

6:56 a there's a parallel here with Big 10 basketball

6:58 that always used to be the narrative that was so physical.

7:01 It was such a grind and then the Big

7:03 10 teams would do well in the NCAA tournament.

7:06 I do think that there is something to a stronger like if the depth is deeper,

7:13 you you cannot just overlook teams towards the bottom anyway.

7:18 Um, but we've always said this with the SEC, a lot of people are strategic.

7:23 They're putting a non-conference game in November to help rest,

7:28 to help get healthier.

7:29 And this wasn't a problem really before when

7:33 the teams were stockpiling talent and the actual teams

7:37 like Nick Savens teams or Kirby Smart's teams had

7:40 twos that were better than pretty much everyone else's.

7:43 It didn't matter as much.

7:44 So, you don't have as much depth.

7:46 you also have to play more games to get through the playoff.

7:49 So, I think those two things are are happening here,

7:52 but I don't know how much you can

7:53 put it on the regular season because that didn't

7:55 used to be a problem and you have

7:58 to be good in the regular season and the postseason.

8:00 Now, also in the regular season, you could lose a couple games and you're okay

8:04 and then you just got to be good at the end.

8:06 So, like I see what he is saying

8:09 and certainly in an era where depth is harder to come by, I get it.

8:13 But I don't think that can be all that that is leading to this outcome.

8:17 Yeah.

8:18 I mean, we're we're we shouldn't sit here and act

8:20 like Arkansas and Kentucky and South Carolina don't exist.

8:25 Like, oh, are those tough outs?

8:27 Like, yeah, I guess you can say that.

8:28 Like, certainly there are talented players.

8:30 Like, those are games that should be no

8:32 doubters if you're a top team in the SEC.

8:34 Like, Arkansas was was not to me was not a team that you should be scared of.

8:39 Like, they literally they had good offense.

8:42 like they they literally couldn't stop anybody.

8:44 Like I watched Notre Dame go in there and absolutely embarrass them, right?

8:47 So like to me we we have to stop acting like there aren't some

8:51 bottom tier teams that should be easy outs in the SEC is number one.

8:55 Number two is the point that you brought up wasn't

8:58 a problem in the past like it's supposed to it was always

9:00 a meat grinder but you know the SEC was winning titles

9:03 in the past like that that part has not changed right.

9:06 So, like I can't necessarily see that as an excuse of like, oh well,

9:10 you know, the conference is deep,

9:12 so it's just it's really tough to go the distance.

9:14 I get there more games at the end of the year now,

9:16 but this idea has not changed about what you had to do all

9:20 year long to come out of the SEC and to eventually win a title.