Kirby Smart borrows strategy, philosophy and teaching tools from many walks of life to maintain an edge at Georgia.
In the past he’s studied corporate success stories, the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty and crossover elite athletes. So it’s not abundantly surprising to hear the Bulldogs’ head coach to invoke the 2025 NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder when discussing expectation-setting in Athens this offseason.
“We study successful programs all the time,” Smart said at SEC Media Days in Tampa on Tuesday. “If you’re not studying how other people are doing it and you’re just fixated on your own team and your own roster, I think you’re missing out.
“We’re always trying to grow in our program. We don’t want to stay the same. You need to study how other people are doing it and maybe the ways they’re doing it in creating roles for others. It’s very unique what the Thunder was doing, especially when they won the championship in terms of leading in so many categories, but most importantly selflessness. That’s what we try to emulate.”
A lot of programs are trying to emulate Smart and Georgia.
He’s 117-21 and Georgia has 11-plus wins in five consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.
But Smart said he’ll never stand still or rely on the same recipe year-over-year.
“We chose to study a successful brand or team or follow someone, and this year the reigning NBA champions at the time was the OKC Thunder and they talked about being uncommon and how you can be uncommon in today’s world,” Smart said. “Our guys took a week-by-week section of being uncommon, believing in the success of others is greater than the success of yourself in a day and age when that’s not normal.”
Smart finds himself in novel territory entering the 2026 season as the longest-tenured SEC coach. He remains a throwback when it comes to roster building, emphasizing again Tuesday he recruits to marry and welcomes the label “retention team.” Of course, the current college football landscape won’t allow any program to fully ignore the transfer portal.
“It’s changing more rapid, yes, but what wins football games has not changed,” Smart said. “Has the role of the head coach changed? If you want it to, it can. You can be as involved in offense, defense in coaching and remove yourself from all this changing landscape. Or you can dive over here and spend your time in the changing landscape and try to navigate it better and let your coaches coach. Each coach has to decide within their own program what they want to major in, because you cannot sit back. … You got to be able to wear multiple hats, more than I ever imagined.”
