Friday Fodder for Filibustering: Kirby’s Mount Rushmore

Posted on by

We’ve discussed this before, but Kirby weighs in.

“Stetson Bennett because he won the national championships and he was a quarterback,” Smart said.

Bennett won back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022.

“Let’s go Travon Walker,” Smart said. “He was picked No. 1 overall.”

The defensive end was the No. 1 pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2022.

“OK, alright, let’s go with Nakobe Dean because was one of the best leaders to ever do it,” Smart said of the 2021 Butkus Award winner for nation’s top linebacker.

Kirby goes on to list a few more:

  • Scott Woerner
  • Jake Scott
  • Nick Chubb
  • Sony Michel
  • Ben Smith
  • Champ Bailey

That’s a mighty big mountain, Kirby…but I can’t disagree too much with his choices. Of course, there’s a glaring omission in there somewhere, but I can’t quite put my finger on it:

If it were just the Kirby era, I would have to go with Stetson, Bowers, Roquan, and the Chubb/Michel split that Kirby mentions in the article.

Just a reminder that the final chapter of the Gunner era hasn’t been written yet, so let’s not start chipping away on the rock quite yet.

Who you got?

29 thoughts on “Friday Fodder for Filibustering: Kirby’s Mount Rushmore”

  3. Maybe Roquan Smith during Kirby. Maybe Charley Trippi or Frank Sinkwich pre Kirby. Gurley close to Ole No. 34 but not quite.

  6. Won a Heisman (should have been 2, plus 1 more his skipped senior year}. Never lost an SEC game. Never lost a home game. Lost 1 regular season game. 3 SEC titles. 1 NC (just missed a 2d). Everyone knew he was getting the ball 25-30 times, just couldn’t stop him.

    No offense to any of the other great players listed. Or to Kirby, who probably never saw him play. But any list without 34 at the top is no real list. For me? 34, Stet, Jake Scott, and Trippi or Sinkwich. Talent counts, but so does winning conference and national titles.

  7. Hershel, Bennett, Bowers, Bailey.
    A lot of great Lb’s Roquan for physicality, Dean side line to side line, Zambisi (sp?) just a tackling machine in a mostly run only era. DL Seymour did not get recognized enough until his pro days, Jalen Cater is a beast.

    • Richard Seymour and Marcus Stroud that was a great defensive wall of Georgia. I remember they broke Phat Phil he couldn’t believe his OLine couldn’t beat those two.

  11. Bowers was the best football player in all of college football for 3 years, including a true freshman year, without whom we would not have either of our last 2 national championships. He deserves to be the #2 spot right behind Herschel. Kirby must have had a brain block not remembering to mention him. Haha.

    • It’s ridiculous to say I forgot about BB….and yet, I did. Maybe I squeeze out Jake Scott, who was an awesome, top level talent. Lots of dudes on the b2b NCs, lots of awesome players who didn’t play on championship teams. Hines Ward, Champ, Gurley, Worley. T Hoage had a great play as a freshman in the| 80 NC, but was not a regular. Woerner was great. Butler? Robinson? AJ Green? Andy Johnson? Ray Goff was an awesome veer QB who led us to a sugar bowl v Pitt with a chance|cto win a NC (ended badly, but still). Lots of OL, lots of DL.

      I don’t know where you draw the line, and as long as HW is 1 on your list, I probably can’t say you are wrong. Lots of DGDs to consider.

  13. I’ll add Vernon “Catfish” Smith, CFB HoF member and All American in 1931. But the reason I add him is he scored all 15 points in our 15-0 ass whipping of those Yankees from Yale that came down to open Sanford Stadium in 1929.

  14. Pleasantly surprised to see Kirby mention #26 Ben Smith, who was fantastic.

    Lots of other greats mentioned above, and I’d submit Jarvis Jones and Deandre Baker for consideration

  17. All time?

    Trippi, Walker, Pollack, Champ.

    Kirby Era?
    Chubb, Stetson, Brock, Dean over Roquan by a fraction, probably because of the title.

Comments are closed.