Folks, this is the future of college football, in a graphic.
That’s a 16-team SEC conference, with a roster that is around 15 guys, so out of 240 rostered athletes, there’s only one that remained at the program until a designated senior year. That’s less than 1% of athletes that will remain with a program until their senior year.
Given that there are multiple options for pro contracts out there in basketball, it’s not all NIL or Portals, but it’s definitely a huge contributing factor. Football is a bit different, with requirements for years in college football applying to be draftable, and there’s always the Indiana example where you can just hang around and play until you start getting mailers from AARP, but what’s the likelihood that you’ll see a true senior on senior day…not only in basketball, but anywhere?
Recent reforms have all but killed the idea of walk-ons, so seeing the guys stick around to the end is becoming less and less likely, with even practice team guys transferring to other programs while chasing playing time and NIL dreams.
But it’s staggering to think that we’re in a time where it’s hard to say who is on your favorite college team’s roster this year compared to last? Blue Cain is a junior and, comparatively, feels like he’s been with the Bulldogs Basketball program for a century. Similarly, outside of Tre Phelps and Dan Jackson, it’s hard for me to tell you who plays for the Diamond Dawgs.
Football under Kirby Smart feels different from the rest of college football right now, and, even if that means we’re not winning National Championships, which feels less earned and more bought nowadays, makes me appreciate Kirby Smart even more. We live in golden times, as I’ve said multiple times here, but golden because Kirby is holding fast to some traditional college football themes in some non-traditional times.
I’ll take it. On top of that, there’s this:
Perhaps Kirby is that Captain of the ship, lost at sea in the darkest of nights, watching fifty foot swells coming at the bow of the ship while the crew is being tossed around like socks in a dryer in the cabin below. Nauseated, bruised, and disoriented from the turbulence, they are simultaneously terrified and excited the same, grasping at anything they can and having faith that the crusty captain of the ship knows what he’s doing.
Meanwhile, he’s at the helm, saying prayers in his head while recalling distant memories of these combats at sea, thinking it’s been worse while keeping a focus that there’s better conditions ahead. The seas rise and fall, are rough and sometimes steady, but knows that, regardless, the outcome has been predetermined and the sun will rise and fall, clouds come and go, yet time and chance happens to all.
If this is his time, he’ll go down fighting, true to his training and intuition. If the sea takes him, he’s fine with it, because it’s on his terms. And that’s why he’s steady, sure of what’s to come, even if it’s not clear in the bursts of foam and water that surrounds him.
From Invictus:
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the Captain of my soul.
Glad Kirby’s on the mother, even if we find ourselves starting to jump overboard.
There is no man I would rather see in the seat right now than Kirby Smart. I was thinking about the top 10 players of his era at Georgia the other day. I did not have him on that list I shared with my son-in-law.
But I would have his number 16 lit up alongside Sinkwich, Trippi, Sapp and Walker on the façade of Sanford Stadium before any of them or any player who has come through since.
Hope to see Blue Cain on that senior list next year. He has been and is a darn good dawg. Chose UGA over UF knowing UF would be the better team. He came here to make us better, and I think he has succeeded. I hope they get a win over UF next year for him.
Of course he could always disappoint all of us and leave after this season for greener pastures. But he has had the chance to do that the past two years. I think he likes it in Athens and likes playing for White, and if White is in Athens next year, so will Cain be.
Hope we make a run past the first round in the tourney this year.
It may be a quaint notion, but all that movement from school to school has got to result in far fewer kids leaving with degrees. The future is, and always has been, challenging. I’d rather enter it with a degree in hand.
Just don’t want that Captain to leave. I am hanging on by a thread now. His FPE is what keeps us where we are. He doesn’t need all this bs but loves UGA . Hope he will be last coach l ever see! Go Dawgs!!!
I like the fact that Kirby runs his program differently than the others. I would not enjoy it if he ran his ship like the Sarkisians, Kiffins, and Days of the world. I am content with the Georgia Way, even if it hurts our chances at coming out on top each year. I also think we will always nonetheless be a threat to come out on top each year, simply because of the passion he brings to the team.
Kirby rewards results more than potential. We lose out on some big-name incoming freshmen that are just chasing the money, but we don’t lose too many of our own that we want to keep (with a few exceptions). That makes for a much more cohesive team.
Kirby Smart will not leave UGA and college football, they will leave him. I really want to see the unveiling of Smart-Sanford stadium in my lifetime. He should have the MBS field named for him too.
I think Kirby would rather have his number retired and his name with the 4 other men than to have something named or renamed for him.
That may be the question I would ask him the day he decides to retire as Georgia HFC.
Pavia seems to be taking a similar career arc as Johnny Manziel. He started out as a great story, then he started believing his own hype and ended up as a total asshole.
Oops, wrong subject.
Might be the wrong subject, but still 100% accurate.
Love seeing the lines from Invictus. Victorian Stoicism served me well over 40 years in the Wilderness, lol. At some point the flash in the pan NIL champs(chumps?) will fall back to Earth and Kirby will have the Dawgs at the military crest ready to hold the line with a vapor trail of trophies.
“Give the order, sir, and I’ll storm the Gates of Hell!” – – Gen Anthony Wayne.
Ideally, Kirby’s vision of where the program needs to be will roll that way.
Until then?
#FTMF
#GoDawgs
even in basketball – laughing emoji