The pride, passion, and pageantry of college football lives here.

This is the Paul Pinebaum Show, Our Ford podcast.

This might be college football.

And we welcome all of you to the final hour on this Tuesday.

We are in Tampa in case you were wondering.

SEC Media Days.

Busy day, a lot of conversation about Georgia, of course, and that's where we go next with

Brooks Austin, the film guy, and Mike Griffith from Dog Nation. Kirby Smart's always the center of attention when he shows up here. Mike, what did you learn today? I kind of felt like Kirby took a real statesman role today. I mean, he was introduced as the dean of SEC coaches. It's the first time you could say that. And he talked a lot about what a veteran coach should say. Brooks, then we got a lot of coach speak out of Coach Smart today. The one question that was legitimate, I must say, was about the receiving core and Kirby Smart reminded everybody that he's still Kirby Smart. He didn't shout the guy down. Put him in his place and said, I'm glad you said that because now we're going to motivate these guys with your words. Yeah, I think it's funny. He and his predecessor, Nick Saber, our classic, if you say something good about us, that's rat poison. If you say something bad about us, hey, that's fuel. Thank you. Thank you for giving me that, right? And that's exactly what he did today. But Mike, I don't know about you and Paul. I don't know about you, but I thought he was far more laid back than he normally is in these situations.

And I think I've seen that trend in him as a football coach. You know, like he'd grab Stetson Bennett by his neck. He'd put his arm around Carson Beck. You know what I mean? And I think, I don't know what's happened. Maybe he's just gotten older. Maybe he's just got more patient. Maybe that's the way new players relate to coaching.

Maybe they don't need that stern moment of coaching, but he seemed a lot more laid back

today. It also, a lot of conversation or a little bit of conversation about last year and the

year before in the Sugar Bowl, and he, you you know he talked about the layoff and he said

you know where else does that happen but we already knew that and i just wonder uh and i realize

you have to talk about what what we saw last but when is curvy smart going to move on from that

well you know getting the first round by and losing a sugar ball yeah well when he can keep his team healthy his team healthy. And I don't know if that's going to happen now. You know, we've added another game in the SEC. It's already a physical conference. And if Georgia plays in yet another SEC championship game, what would be what, the eighth time in the last nine years, they're playing an extra game. And, you know, by the time that Ole Miss game ended, there's five starters out. Kirby's's not using it as an excuse, Brooks, but you're losing, you're missing your center, you're missing your rush end, you're missing a starting safety. Backup goes in there, blows an assignment. You know, that center makes an errant snap, gives Old Miss seven. I mean, it is what it is. There's circumstances that come with playing a physical schedule and attrition that the Big Ten simply doesn't have to deal with in their schedule.

That's completely fair. Even if you go back to the 2024 Sugar Ball, I mean, their tag on quarterback blew out his elbow in the SEC championship game.

Starting quarterback goes out. Gunner Stockson's got to make his first career start against Notre Dame's defense in 2024 that was elite. I mean, it's really, really good at getting after things. So, no, I mean, the attrition and you, I mean, Gabe Harris's loss in that sugar bowl was massive too. So yeah, got to stay healthier, but it kind of goes against his point about the layoff. Right, right. You got an extra month to get healthy, you know. So, no, it's interesting.

He's got to get over that, though.

They've got to get past that first game. And the scary part, Paul, and Brooks, is that, you know, last year the margin for error was very thin. You remember, Georgia had to come from behind. And those seven SEC wins, they came from behind and six of them. And here's all Gunner Stockton did. 83% completion percentage in the fourth quarters of games,

seven touchdowns, no interceptions.

The guy's 66% in the fourth quarters of game, seven touchdowns, no interceptions.

The guy's 66% in the red zone passing.

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