Kirby Smart Gets Brutally Honest About the SEC's Injury Problem

Kirby Smart just got honest about the SEC injury report and how much of a laundry list it has become across the league. Is it because of the nine games? Is it because kids are getting paid? What is exactly the reason this is starting to happen? Kirby said he didn't know, but then kind of got into an answer of like, well, maybe it's because everyone's got too much money in their pockets. Let's talk about it. Oh, Kirby Smart was asked about why are we seeing so many injuries in the SEC as of late? What's happening here? And the answer kind of shocked me because even Coach Kirby, who seems to have the answer to a lot of things, especially taking it to Florida Gators this past weekend, said he didn't have the answer, but then broke it down a little more. Let's hear what Kirby had to say. Then we'll give you my thoughts on what I believe is happening to the league and why there's so many injuries. Take a listen. As a player, an assistant head coach in this league, how would you describe what we've seen this year, the carnage, and how is it different, is it different from what you've seen over the last 25 plus years? Yeah, it does seem different. I've asked several coaches about it, and we all have speculation. I don't want to get judgment on what it is. I mean, everybody's practicing less, but everybody's getting injured more. And it doesn't make sense. It doesn't add up. We're not at the point of, you know, the ninth game yet. Nobody's played any more than they normally would have right now. So I don't have a good answer for that. I do think that, you know, there was a big decision made when they did the rosters to what they did the rosters to. And we debated with a lot of higher-up people to come to the roster limitations we came to. It's going to be interesting as this thing goes down the stretch because I think people's depth is going to show up. You know, people have to make a choice how you want to practice and do you want to practice at all or do you just want to try to save everybody and it'll be interesting because I don't know that the players are any different. I think about the teams we had in 21 and 22 how physical they were and how they practiced and I'm like we can't even get close to that now. Is it? I don't know. I mean, is it a different culture that guys don't want to as much? I don't know because they were definitely hungrier because there was a motivation to make it. And, you know, a lot of these guys, honestly, they made more than I made until I was 40. I mean, so it's just a different day and age. So a lot to unpack here basically says, Hey, I don't, I don't know what the answer is. Then the proceeds to give us his thoughts and theories of like, Hey, these, these cats are getting paid. Nobody cares anymore. I'm talking to maybe a few other things. Here's the thing there. I think it's a, a multi-layered answer to be honest with you. And I know that seems like a cop out, but with how much parody we've had in college football over the last couple of years, that's why you're seeing this compound in effect. There are going to be a lot of things that change because you have NIL, you have the roster changes. You have a cultural change as well due to NIL. And then you are seeing a shift in practicing and how they approach the practice schedule. And is that because of what Kurt Cignetta did just a couple years ago at Indiana? That seems to be where the popularity of practicing less has came from. I'm sure this has always been a thing of practicing less, but it really became a phenomenon where you're hearing about what Indiana, or seeing what Indiana is doing on the football field. It's like, we actually don't practice that much at all. I don't even use all the days where everything's shrinking down. There is a very important factor that we'll get into about that practice being shortened. And what it all means. But so when you have all these things that are happening, that's why I do believe that it is a bit multi-layered. The first big one that punches us in the face is what kind of Kirby alluded to is that. Are these guys as hungry as they once were? Are they pushing themselves to a level that these guys in 2021 and 2020 were doing? And that may not seem that far away, but that was right before we were in the thick of things of this NIL era. Now, I think back at that time, they probably were changing some of their practice habits and doing things because of just science and information that we had. We were able to make adjustments to eating habits, training habits, resting, recovering, all of that, right? That's been... improving year over year, but the big change would be NIL. I do believe that as a factor. I do believe that. I think also the understanding of the game. Injuries have always been a part of it. But we're seeing it more and more in these guys that are risking their lives. I think that we're becoming more educated on the repercussions of this football game. And I believe that is playing a factor as well. But again, the bigger thing, like he said, some of these kids at 18 have more money than I do at the age of... 50 or 60 or whatever, Kirby, however old he is. Does that, you know, subtract some of the hunger that these guys are walking into? No ----. There's no question that that is subtracting some of the hunger. So that's number one. That is obviously the start to all of this. I do believe that is a big factor. Number two. He said, I don't know if we don't practice at all and we're just well-rested, headed into it. I know Florida has taken a different approach to practicing last year to this year. And although you may be more well-rested, maybe you have some more energy going into it, you're focused on recovery, you're focused on eating, you have your big practice days, but you're not consistently taking hits. And there was actually, we're going to show a little graphic. Congratulations, boys and girls, because this show is brought to you by PrizePix. And I congratulate you because you finally made it to college football season, boys and girls. Yes, that is right. You can now get in on the action on Price Picks with college football. It is time to get up after it. This week, we're rocking and rolling, feeling pretty good. But our guy Micah Arahado from Hawaii. Then we've got, of course, King Miller with USC getting some rush touchdowns. I know we don't like FSU around these parks, but I think Ashton Daniels is going to use a little legs in this upcoming week for some nice football to get him more in his rushing yard. You can now get in on the action with Price Picks for the rushing season. And individual games. And on the app, you can pick your team to just win the game outright when you use that code HMA. Download the app today using the link in the description. You play $5. You get $150 if you win that lineup for brand new users. And take advantage. Ride with the crowd. Okay? Use the great features that PrizePick has to offer. PrizePicks. It is good to be around. Which is very interesting because I looked this up. I was just having a feeling. I was like, is there some science behind this? You know, of my field, like, well, if they're practicing less and they're not getting banged around, that could be a factor of what we're seeing as well. And there was a study done by Gabbert, I believe is how the name is pronounced. And it was called the Training Injury Prevention Paradox. And this is from an Australian sports scientist, Tim Gabbert, in 2016. 16. Um, He described a pattern where athletes accustomed to high training loads have fewer injuries than athletes training at lower workloads. And so how does this apply, obviously, to football? If your weekday practices are lighter, then Saturday becomes a huge spike compared to what the body is used to. And this graph is just an illustration of exactly what we're talking about, right? If you're practicing hard all week, then you're built up and ready to go and you're in that green box, if you will. If you're light practice, then you're more likely for risk of injury, which is the red box there. Is that also playing a factor? Because we go back to the Indiana situation where we heard Kirk talk about, hey, we practice less. Now, if you take a look at the details and hear about those practices, they're still practicing hard, still practicing physical. Also keep in mind, is that going to continue to happen over the next couple of years? I know they're dealing with injuries on their team. The year that they did it was he took his guys from JMU. They were older. So it could be a small outlier to where that worked particularly for them. You do have to ask the question, was that the start of all this? They see, oh, he's working out less or he's practicing less. They come well rested. Their body's not tired. And all of that still may be very true. That is a factor. But if you're not getting whacked around like these guys did in the early 2000s, and we saw two-a-days, right? I mean, that was a thing. Two-a-days were legit as it could get. And now these guys get sued if they practice over a certain amount of time. I mean, everything has been shrunk. And all of that to do with what I mentioned at the beginning of the show, to prevent... Other injuries like CTE and other things that come later on down the road. So you're seeing this big swing of, well, maybe we're dealing with other injuries currently like shoulders and knees and whatnot. But hopefully, ideally, the goal is to prevent the long-term injuries, right, of ALS and CTE that come later on down the road because of the constant banging and hitting that they were doing from a weekly basis, not just on Saturdays and Sundays from what we saw, but All the way around. And so, again, that is a lot that we're seeing this big change. And we know that to be a fact. Again, all the CTA and the Guardian caps, those things have come just full on over the last four or five years being fully enforced into these things. So you wonder how much of that takes into consideration as well. And my third and final thing that I believe that is also doubling down to this is the offseason. But more than ever before, these guys have every resource they could possibly imagine. And they truly don't have an offseason. And they're constantly going, they're constantly working out and putting more and more on their body, trying to get bigger, faster, and stronger, which there obviously is going to be a balance there. I'm not going to say steroids, but we all know these guys are probably pumping things into their body that they probably shouldn't. So you've got that compound on top of having the resources to be as dialed in as you possibly could be. And that probably, you know, for some people go, well, Sheldon, I mean, the science and all the data that you have, these guys should be smarter and better than ever before. On what they're putting into their body and the output and the rest and the recovery. Yes, I would agree with you on that too. But I do feel that we're seeing, and maybe they are faster and stronger in certain areas. They look great at the combine. They're flying around fast. They're hitting these numbers. They're chasing data points that are doing well. But how is their body standing up when battle tested, right? Where is that measuring stick that we're missing? And again, we're seeing it happen. A lot of people are trying to immediately point to the nine game conference or nine game schedule. And I love that Kirby kind of this. Disowned that pretty quickly. Up until this point, nothing would change. We've played the same amount of games. I've argued a little bit that could there be a factor that the parity in college football has changed so much that the level of each team that you're playing each week has improved and there isn't much, you're not able to kind of walk through, sleepwalk through a team, even in your own conference like you could have six, seven years ago, right? That could also... Maybe play a small factor, not as much as the other three, I think, that we just talked about. Very interesting question, I felt. Very interesting answer from Kirby. I think that what more people are going to peek from what he said is that he pointed more to, I think, of a cultural shift of these guys not being hungry enough. I saw a lot of speculation of, like, could we see Kirby on his way out because the game has changed so much from him and what he likes to run. Very similar to Nick Saban. A lot of thoughts, a lot of questions. Let me know your thoughts and your suggestions or comments, if you will, based on this phenomenon of guys being injured. More so on a regular basis. It's not just the ACC, by the way. It's all across college football that we're seeing it. So love to hear from you guys down below. Smash the like button, subscribe. Hope you guys enjoyed today's video. If you did, show some love. See you the next one. Peace and love.