If it was up to Kirby Smart, college football would be centered around “fire, passion and energy” and none of these landscape-altering changes the sport has endured over the last few seasons. The Georgia coach is a football-first guy, after all, forced to concern himself with new norms of personality changes and player entitlement because he’s seen it inside his own elite program.

The two-time national champion and reigning SEC winner made several broader points Tuesday at SEC Media Days, pointing out how much college football is continuing to evolve with NIL and revenue-sharing and the stress it puts on building a championship-level team.

“You can say what you want, but there’s people more in college football today, especially in the SEC, that are comfortable with where they are,” Smart said. “This is a pretty good life. ‘I’m earning $200k a year. I’m very comfortable.’ And you don’t reach your goals being comfortable. You don’t attain great success.”

Here’s a few of Smart’s key points during his time at the podium and breakout rooms and what we think it means for the Dawgs in the 2025 season. 

Georgia seeking coachable, elite talent

Question: Fire, passion and energy are pillars of the program. Can you name players that have exhibited it thus far and why have you added that this offseason?

Smart’s answer: “Why is it important to identify it now? Because the culture in college football is slowly changing. You’ve got to remember, I was part of a nine-year program and a nine-year run (at Alabama) that was one of the greatest ever in college football, OK? And now I’m at a place that’s doing it right and competing on a really high level. I’ve seen what it looks like to have fire, passion, and energy, and I’ve seen guys that were really hungry and I go back to (Alabama’s) Dont’a Hightower, Rolando McClain, Julio Jones and Trent Richardson and Mark Ingram all the way to (Georgia’s) Roquan Smith to Nolan Smith, to Jordan Davis, to George Pickens, to Jake Fromm … D’Andre Swift. You know what they had? They had a love for the game and fire, passion and energy. That’s not the same as it used to be.”

Translation: If you’re coming to Athens looking for a hefty payday and unwilling to work, Georgia’s probably not a fit. Smart, who’s had more first-round NFL Draft picks (20) than losses (19) during his time at Georgia, has had to adjust his recruiting approach just a bit in recent years with other programs offering sizable NIL guarantees with elite-level prospects. He reiterated the same point Tuesday he’s made ad nauseam throughout the offseason: signing with the Bulldogs is a play toward future earnings. He mentioned several former first-round picks as guys who saw the bigger picture and weren’t simply “satisfied” with being a high-level SEC football player.

On Georgia’s QB decision

Question: What has Gunner Stockton accomplished since the end of last season that made you bring him here to SEC Media Days?

Smart’s answer: “He does it the right way. He commands the room and works his butt off. I say all that because Ryan (Puglisi) does a great job too, and those guys are going to continue competing. Gunner’s one of the leaders of our team. You saw that in response last year when he came in after halftime (of the SECCG) and laid it on the line for our team. Gunner’s been a tremendous passion and energy guy, and I’m excited to see him grow and get better.”

Translation: Heading into fall camp, Stockton is Georgia’s QB1 based on what he showed during spring practice and as Carson Beck’s backup last season. Smart selecting Stockton as one of the Bulldogs’ three player representatives in Atlanta signals his trust in the fourth-year player. That said, Smart has not told Stockton he’s going to start in the opener against Marshall and he still has to put his best foot forward in August to lead Mike Bobo’s first-team unit.

Enough Nick Saban speculation

Question: The hot rumor yesterday was Nick Saban coming back to coaching. I was wondering if you could share your reaction?

Smart’s answer: “I heard all the scuttlebutt and everything about it. I almost laughed. It was like somebody needed something interesting to talk about, so they chose to go to Coach Saban to do it. The game’s better with him involved. He is involved. He’s passionate about it. His brilliance in many ways is around football. Around scheme, another way to do something to stay ahead of the offensive minds. Make no mistake about it, the boss at home is making that call for him, not him.”

Translation: Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you read. Smart’s a skeptic — he doesn’t think Saban is interested in a return to coaching unlike Greg McElroy’s “source” from earlier in the week. Smart joked that he called Saban and offered him Will Muschamp’s vacated position on staff, but he was overqualified. Smart spent nine years on Saban’s staff at Alabama, including eight as his defensive coordinator, and the two still speak often about defensive game plans and schematic details.

Georgia’s weaknesses — what are they?

Question: What’s a position group on both sides of the football that you’re expecting to be better this year compared to last season or needs to be better?

Smart’s answer: “Yeah, I don’t like the question, I’m sorry. There’s not one position group that we don’t need to get better at. I mean, just me being frank with you, we’ve got to get better at each one. You can say that’s coachspeak, but if I pick one, I’m leaving someone out. We’ve got to improve all around.”

Translation: Georgia — currently with the third-best odds to win the College Football Playoff, according to DraftKings Sportsbook –is not where it needs to be right now if the Bulldogs plan on returning to Atlanta, the CFP and, potentially, the national championship spotlight. Do you think Smart was going to conceptualize two specific areas of improvement from his football team? This is the same coach who, like Saban, insisted to meet with his coaching staff two years ago the day after beating TCU by 58 points in the finale to formulate a recruiting plan since the Bulldogs were behind. The only thing that makes Smart happy is improvement and not resting on position groups perceived as stout entering the season.

Rematch with Alabama will be sweet

Question: Just curious to know your overall analysis of Kalen DeBoer and his first year at Alabama.

Smart’s answer: “I’m not qualified to give analysis of another head coach in our league who I have tremendous respect for … Anytime you come into a situation that he came into behind Nick in transition, it’s going to be a new deal. Think he’s a tremendous coach. Obviously, we played at his place and they did an outstanding job jumping all over us. Lot of respect for Coach DeBoer and the job he’s done.”

Translation: No bulletin board material will be had at 2025 SEC Media Days, at least not from the Georgia locker room. Alabama’s 9-4 finish last season under DeBoer fell well short of preseason playoff expectations, but one of those nine wins did come against the Bulldogs in impressive fashion. Smart mentioned Tuesday that he’s looking forward to hosting the Crimson Tide in Athens but stopped short of any guarantees or game plan details. Like he managed to do previously with a question centered around a showdown at Auburn, Smart was complimentary of his rivalry foe and did not go further.

No shortcuts when building the two-deep

Question: How do you view change within your organization, speed up developing depth with the impact of the transfer portal and NIL?

Smart’s answer: “First of all, you don’t speed up development. That’s a misnomer. If you want to speed up development, you’re probably looking for shortcuts that don’t exist. We can’t replicate reps faster. We can’t speed up a guy’s transition. The transition it takes to become a good football player is different for every kid, and I’ve been fortunate the last 19 years in college football to learn that.”

Translation: There’s no remedy or magic potion used to fill roster holes when trying to develop and build depth in the two-deep, especially from the portal. There’s a reason the Bulldogs have been transfer-selective under Smart and haven’t signed as many transfers as other elites within the top 10. Georgia hasn’t been as development-minded with recruits as, say, Dabo Swinney at Clemson, but the message is clear from Smart: portal additions have to be the perfect fit between the hedges to work.

Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image and likeness payments to players are supposed to have.

The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting deals in which players were receiving money from collectives that were created solely to pay them and don’t provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

A lead attorney for the players responded by saying those instructions went against settlement terms and asking the CSC to rescind the guidance.

“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler threatens to take the issue to a judge assigned with resolving disputes involved in the settlement.

Kessler told the AP that his firm was not commenting on the contents of the letter, and Kilaru did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment.

Yahoo quoted a CSC spokesman as saying the parties are working to resolve differences and that “the guidance issued by the College Sports Commission … is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel.”

When NIL payments became allowed in 2021, boosters formed so-called collectives that were closely tied to universities to work out contracts with the players, who still weren’t allowed to be paid directly by the schools.

Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.

The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a “valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”

Kessler’s letter notes that the “valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.

To prevent those payments “would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.

ST. CLOUD — Jackson Cooke had an opportunity to go back to the Thunder Bay Border Cats this summer.

The summer of 2024 was a memorable one for Cooke in Thunder Bay. He hit .304 with nine doubles, nine homers, 40 RBI, a .403 on-base percentage and .625 slugging percentage and played in the Northwoods League All-Star Game.

Besides that, his sister, Gabby Fahey, lived in Thunder Bay.

“It went really well and I really enjoyed it,” Cooke said. “My sister, brother-in-law (Curtis) and their two kids lived in Thunder Bay. I got to see them a lot and I didn’t get to see them much before that.”

The Border Cats wanted him back, but they had a few things working against them. Thunder Bay was 35-34 overall last summer and did not make the playoffs. His sister’s family also moved to London, Ontario, and the St. Cloud Rox made an offer to the Edina High School graduate.

“It’s an hour away from home,” Cooke said. “It’s a lot better baseball here. We weren’t very good in Thunder Bay.”

Last season,

the Rox

won the Great Plains West second half division title, finished second in the first half and reached the division championship playoff game, finishing with a 43-26 overall record under first-year manager Nick Studdard.

“He was a really, really good player and with him being from Edina, it was, ‘hey, we are from right up the road. Let’s make this situation happen,'” Studdard said. “To get a guy like Jackson was great. The tool sets and skill sets that he has … I didn’t realize what a bubbly, great, awesome human being that he is. He’s always having a positive attitude, cheering on his teammates. He’s an absolutely incredible young man.”

Andy Rennecke / St. Cloud LIVE

Cooke has a smaller role with the Rox than he had with the Border Cats and is hitting .233 with five doubles, three homers and 11 RBI with a .362 on-base percentage and .395 slugging percentage and has played in 26 of the team’s 43 games through July 9.

“I’m here to play my part,” Cooke said. “I got that experience last summer and that was fun. I’m having a good time and I definitely enjoy St. Cloud.”

Besides catching, Cooke has also seen some time at first base.

“We’re trying our best to get him as many opportunities as we can,” Studdard said. “For us, it was a match made in heaven. He wants to be a part of winning baseball. I think that’s what made it an easy sell for him. ‘Yeah, it’s just up the road and we’re going to win a ton of baseball games.'”

One of the reasons why Cooke has not played as much for the Rox is because Carter Jorissen is the starting catcher. Jorissen, who is from Cal State Bakersfield, is hitting a team-leading .367 with a .472 on-base percentage in 19 games.

“Because of who is as a person and a teammate, you want to give him as many opportunities as possible,” Studdard said of Cooke. “Carter Jorissen has been really, really good for us.

“I think (Cooke’s) done a great job of battling through adversity. Whether that’s hard hit balls that don’t fall. Hitting balls hard or soft and it doesn’t go his way. He’s battled through a lot of adversity, but he’s kept a really, really good attitude through it all. That’s why you’re starting to see him have some more success.”

Cooke has moved around a bit in his college career. In 2023 and 2024, he played for the University of Tennessee-Martin. As a sophomore, he hit .289 with one homer and six RBI in 21 games after appearing in 11 games a freshman.

“I wasn’t playing much and didn’t really like my situation there and my coaches,” Cooke said. “I had a good summer last summer and Pitt was one of my dream schools growing up.”

Contributor Alex Jurkuta / St. Cloud Rox

Cooke transferred to the University of Pittsburgh. He had a bit of an up-and-down season with the Panthers. Cooke played in 33 games, nine of which were starts. He hit .204, but he had six homers, two doubles and 17 RBI in 49 at-bats.

In a game against Kent State on March 19, he hit a grand slam and drove in five runs in a 17-13 win. On April 4-6, he played in two of three games against Miami and was 2-for-7. On April 12-13, he played in all three games against Virginia, but went 0-for-11.

“They wanted me to succeed,” Cooke said. “I just didn’t do my job. I started Friday (April 17) at Duke and then just got to pinch hit.”

Despite the ups and downs of the spring, Cooke said he is happy at Pittsburgh.

“I enjoyed it there,” he said. “The guys and the coaches are awesome. The coaches were very easy to talk to, unlike my coaches at my old school. Hopefully, I’ll be playing every day and get back in the lineup. That’s the plan.”

Interestingly, Cooke did not play hockey long when he was growing up in Edina, a city known for its hockey. And oh by the way, his dad, Matt, played wing in the NHL from 1998-2015.

Matt played for the Vancouver Canucks (1998-2008), Washington Capitals (2008), Pittsburgh Penguins (2008-13) and Minnesota Wild (2013-15).

“It was cool,” he said. “You’d get to go to games and I’d get to go into the locker room. There would be (Sidney) Crosby.

“I got to spend a lot of time in the locker room before practice, before games, after games. I was always around the guys and my dad had me around the locker room growing up.”

Andy Rennecke / St. Cloud LIVE

In 2009, Matt Cooke was a member of the Penguins’ team that won the Stanley Cup.

“We were in Detroit for that,” he said. “All the family sat together after we were on the plane. It was crazy. It was unreal. I remember so many fans outside. Trying to get on the ice after the game was a struggle. It worked out.”

He played hockey until he was “8 or 9, but one of my best friends growing up played baseball and I stuck with it.”

While he may not get a ton of playing time, Studdard said that Cooke plays a key role on the Rox.

“If you go up and down this roster, they love Cooke to death,” Studdard said. “He’s just awesome and is that great of a dude. That’s what makes it tough that he isn’t in there every day.”

St. Cloud center fielder Nolan Geislinger, an Eden Valley-Watkins graduate, said that he enjoys Cooke’s personality.

“I don’t think he’s had a bad day,” Geislinger said. “He always seems to be messing with me. He’ll randomly mess with me and I’ll say something back to him and he’ll give me a big hug. He’s definitely a good guy to have in the dugout. Sometimes, it does get annoying when he’s doing something with me.”

What kind of things does he do?

“He’s slapping me, messing with my hat, anything he can find,” Geislinger said. “He’ll throw seeds at me.

“He’s from Edina and I tell him, ‘You’re from Edina and nobody likes Edina.’ I always say something like that. It’s kind of funny.”

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NEWS RELEASE

NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

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The Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League have announced that forward Drew Dellies has committed to Anna Maria College in Paxton, Mass., where he’ll further his education as well as play NCAA Division III hockey in the fall.

Hailing from Marquette, Mich., the 20-year-old Dellies saw action in parts of the three seasons in the NOJHL with the Eagles.

He’s coming off a 2024-25 campaign where he set personal single-season bests in games played (45); goals (10); assists (13); points (23); power play markers (4) and game-winning tallies (2).

Appearing in 86 career contests in the league, he scored 17 times and helped set-up 19 others along the way.

“Drew had an unmatched work ethic and drive that made him a very hard player to compete against,” said Eagles’ general manager Bruno Braganolo.

“His offensive ability as well as his tenacity and heart made him popular with our fans, as did his volunteer work within the community,” added the Michigan Soo GM.

Discussing his NCAA commitment, Dellies offered: “My time with the Eagles allowed me to grow as a player and a person. My teammates, coaches and management staff, plus a great billet family, made it possible for me to achieve my goal of furthering my education and playing college hockey.”

Dellies becomes the sixth member of the Eagles to commit to a college program from this past season.

The Anna Maria AMCATS are members of the 10-school Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference.

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