No head coach is ever going to have all the answers. But it seems now that Nick Saban is out of coaching that many in the national media look to Georgia head coach Kirby Smart for direction with the greatest issues facing the sport today.
On Wednesday, following the news that UNLV's quarterback Matthew Sluka would be choosing to redshirt the rest of the season due to the program refusing to honor his alleged NIL agreement (among other costs incurred in his moving across the country).
The facts are still emerging as of this writing as UNLV claims that there "were no formal NIL offers made during Mr. Sluka's recruitment process. They also claim that Sluka's representation "made financial demands" in order to continue playing. Sluka and his representation are upset because the $100,000 verbal offer they claim was extended to them via an assistant coach was not honored.
Of course, many in the media immediately turned to Kirby Smart for guidance. His initial response clarified what many already know, but it's important to remember.
"[The players] can't test the waters mid-season. There is no portal opening. They can't go talk and see people. Now, it doesn't prevent guys from saying they want to stop playing--which I know is what you're, I guess referencing. I certainly don't have an answer. I don't think anybody does."
Initial claims emerged suggesting that another school had swooped in with a big offer to Matthew Sluka to come play for them. But obviously given the current transfer rules Sluka would have to wait until December to even announce his official intentions to transfer to another specific school. And frankly, despite UNLV being 4-0, Sluka was barely completing 40% of his passes and hadn't been the real reason for the Rebels' success. It's doubtful that happened.
Kirby continued on, sharing that in today's game communication and relationships are everything in this sport:
"I think it's more about the relationships, and the connection, and knowing the players you sign. The better you know them, and the better they know you, then you have good communication. The expectations of what it's going to be like when you join our team, and how we practice, and what we do is really important to convey to kids nowadays so they know what they're getting themselves into."
If the coaching staff lied to Matthew Sluka about his NIL compensation then they are clearly in the wrong and should most likely face extreme consequences. However, if both sides had simply been on the same page like Smart said, with clear communication and expectations for Sluka, making more formal agreements up front, then this wouldn't have been an issue at all.
Kirby landed the plane making one thing quite clear. He's not interested in signing players who are looking to quit on their team. He wants a different kind of player that seeks "hard":
"The only time you end up a lot of times in those situations, is when communication breaks down, and you know, someone maybe has a different expectation than you do, and they're shocked by what they go through in terms of what the program consists of and what the demands are. So we try to find people that seek "hard" and enjoy being in a tough program. Because we feel like football is a tough sport to play, and if you're going to run from that or look elsewhere, then we would prefer not sign them."
Kirby played things right with his quotes on the matter at hand. Smart and his fellow football coaches are clearly completely done with players who quit on their teams for selfish reasons ( like Bear Alexander did in an even worse way just this week at USC ). But they're also done with this completely flawed system that even opens players and teams up to this mess at all in the first place.
Per Pete Thamel of ESPN, another college head coach had this to say on the matter:
"This is Jaden Rashada 2.0. Everyone is trying to find out who is at fault, and it's the NCAA's fault. There's no rules. There's no guardrails."
That's the real issue at hand here. It might be true that UNLV may have lied to Matthew Sluka about NIL compensation in his recruitment. And it's likely also true that Sluka might be better off not quitting on his entire team when they're in position to push towards the College Football Playoff. The issue is that the NCAA is the one to blame. Until something changes, even the best head coaches in the sport like Kirby Smart are going to continue being forced to fight through this frustrating state of college football relations that doesn't seem to be good for anyone.
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