Kirby Smart declining White House visit predictable and practical but not political

ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart is about as predictable as they come when it comes to anticipating his stance on football issues.

Or visiting the White House, for that matter.

To predict Smart’s answer to a question, run it through this filter: Does it help his Bulldogs win a championship?

If the answer is “yes,” that is the direction Georgia’s eighth-year head coach will go.

If the answer is “no,” then Smart is very unlikely to put time or effort into it.

So when the “breaking news” came down the pipe earlier this week that Georgia was declining to visit Washington D.C. on June 12, it didn’t surprise those with a good feel for the program.

Political enthusiasts might have been blinded enough by their passions to issue knee-jerk reactions, but Smart is the king of practicality.

More importantly, Smart has become the most elite recruiter and talented developer in college football at this time.

It’s not even debatable: Not only has Georgia become the only program in history to win back-to-back CFP Championships in the four-team playoff era, but it is also producing more NFL players than any program.

Georgia has set an NFL record with 25 draft picks in a two-year span, and the Bulldogs are favored to win another national title and primed to have another double-digit draft in 2024

That invitation to the White House, June 12?

The 35 players drafted the past two years that made those Georgia national titles happen wouldn’t be there, anyway, so how practical is that?

More importantly, the proposed date is right in the heart of recruiting season and offseason workouts.

“Number one time for recruiting for football coaches,” Smart said at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am, per TMZ. “When you’ve got 600, 700 kids coming to your campus, you can’t take 200 people to the White House and have no one on campus.”

Smart might end up fighting a losing battle to get on a level playing field with the rest of the league on home recruiting SEC game weekends -- it appears the Florida rivalry game will be extended in Jacksonville for 2024-2025.

But the Georgia head coach will not disrupt the momentum that it took the Bulldogs’ program 41 years to regain between national championships.

“The time just didn’t work out,” Smart said of the White House invitation. “Nothing political about it, but I’ve been before. It’s very educational. It’s a great experience.”