What happened to Kirby Smart? “I just want to fight for my team and our program.”

ATHENS, Ga. — In the nine years Paul Finebaum had been interviewing Kirby Smart, this was as vivid as Finebaum had seen Smart. They were on set together on Georgia's campus last month, the day before the Dawgs' game against Tennessee. It was three days after the College Football Playoff committee kicked Smart's team off the scheduled field, and Smart didn't hide his disgust.

“He was great in the air. Out of the air he was out of this world. I mean, he was really angry,” Finebaum recalled last week. “I appreciated his openness. But it’s been a remarkable change, especially in the last two years.”

And Smart wasn't finished yet. An evening later, he rejoined the choice committee during his ABC postgame interview. And Smart still wasn't done: Just a few weeks later, Smart spontaneously shot — perhaps playfully, perhaps not — at SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, who was standing just a few feet away.

It was refreshing for many who want good content. To those that have watched Smart and his side activities from afar, it could appear natural. But for many who have watched Smart closely through the years, it's a stark change, and it says quite a bit about where Smart and No. 2 Georgia are as they prepare for his or her CFP quarterfinals.

Smart has typically tried to avoid headlines, a trait he picked up from Nick Saban: Do your job, worry about your team, ignore the critics and outdoors noise. The tone was set in the summertime of Smart's freshman 12 months, when then-Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh criticized Smart on Twitter for field camps. When asked, Smart replied, “What tweet?” with a wry, knowing smile. He was able to spread the story.

This season, Smart was able to light the fuse.

After Georgia's win at Texas, Smart didn't hold back his ESPN postgame interview after officials reversed a call in favor of Texas when fans threw debris onto the sector: “You know, these players get the best of me. And I'm so proud of these guys. Because nobody believed. Nobody gave us a chance. Your entire network doubted us. Nobody believed us. And then they try to rob us with calls in this place.”

The shot at “College GameDay” analysts for selecting against Georgia wasn’t recent. Smart did so after his team's second national championship victory. But “they’re trying to rob us” was out of character. Smart, a member of the NCAA Rules Committee, rarely criticized officiating and didn’t take part in Georgia fans' discussions after the 2018 national championship game. Now he jumped in though he had actually won the sport.

After his team's win over Tennessee, Smart vented his frustration to the CFP committee: again in his ESPN postgame interview: “I don’t know what they’re looking for. I really don't know what they're looking for anymore. I would welcome anyone on this committee to come into this league and play in this environment.”

And finally, within the interview after the SEC Championship Game win, Smart was asked what it meant to get a first-round bye: “It means rest for a team that Greg Sankey and his staff sent on the road… the whole thing …year…long!”

Sankey stood just a few feet away, stone-faced, but only because he couldn't hear what Smart was saying while there have been audio problems on stage, individuals who were there say. Not that Sankey and his staff were particularly captivated with it; Georgia had just tailored that schedule toward a conference championship, which is why Finebaum called Smart “out of line” on his SEC Network show. (The SEC Championship in Atlanta got here after three straight home games, leaving Georgia in its home state for nearly a month.)

“I probably reacted a little quickly to that because I didn’t realize how complicated the story (on stage) was,” Finebaum said. “But it was still a pretty dramatic moment for him.”

Smart was asked after the Tennessee game last month why he had been more open this 12 months. He shrugged and said it just had more to do with there being more things to discuss openly.

“I mean, there wasn’t much going on in the two years before,” he said. “The year we were 14-1 and 15-0, there weren’t a lot of complaints. There's not much to fight for. They handle local business and take care of your business. You don't have to say much.

“This was a pretty unique situation as it relates to Texas. I don't know that I've ever been a part of anything like that, and I'm not… I wasn't mad at her. I just didn’t understand it, I’ve never experienced it before, but I would have said that every year.”

But next, Smart said he got to the center of the matter: “I just want to fight for my team and for our program because I think we have a deserving group of young men that work really hard, and that's me “Certainly every coach would fight for his boys.”

However, this got here amid two years of bad publicity for his program. Ten Georgia players and one staff member have been arrested on driving offenses since a automotive accident in January 2023 that killed a player and a staff member. There were arrests for unfitness to drive. Given all of this, one would almost expect Smart to take the alternative approach and play Mr. Nice Guy because the face of this system.

However, Finebaum identified that Smart selected his words far more fastidiously when it got here to off-field issues.

“The only thing I want to give him credit for is that despite all the bad news, I think he handled himself very well in the offseason,” Finebaum said. “And it didn’t seem to become an ongoing issue like it has in other schools.”

Finebaum has one other theory for Smart's newfound openness: The pressure is off. There is not any urge to get a three-peat, or a repeat before that, or a primary national championship before that.

“Everything felt more tense (before). You could feel the gravity of the moment,” Finebaum said. “That was all gone in Athens a few weeks ago. It was a battle between me and the world, and he seemed to really enjoy it.”

Smart has used this “Georgia against the world” narrative before, particularly on the road to a second championship. It became such a punchline that Smart backed off a bit. It was harder to play the disrespect card when Georgia was the consensus No. 1 team, even after failing to attain three goals last 12 months.

Then got here a series of on-field adversities this season. Smart called his team “Never Say Die, Dawgs.” They made things difficult for themselves and downplayed their competition, but they still won the SEC championship trophy.

Now it's on to the playoffs, where Georgia could also be in the proper position, no less than to Smart's liking: It's not the favourite, especially since it's reliant on its backup quarterback, so there are many picks for the Bulldogs, um to be one. and-done within the tournament.

Somehow you could possibly argue that Georgia is twiddling with house money.

“Ultimately, the way the season ends will help shape the narrative,” Finebaum said. “If Georgia in some way wins the title, despite all the pieces they've overcome, with the schedule, with Carson Beck's injury, I believe that can elevate Georgia to an excellent higher status. And right away I believe they're at the highest of faculty football. … But I believe if (Georgia) can do this, it won't make up for the shortage of a three-peat, but it is going to take Georgia into a very different stratosphere.”