Georgia football's Kirby Smart responds to UK coach saying UGA 'bought pretty good players'

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart and Kentucky coach Mark Stoops threw compliments each other’s way before their matchup of unbeaten ranked teams last Saturday.
It was like a mutual admiration society.
Then Stoops let down his guard Monday night on his weekly call-in show when he said that Georgia “bought some pretty good players,” with NIL money and encouraged Kentucky fans to step up their donations to keep pace.
It came two days after Georgia’s 51-13 thumping of the Wildcats, Stoops 11th loss in 11 games against Georgia.
Smart responded to those comments for the first time after practice Tuesday evening.
“No reaction," Smart said. "It’s much to do about nothing, really. Mark is trying to garner interest in money from his fan base for his collective. We're all trying to do the same in terms of trying get money for our collective. Mark and I talked about NIL pregame and we talked about it in our meetings. I’m not biting on that.”
Georgia defensive lineman Zion Logue said he read about Stoops' comments in class on Tuesday and laughed.
“It’s the day and age of NIL," he said. "Everybody’s sort of buying players or buying recruits. They’re doing it. Other schools are doing it. It’s about whoever can execute on Saturdays, it’s not about money, it’s about execution at the end of the day. You can buy whatever you want, but if they can’t execute what are you buying for?"
There’s long been a talent gap between the two SEC East programs long before NIL took effect for NCAA schools on July 1, 2021.
Georgia is No. 2 in 247Sports College Football Team Talent Composite. Kentucky is No. 31.
Georgia has 13 five-star prospects on its team. Kentucky has one with 29 four-star prospects. Georgia has a combined 65 four- and five-star prospects.
Stoops appealed to Wildcats fan Monday.
“I just encourage them to donate more because that’s what those teams are doing,” Stoops said. “I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days. We could use some help. That’s what they look like, you know what I mean, when you have 85 of them. I encourage anybody that’s disgruntled to pony up some more.”
Georgia football players had a total of 776 NIL deals from July 2021 to Jan. 26, 2023, according to information obtained in open records by the Athens Banner-Herald. Twenty-two UGA athletes had NIL deals worth at least $50,000. The publication sued the Athletic Association to gain access to the records and reached a settlement.
Another SEC East coach, South Carolina’s Shane Beamer, was asked about Stoops’ comments Tuesday.
"If you want to win at the highest level and you want to win championships like we do here at Carolina, we're going to have to be very active from an NIL standpoint, collective standpoint,” he said. “Absolutely I hear coach Stoops what he's saying, and I'm grateful for our fans and every amount of money that they give to this university and this football program."
Smart last year expressed reluctance for recruits to get big NIL deals before playing on the college level.
“If he goes out there and plays, I'm all for taking care of guys that have been part of the program and start and play,” Smart told Texas high school coaches in the summer of 2022, according to ESPN.com. “It's a reverse system right now, where the bottom coming in is getting rewarded more than the top going out. And that's tough."
Stoops last year said of NIL: “I think everybody is concerned as a head coach in the SEC with pay-for-play, so to speak, collectives, paying players out of high school. I think we're all a little bit concerned about the sustainability of that, the future of that.”
Stoops earlier Monday heaped praise on Georgia.
“You have to credit them,” he said. “They were well-prepared in all areas, and they played at an elite level. I think we can put them in a place by themselves right now. There’s not a lot of teams playing like them over the past two and a half years.”