The last month has seen plenty of crossover between the worlds of football and pop music. But when it comes to his own musical preferences, Kirby Smart is sticking to country.
Speaking to reporters following Georgia’s 51-13 victory over Kentucky on Saturday, the Bulldogs head coach praised his players for their physicality against the Wildcats.
“We used the wrecking ball analogy, and we showed wrecking balls all week and just said, ‘It’s going to get more and bigger and bigger and bigger, and the bigger the wrecking ball is, you know, force = mass x acceleration,” Smart said according to a transcript of the press conference. “We talked all week about a lot of mass and a lot of acceleration, and I thought that our offensive line, when you say what was I proud of, their ability to run the ball against Kentucky was the difference in the game.”
In addition to Georgia’s offensive line, the analogy struck a chord with one of the reporters in the room, who told the two-time national champion head coach that it made him think about Miley Cyrus.
Smart, however, wasn’t quite on the same wavelength.
“I don’t know who Miley Cyrus is,” he replied. “What does she have to do with a wrecking ball?”
After the reporter explained that Wrecking Ball is the title of Cyrus’ 2013 hit song, the 47-year-old coach replied that he’s more familiar with Eric Church’s 2014 song Like a Wrecking Ball before proceeding to further explain his analogy.
Peak football coach here.
REPORTER: "Going back to your wrecking ball analogy, in my head i'm envisioning Miley Cyrus…"
KIRBY SMART: "I don't know who Miley Cyrus is? What does she have to do with a wrecking ball?…Huh?…I know Eric Church 'Wrecking Ball.'" pic.twitter.com/xLqHjCJIVy
— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) October 8, 2023
“Force equals mass times acceleration,” he said. “We have a lot of mass. What’s mass? More hats. What’s acceleration? Our speed. We want that going into them, and we want them to do it connected. You want them to be connected with our physicality, and we showed them videos of wrecking balls, just a big ball hitting a wall and knocking it down. Each week, each day in the meeting, it got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and we wanted to be the wrecking ball.”
Perhaps it would’ve been helpful to explain that Miley is Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter.