Last week during SEC Media Days, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart fired a dig at Oregon’s longstanding ties with Nike, and how that may affect their recruiting process in the world of NIL deals, which Oregon head coach Dan Lanning has since responded to.
During a speech at the event, Smart spoke about how envious he was of Lanning and Oregon due to the amount of NIL money that Nike is sending the program.
“I wish I could get some of that NIL money he’s giving Dan Lanning,” said Smart.
Georgia’s Kirby Smart references Nike CEO Phil Knight: “I wish I could get some of that NIL money he’s giving Dan Lanning”
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 16, 2024
Instead of pushing back against Smart’s claims, Lanning embraced the support he and his program are receiving from Oregon. But he himself is seemingly quite skeptical that Smart and Georgia aren’t getting their own significant funding from partners to give NIL money to top recruits.
“I think it’s impressive that guys like Kirby Smart have been signing the number one class in the nation without any NIL money,” jokes Lanning during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Thursday. “Obviously, Coach Smart took a little shot at us. I don’t think it’s a secret. If you want to be a top-ten team in college football, you better have great support.
“We have that, but it’s also the 300 teams we went to this spring to visit. It’s the 23 satellite camps. It’s when they come to our campus, our staff, our alignment with our entire university that makes recruiting work.”
“I think it’s impressive that guys like Kirby Smart have been signing the number one class in the nation without any NIL money 😂😂
Kirby is a great mentor and I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for him” ~ @CoachDanLanning#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/78uOI655LC
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 25, 2024
It doesn’t appear to be overly serious shots yet between the two top-tier coaches, which makes sense considering Lanning previously served as an assistant under Smart at Georgia from 2018 to 2021 before taking the Oregon coaching job in 2022.
In fact, Lanning went on to praise Smart later in his guest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, calling him a “great mentor” and admitting that he wouldn’t be where he is today without him.
“I still visit with Kirby,” added Lanning. “I consider him a great mentor. I wouldn’t be sitting here without guys like that. Kirby has changed my career. I’ve probably learned more from Coach Smart than any other coach I’ve ever worked with in my career.”
Clearly, there is a lot of mutual respect between Smart and Lanning. But in the same breath, Smart and Lanning are potentially competing for the same elite-level prospects in recruiting. So maybe there is a bit of an underlying jealousy there from Smart towards Lanning.
