00:00of us wearing a beer see mark rick used to talk about getting lobbied all the time for the black
00:04kirby getting lobbied all the time so somebody uh acquiesced here tell us what the uniform is
00:11going to look like on saturday and why that's different absolutely yeah so i mean this week
00:16they're going to wear the all whites um you know back in 2021 we had a a pretty you know
00:21highly
00:22ranked recruit that i inquired about wearing all red uniforms and the coach that was recruiting
00:27him came to me said hey can we make this happen and i talked internally with our staff and said
00:34you
00:34know hey we need to make this happen and next thing you know he wears all red and then you
00:39know we the
00:40idea was that if we're doing all red we might as well do all white all black you know any
00:46of these
00:46combinations and you know the kids really responded to it and i think ultimately you know from recruiting
00:54and how much you know these players liked it i think that's that's what created what we have
00:59on saturday so it's pretty exciting let me ask you this matt though when you talk about white on white
01:03you had to basically piece together because you didn't have white you had a white jersey but you
01:09had like some plain white pants and y'all had to literally make a helmet correct you had to put
01:13the
01:13stickers on it you had to put the tape on it had to look at it you had to literally
01:16make a couple of
01:18props for for photo shoots right absolutely yeah i mean they had the equipment guys of georgia they
01:24do a great job they literally had to make this from scratch i mean i'm talking about these guys went
01:29to
01:29dick sporting goods bought white pants you know they got white helmets from like you know the wholesale
01:35and they literally just created it on a whim and you know it ended up being a great product did
01:41you
01:41think in your wildest dreams you would ever see georgia two-part in a white uniform number two in
01:47sanford stadium absolutely not i mean i you know sitting there in that office throwing out that
01:54idea i'd never imagine five years later that you know not only would these things be worn but they
01:59would actually be worn at a home game no less you know kidding man how does kirby decide to sign
02:04off
02:04on that you know that's one of those things that happen below kirby you know i think when you're
02:10one of kirby's senior lieutenants you kind of learn things that you know you need to run by him and
02:16then you you learn things that you don't need to run by him so five years ago this was just
02:20something that we did and then obviously over time it percolated and then ultimately he made the
02:26decision you know to wear it in the game so yeah i mean you know folks that maybe are new
02:32to the south
02:33or i mean it's like why are you guys having a segment on a uniform but it is a huge
02:37deal first
02:38time in the history of georgia football right first time ever over a hundred years they've never
02:43worn white on white i don't think so no not in a white helmets no i don't think so right
02:47no how
02:48how uh how cool is that thing gonna look you think coming out i mean i think it's gonna be
02:54it's gonna
02:54look great the guys are gonna be excited i think western kentucky as far as you know opponents at
03:02the group of five level go you know i think they're a pretty good team and you know i think
03:07the team
03:07needs some juice and i think it's gonna be really cool for the fans and players all right we're talking
03:12to matt godwin he was the uh player personnel director for almost seven years under kirby i
03:17think what folks would find interesting and you've been in here before is first of all how many
03:23different things went into your job working alongside kirby and i always say listen you're running a
03:29i don't know half a billion dollar operation whatever you want to call georgia football between
03:33the people you employ the revenue that it garners the people that have paying attention to it so how many
03:40details are you around and how buttoned up is this whole process when you're front and center
03:46absolutely i mean i think you know with kirby and with georgia attention to detail is really one of
03:53the biggest themes in that building uh but you know in the role i was in and you know with
03:58the team we had
03:59you know on our staff you know obviously there was a big focus on scouting and evaluation
04:04there was a big focus on like operations there was also a focus on creativity right things about
04:11the white uniforms and you know how can we market and when you think about recruiting right it's just
04:17sales so how can we sell to players and then beyond that you know there's a lot of logistical things
04:24that you know you have to focus on so you know there's so many different facets uh that you know
04:31really you got to be on top of it and you know we had a great group at georgia and
04:34they still have a
04:35great staff there so matt you recruited you helped recruited him you helped scout him you know him
04:42make me feel better about the falcons facing darnell washington and why he was such a problem
04:49uh for other teams to go against yeah i mean you know darnell i think is truly one of the
04:56more
04:56unique players i think i've ever seen um as far as a blocking tight end goes i don't know that
05:03i've
05:04ever seen a better blocker he's basically a tackle right he's basically a tackle yeah i mean he's
05:08basically a tackle and when you look at those 2021 and 2022 teams you know a lot of the best
05:16stuff we
05:16did offensively was in 12 personnel where you have two tight end sets and the partnership of him and
05:22brock bowers was incredible and obviously you know people know brock bowers you know he's on
05:29everybody's fancy football team all that but darnell was just as valuable for what he was doing from a
05:35blocking standpoint matt godwin helped uh have a huge role at georgia for almost seven years with
05:41kirby what's the part behind the scenes with kirby that folks would be fascinated to know how much you
05:50can say about how he runs that building and how he runs that program and truly not worried about what
05:56else is happening around him in the sec yeah i mean you know kirby you know obviously he's a coach
06:03and
06:03you know i think he's he's a true coach right he develops players and he also develops staff i mean
06:09i think about myself and what he did for me but you know kirby is so detailed he's relentless he
06:17anticipates he's a great communicator um you know he's just he he's got such great bandwidth
06:26and he does so many things on a daily basis that i don't think the average person you know they
06:33don't
06:33realize what this guy's got going on uh you know i always thought he'd be a great politician but
06:39you know the way he operates really he could succeed you know any industry anywhere in life
06:47you scouted hundreds of players biggest freak and you can't say brock biver take that out who was
06:52the biggest freak who was the absolute no-brainer watch the film at georgia you're like we've got
06:58to have this guy and he wind up being that guy who would that be for you you know is
07:03it players that
07:04we signed at georgia yes well give me one of each one you missed one you one you didn't get
07:09and one
07:09at georgia that worked out you know i think you know one that we did not get that you know
07:15i
07:15immediately think of and this is a guy that you know i evaluated when we first started and it was
07:21micah parsons who ended up going to penn state and you know ultimately i think we we kind of finished
07:28second or third in that one but micah parsons played running back you know he played defense
07:34and you could just tell he was a violent explosive athlete and you know seeing what he did at penn
07:40state was no surprise and then obviously in the nfl he's been a dynamic player um you know and at
07:47georgia i mean you know i would have to go with jaylen carter um and i'll give credit to coach
07:54smart i
07:54think that everybody in our building really liked jaylen carter and i think kirby you would you know
08:01loved jaylen carter kirby kind of saw it before the rest of us and you know he told us hey
08:06guys
08:06this one's gonna be world war three we got to hold on to this guy with everything we can and
08:12then i
08:12think eventually over time i think we finally saw what he saw and you know sure enough he was a
08:17great
08:17player for us and a great player in the league wasn't he a converted tight end to d-line yeah
08:22he's a
08:23fullback actually so uh he went to a popka high school yes you know in the orlando area they you
08:29know
08:30they did a little bit of wing you know they did some triple oh they you know they had a
08:34funky
08:35little offense with severe and all that and he you know he's playing fullback tight end they played
08:40him on defense a little bit and then as he progressed his career he played on defense more and
08:45you know obviously ended up being a great player going to be a day on saturday and i agree with
08:51you
08:51need a little juice especially the early softer schedule how do you get the fans pumped maybe not
08:57quite as hot we'll see what the weather is white on white but matt always great to talk to you
09:01and
09:01hear stories about kirby and your seven years over there absolutely thanks guys
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