The NCAA seems to make new changes in its rulebook every season, and this year hasn’t been an exception. As college football heads toward the 2024 season, it must remember the two-minute warning NCCA has approved. Like all newly administered changes, programs will face roadblocks.

For example, according to this clock rule, Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs will be in great soup. Kudos to the Bulldogs’ head coach’s struggling time management skills. On the Locked On Bulldogs podcast, the hosts rub salt on the coach’s weakness by decoding the troubles that Georgia will encounter. While roster management is something that Napier addresses, did it cover clock taming? 

The new clock rule of the NCAA puts Smart’s time-management skills under pressure

In April of this year, the NCAA dropped some alterations in its rules. It has approved a two-minute warning for the upcoming season. For the two-minute warning, they will mirror the NFL rule. As the Locked On Bulldogs podcast host Daniel Monroe pointed out, “They had new clock rules…running clock after even on a first down. Not stopping the clock except inside the two minutes after a first down.” Hence, a pause will be in action at each game’s second and fourth quarters. 

While this rule change brings in synchronization in all timing rules, according to the podcast host, it will only rub salt in Smart’s wounds. As the host confirmed, “Early on in Kirby’s career he had this problem it was a problem early on as a head coach time management was not his strong suit.” There was a time when Kirby had a tough time juggling between his two roles: head coaching Georgia and coaching Alabama Crimson Tide’s defense through the College Football Playoff.  

Smart’s focus on efficient roster utilization

Smart has been an invincible part of the sport at the collegiate level since the ’90s. The Bulldogs HC shed light on one of the toughest parts of roster management, “The management comes through what decisions you make. I think when you look across the country we’ve done as good a job of anybody of retaining our roster.” He even talked to other coaches who went through a similar exhaustive schedule to work on his weaknesses and learned, “Managing your time is the biggest thing.”

Even though Smart did not raise the topic of how he is thinking of acing time management skills, he ensured to point out the areas where the maximum minutes are wasted,  “But we put a lot of time and effort into our roster, and that includes our PWOs and our kids that maybe are backups, because we think their future says they’re going to be starters.” 

That being said, Smart now wholly focuses on managing rosters, making the best use of the walk-ons. While this issue remains unaddressed, CFB insider Josh Pate dreams big, power rating Georgia as the No. 1 team in the SEC race.