For a few years now, there have a lot of posters on here who have bemoaned Kirby’s approach to NIL and claimed we would get left behind if he didn’t change his philosophy. Well, the situation with Nico is exactly why Kirby has had the approach he does.
We have one of the top 3-5 overall NIL payrolls in all of CFB (trust me, this 2025 class we just signed was not cheap) so Kirby isn’t afraid to pay guys but as repeatedly been said, if money is your #1 priority then Athens isn’t for you. Now that might mean we miss on a few guys every year (e.g. Raiola, David Sanders, Justus Terry) but Kirby isn’t willing to risk the integrity of his program/locker room just for an unproven HS player. What he does do consistently though is reward top performers who stay (Beck, Starks, Mykel, etc.) and we pay a ton in roster retention every year.
TLDR; Kirby’s approach to NIL has always been the correct one and the Nico situation is just more proof of that. Be thankful he is our HC.
We have one of the top 3-5 overall NIL payrolls in all of CFB (trust me, this 2025 class we just signed was not cheap) so Kirby isn’t afraid to pay guys but as repeatedly been said, if money is your #1 priority then Athens isn’t for you. Now that might mean we miss on a few guys every year (e.g. Raiola, David Sanders, Justus Terry) but Kirby isn’t willing to risk the integrity of his program/locker room just for an unproven HS player. What he does do consistently though is reward top performers who stay (Beck, Starks, Mykel, etc.) and we pay a ton in roster retention every year.
TLDR; Kirby’s approach to NIL has always been the correct one and the Nico situation is just more proof of that. Be thankful he is our HC.
