INDIANAPOLIS, Ind - All the talking is now complete.

The media schedule leading up to Monday's National Championship Game concluded Sunday morning. Kirby Smart and Nick Saban held a joint press conference where they took questions for roughly 30 minutes.

Smart fielded a couple big picture questions about his program. Both coaches also addressed NIL and the transfer portal.

Here's what Smart and Saban had to say on the eve of the title clash.

Every year, there has seemed to be one game where Georgia lays an egg. The Bulldogs come out flat and struggle, leading to a tight win or an upset loss.

Yet the Dawgs went undefeated in the regular season. Despite his worries about consistency, Smart has been very happy with the way his team has handled its success in 2021.

"As a coach, you're always worried about that," Smart said. "I was really worried about the consistency in performance because that's usually what gets us. At least in the past, we've had a game that we didn't play really well. We played really well throughout the year, played consistent. We didn't have a lot of let-downs."

Smart also credited health for some of his team's improvements. He feels the offense has improved as the season has gone on, in part due to getting more and more players healthy later in the season.

In the SEC Championship Game loss to Alabama, Smart said the Crimson Tide just won most of the matchups within the game. The Bulldogs have been working on getting better in all the areas they struggled in since that loss over a month ago.

When he took over the Georgia job in 2016, Smart felt the need to "micromanage" and "be over the top of everything." Early on, including during the 2017 run to the national title game. Smart wanted to make sure his fingerprints were on every bit of his program.

That's not the case as much anymore. Smart noted that's one area he's grown as a coach and leader in the past few years.

"I think I've got a staff of great coaches and I've got an organization that's full of good leaders," Smart said. "Probably now a little more comfortable delegating things out and trusting people to do their jobs and maybe imparting a little bit of their personality into their parts of the organization."

Smart added he's also now more comfortable letting people grow within the organization. He knows people within the program aspire to bigger and better things, and he wants them to be successful after they leave Athens.

"That's probably the biggest difference," Smart said. "But the core beliefs and the way we do things, they haven't changed much."

With two of the game's top coaches sharing the stage, it seemed inevitable that the transfer portal and NIL would eventually come up.

The coaches addressed the transfer portal first. Saban said he feels that there are benefits for players that show resiliency and stick around their program even when things don't go their way.

"I think now we have sort of – I don't know if you want to call it a fad or whatever – but anybody that's a little discontented with the program that they're in, just get in the transfer portal and see what my opportunities would be someplace else," Saban said. "I don't know that that was the intention originally. I hope it doesn't continue to be that way."

Smart echoed those sentiments. He added that now in recruiting, the staff must take into account how they believe a prospect will respond to adversity later in his college career.

Both coaches expressed support for NIL and the financial opportunities it provides for players. But it doesn't come without its own problems.

"I think what is a little concerning is how is that used to get players to decide where they go to school, because I don't think that was the intention. I don't think that would be the NCAA's intention," Saban said. "I think we probably need some kind of national legislation to sort of control that to some degree, because I think there will be an imbalance relative to who can dominate college football if that's not regulated in some form or fashion."

Smart said the gap between the haves and have-nots in college football has the potential to grow much wider with NIL. There will be schools that push to the forefront, and those that don't have the capability to do so.

"So I don't want decisions to be based on that, but ultimately a lot of young men want to make their decision based on that," Smart said.