Kirby Smart touched on a couple of subjects during a radio interview Wednesday morning with Cole Cubelic and Greg McElroy at the Regions Tradition golf tournament in Hoover, Alabama.
Among the topics: the ongoing quarterback competition and whether or not Smart feared some attrition could ultimately be coming Georgia’s way.
“It was no different five or six years ago. You could leave then. You could say there’s a hardship, say there’s an issue, I’m gone, and I’m going to go play. I don’t know if that’s changed. That was always the fear,” Smart said. “It’s much more talked about, it’s much more prominent. The word ‘portal’ has become everybody’s favorite word, so kids want to go shop and go find the best place. It happens more, but it’s happened before, especially at quarterback.’
At least for now, losing a quarterback does not appear to be Smart’s concern.
The deadline for entering the portal and being able to play in 2023 has passed, meaning Carson Beck, Brock Vandagriff, and Gunner Stockton will all be part of the Bulldogs next fall.
Georgia does have a commitment from Ryan Puglisi for 2024, and the Bulldogs are a finalist for five-star Dylan Raiola, which could lead to a very crowded quarterback room next spring and more speculation about a player or perhaps two leaving for a better opportunity.
“But for us, it’s about getting the best guy,” Smart said. “I think kids have bought into the development factor of the backups. They may not be the starter, but yeah, Stetson (Bennett) wasn’t, either, and look what happened with him. He waited his turn as a 3 and wound up making it.”
Smart made his comments during a break during the Pro-Am at the Regions Tradition golf tournament in Hoover where he was paired with Jim Furyk.
Other topics included the current recruiting landscape, which with the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness, has changed for everyone involved.
“It’s competitive. It’s not ‘I’m just going to go to the school that wins the most.' It’s I want to go where I can be taken care of with NIL,” Smart said. “You’ve got to search the country for the best players.”
Fortunately for Smart, the state of Georgia provides his Bulldogs with a pretty good head start.
“I’ll put them up against a lot of them, but it’s year to year. I think the development is good in Georgia because they’ve got really good high school coaches, coaches get paid better in the state of Georgia, so you get better coaches,” he said. “It’s not just better players, but it’s a commitment in the community, really the same way there is across the SEC. Louisiana, if you think about it, Alabama, Mississippi also has some really good football.”
Smart also explained his philosophy regarding the transfer portal.
One year after not taking a single transfer, the Bulldogs added Dominic Lovett, RaRa Thomas, and Smoke Bouie to the team this year.
“It’s based on need, it’s based on fit, and who we knew coming out. It’s not just doing a shotgun approach where we just spray it out there,” Smart said. “No. 1, we think the players we get out of high school are the higher quality. Then we say, OK, how can we develop them and keep them in our program. Ultimately if we have a spot available, we’ll look to take someone we knew something about beforehand. Either we had them on official visits, we had them at camp, or there was a common bond we knew. They understand what they're getting into, because it’s a little different at our place and we try to sell it that way. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Smart was also asked about tight end Brock Bowers and how many times he needed to get the football.
“As many times as he can touch it,” said Smart, who revealed that Bowers could play other positions if need be--including defense.
“He can play it, man,” Smart said. “We worked him at tailback for a week in camp in case we needed him. He’s a player, man.”
