During SEC Media Days, head coach Kirby Smart mentioned that the Covid-19 vaccination rate for his Bulldog football team was up to 85 percent.

Friday, he revealed the number has grown.

“We’re above 90 percent. Ron (Courson) and his staff have done a tremendous job of making sure our guys feel comfortable getting the vaccination,” Smart said. “We feel really comfortable where we are. My goal always is to be 100 percent, I think it’s the safest thing for our players.”

However, life is not quite back to normal as before.

Although the SEC has eased its protocols and no longer requires fully vaccinated individuals who are asymptomatic to take part in the league’s surveillance program, Smart and the Bulldogs are remaining cautious.

“I would not say it’s back to normal. There are spikes going on across the country in our state and hospital systems across the SEC. It's scary,” Smart said. “So, we’re being extremely smart, making good decisions with our players. Where we can adopt things to carry over from last year, we do that. With the vaccination rates we have, we feel we’re able to get closer sometime in some meeting rooms. But we’re trying to be smart about that.

“I think Ron and the updates he gives us daily in staff meetings has helped us navigate that, but you’re only as good as your last Covid test. For us, we’re trying to maintain a healthy status.”

Two of Georgia’s receivers continue to mend and will be limited when the Bulldogs hit the field for practice today.

Fortunately, one is closer to returning than the other.

Per Smart, Dominick Blaylock (ACL) is still not cleared for contact, while Kearis Jackson (knee) continues to improve.

“Dom is still not cleared 100 percent. He’s walking through, he’s jogging through, but he’s not out there in competitive environments,” Smart said. “Kearis is still the same. He’s recovering. He’s doing a good job of pushing himself back. Certainly, he has a very good understanding of our offense and knows what we want. He’s very involved in walk-throughs and practice. He’s just not able to go full speed.”

Fellow wideout George Pickens continues to be the only other Bulldog still sidelined. There is no timetable for his return.

Wide receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint (ankle), linebacker Nakobe Dean (shoulder), and linebacker MJ Sherman (shoulder) are all back.

• Smart did not have a lot to say when asked about Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC.

Not that he’s against it; there are just other things to worry about right now.

“I’m so focused on this year that I promise you, I haven’t wasted one second of thought on that. You know what I mean?” Smart said. “I know that they’re coming. I’m happy that they’re coming. I think it’s going to make our conference much stronger. They’re two of the top 10 winningest programs in all of college football. You add to what’s already a pretty stout conference, and I think it makes for a special, unique group, and it makes the SEC even that much more powerful. But I can assure you every minute of my day is spend on this team right now. I’m not really even thinking about it.”

• Smart acknowledged he’s been getting his share of questions from recruits about the implementation of current NIL laws.

"We’re not allowed to set up NIL deals per the laws that we’re governed by; no schools in the SEC are. So, we don’t get involved in it. We ask our players to disclose what deals they have and what they're doing,” Smart said. “We've educated them about how to go about good deals and how to avoid bad deals, and have spent a lot of time talking about focusing on what you can control. How you play dictates a lot of your NIL deals. But as far as us navigating it in recruiting—it comes up, people ask, but there’s not a whole lot we can control in that, so I don’t get into it much."

• There was no shortage of wide receiver questions.

Included, was one whether or not Smart thought his current group of playmakers stacked up to what Alabama and LSU were able to put on the field the past two years.

"Well, I don’t know if I’m saying this right, but I think Alabama had four first-round receivers. I know they had them in separate years, but I don’t know that we have four first-rounders at wideout, if that’s what you’re asking,” Smart said. “I know LSU had two first-round receivers on the team we played, and I do know they had a first-round back and first overall quarterback. So, I don’t know how ours compare to that, because you can only know that after the fact, you can’t compare it to it before the fact. But I do know that having skill players that can light up the scoreboard and score points is certainly critical.”

However, he does believe Georgia’s skilled players stack up better than perhaps they once did.

“I think we’ve been able to close the gap in terms of if the standard was Alabama or LSU and their offenses, we’ve probably closed that gap,” Smart said. “But I don’t know that we have four first-rounders. I don’t know if we have that."

• Although there’s no questioning the physical tools possessed by LSU transfer Arik Gilbert, getting the Marietta native up to speed on the verbiage is currently his biggest challenge.

"I think learning is the key. He's got to learn the system—words, really. We don't have a lot of different plays than the other places he's learned from; but we call it different,” Smart said. “I would almost say vocabulary, learning how we practice, how to learn our stuff at a fast rate. That's the key for him."