His team’s first scrimmage complete, head coach Kirby Smart was asked about the most prominent concerns he has regarding his Georgia football team.

Not surprisingly, two of the biggest are on the defensive side.

“The biggest concern is the defensive front and the secondary. I continue to say that. It’s mainly because we don’t have the depth that we need. We have some good frontline players. We don’t have the guys that when a guy goes down for a game, what are you going to do? What’s your answer? That’s what’s coaching for,” Smart said Saturday. “That’s why we’re trying to find what’s our best personnel. We had some similar issues last year with Malkom’s (Parrish) foot, some injuries and we had to play Lorenzo (Carter) more. We’re looking at different packages and the best way to use our personnel.”

The problem is, the options he has – particularly in the secondary – aren’t knocking Smart’s socks off.

"We're a long way away in the secondary, as you know there was kind of a unique unit of DBs that played around here for a long time. They'd taken a lot of experience, and with them gone, we had been anticipating this void for two years now and we've tried to get some guys in here who can fill that void,” Smart said. “We're not where we need to be, we don't have the depth we need and we're not playing at the level we need to play. Now, I think they're going against two pretty good quarterbacks and a good wide receiver group, but we have to play at a higher level in our conference, because it is full of experienced quarterbacks.”

Smart did concede sophomore Mark Webb continues to open some eyes, although’s Saturday’s scrimmage wasn’t his best.

“(Today) was not one of his best days. He got to perform with the ones a lot. He’s had a little bit of a hamstring soreness, but in defense of Mark he’s probably one of the toughest kids I’ve had since being here as far as not taking himself out of practice, even though he’s got a wheel that’s a little bit slow.

It’s part of the growing process,” Smart said. “He’s in a stiff competition with Tyrique McGee, Eric Stokes, Ameer Speed … he’s still got to grow and develop, but he’s physical and he’s tough and I like those.”

Injuries aren’t helping the Bulldogs’ cause on the defensive line.

Georgia is down to eight healthy scholarship players on the defensive line after injuries to both Michael Barnett and Justin Young, who has missed the last two practices.

“He (Young) had a mild knee sprain and we think we’ll get him back before spring is over,” Smart said. “It seems like they are all in the same area right now with he and (Michael) Barnett, but he should be fine.”

Smart said senior DaQuan Hawkins-Muckle has been one of those taking advantage of the extra reps.

“He’s getting a lot of reps. He’s one of the healthy guys. He’s competing. He’s down to 305, which I told him he could not play if he was above 310. He’s not an effective football player. He’s taking that personal and he’s achieved. He’s around 305. If I can get him down to 295, I really think we’ll have a good football player. But he’s working hard,” Smart said of Hawkins-Muckle. “He’s a good leader. He goes out each day and tries to help affect the other players on the defensive line. Just got to him to sustain longer. He and Devante Wyatt have to do a little extra conditioning to keep that weight down.”

Smart had mixed reviews regarding Saturday’s scrimmage inside the team’s indoor athletic facility.

“We were forced to go inside for the scrimmage. We actually thought it was going to rain more than it actually did, but the fields ended up being real slick so we went inside,” Smart said. “Thank goodness we were able to have a really good, upbeat scrimmage. I regret not getting the elements from the scrimmage, the hot, the cold. It’s tough sometimes because guys play more snaps in a scrimmage than they do in a game. Especially when you do special teams. That part, not having heat or not having humidity, it made it a little bit easier to be honest with you."

But it was upbeat, good popping, good hitting, good competition, especially on special teams and on offense and defense. I thought it was really competitive. We’ve got a long way to go to be the football team that we need to be. The kids are buying in and competing. I thought both offensive units moved the ball well. Defensively we played hard. We’ve just got a lot of young guys and some guys banged up on the defensive line and it makes it tough. But I do think the guys are buying in and playing hard.”

“I’m going to have to watch the tape to know exactly on the quarterbacks. I thought both guys did a really good job, managing the huddle, no delay of games, communication, that part was good. As far as running backs, yeah all of those guys were available for the scrimmage and were able to participate,” Smart said. “D’Andre (Swift) was a little more limited than the other guys. He’s had some groin soreness but he still scrimmaged and was available. (Elijah) Holyfield, (Brian) Herrien, Prather (Hudson) did a good job. Ian Donald did a good job so all of those guys have done it by committee.”

Ditto for quarterbacks Jake Fromm and Justin Fields.

“I thought they managed the situations well. Probably we were not as effective in third-down period, when we went third on third, it’s an obvious passing situation, that seems to be where we’re doing some good things defensively,” Smart said. “Where we’re struggling defensively is being physical and stout enough. I thought both quarterbacks competed hard and did some good things.”

Smart did attempt to clear up what he deemed misinformation about Fields when it was reported the former five-star had hit some kind of wall.

“Yeah, y'all really took that and ran with that. I referenced the freshmen and y'all threw it in there like it was just him. That kid is really not like that. He's very intuitive, he's smart, he picks up things well. So, like, that was way out of the water,” Smart said. “When I say "hitting the wall," I mean, there's times where they kind of don't do as well as we'd like them to do. I was really talking about the other freshmen, not so much him. He didn't have his best day after that either. But this week he's been very efficient, made good decisions.”

"The move there that everyone is trying to make a big deal about is that we're trying to get another tackle ready, so we're taking Kendall Baker and allowing to get work at a secondary position -- no different than a corner that has to play safety, or a safety may have to play star, or a tackle may have to play guard,” Smart said. “With Kendall Baker, we're trying to see is he our best left tackle, our second-best left tackle, our best right tackle or our second-best right tackle? Most teams in America are guard-heavy and we just want to make sure those edges are secure. That's allowed us to get Solomon and Ben more reps, along with Trey Hill, Netori and those guys."

Nevertheless, Smart said he’s proud with the effort he’s seen from Kindley.

"He's taken a greater concern for his weight and has done a much better job managing that. He continues to develop and grow as a player. We had a rhythm on offense when Ben went in -- I don't know if it was because of Ben being in or Solomon not being in -- but it was a good rhythm. It was not something that we were going to change because we were playing so well offensively the last three- or-four games,” Smart said. “Solomon knows it's a competitive environment and they sit in these seats every day. We tell them, 'you put it on tape, we'll put you in, but if you get beat out or don't compete, we'll put the other guy in.' Solomon competes as tough as anyone we've got, and I appreciate this."