Kirby Smart says Georgia not signing a QB is 'irrelevant'

It’s hard to find a fault in how Georgia recruits under Kirby Smart. However, there is some concern that the Bulldogs didn’t sign a quarterback this season.

While addressing the media about National Signing Day, Kirby Smart was asked about the team not taking a quarterback. In particular, if it made it more difficult to recruit other players or could present problems down the line.

“I think it’s irrelevant in today’s day and age,” Kirby Smart said. “You know, the portal is full of them. There’s gonna be them. There’s gonna be multiple guys in every year.”

“You want to do the best job you can to get the best quarterback you can. When you have three quarterbacks, sometimes you don’t have any, and when you have one quarterback that’s when you have a quarterback. We’re very pleased with what we have in our quarterback room. We think we’ve got three quarterbacks that are gonna be really good.”

Kirby Smart continued to downplay taking a quarterback this cycle. He also argued that the quarterback isn’t entirely important to recruiting skill players because scheme and coaches matter more. Plus, those players know the talent on the roster.

“So, the concern wasn’t about a quarterback, and none of the skill players made it about that. They know what we’ve signed really the last three or four years. They know what we have the potential to sign in 24. So, it’s one of those deals that the quarterback position kind of sells it based on who your offensive coordinator is and how your offense does. We excelled in that.”

Of course, it’s worth pointing out that Georgia didn’t take a quarterback this cycle because had no desire to. The Bulldogs were in on Arch Manning. It just didn’t work out for Kirby Smart and company in the end. Still, there is time to take a transfer quarterback, or even sign one on the next signing day in February.

As of right now, Georgia has the second-ranked class, behind only Alabama, for 2023 in the On3 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings.

Kirby Smart on the impact of a national championship on recruiting

Throughout his time at Georgia, Kirby Smart has always been a good recruiter, who put great classes together. However, by winning a national championship, recruiting may have gotten easier, though Smart can’t quite quantify it.

“I don’t know if you can measure that, I think it gets you in the conversation with more national guys. But there’s nobody I look at this list and say we wouldn’t have gotten had we not won it or we got them because we won it, I can’t quantify that,” Kirby Smart explained.