Kirby Smart makes salient point about the 'deterioration' of depth in college football

As many coaches are wont to do after their team’s first preseason scrimmage of fall camp, Georgia’s Kirby Smart recently lamented that the Bulldogs have “a long way to go as a football team. We are nowhere near or even close to where we need to be.”

It was classic coach-speak, and whether Smart was sandbagging or not, it wasn’t an overly illuminating comment. Not in mid-August. 

But the very next words out of Smart’s mouth did catch my attention.

“I feel like we have less depth than we’ve ever had,” Smart followed. 

“That’s kind of a common theme talking to other coaches I talk to. I call it the deterioration of football because every year we’ve been here, I feel like we’ve had more players capable of going in and playing winning football. Every year that goes down. We’ve got to keep working to increase that number.”

Smart later commented that Georgia’s overall roster numbers haven’t really changed (they just signed the No. 1 recruiting class in 2024), but the quality of depth has been sapped by the transfer portal and “high schools not having as much of an opportunity to develop kids because their practice regimen and practice schedule is tougher.”

“It’s a trickle-up effect, so we get the guys coming from the high school level. We have the same number of players, so you can’t blame the transfer portal for that. I think you lose some continuity in terms of guys that have been in the program multiple years though. … We have less guys that know and execute our system. We’re not even really considered a portal team. I don’t know how many we’ve averaged over the last four years. I can’t imagine it’s even double-digits. We don’t have many guys coming from that. It’s not as much quality depth that I’m used to, but we probably have more than a lot of people.”

Bingo. Bingo. Bingo. 

No one is shedding one tear for Georgia, which recently won two national titles, is the favorite for a third in 2024 and hasn’t lost a regular-season game in three years. 

That’s not to say Smart doesn’t have a point, though. 

He’s right — teams’ brittle depth will be challenged more than ever this fall — especially in a what’s about to be the longest season in college football history. The “deterioration” of college football is about not having enough “winnable” players.

Georgia still does. Most don’t, though. 

The list of true title contenders is smaller in the 12-team CFP

In the age of the transfer portal and NIL, player movement has never been more chaotic. It’s a great benefit to many, many players, but it still comes with consequences (oftentimes for both parties). 

Programs like Georgia, Ohio State or Alabama aren’t “portal heavy” teams, but they still have to backfill holes within their depth charts because former blue-chip recruits spend 2-3 years riding the bench and want to seek playing time elsewhere. 

The Bulldogs brought in nine scholarship transfers this year (the most ever of the Smart era), including key difference-makers like Florida tailback Trevor Etienne, Miami wideout Colbie Young and South Carolina defensive tackle Xzavier McCloud. But the program also saw 25 players — many of whom they’d invested multiple seasons coaching, developing and building relationships with — bounce. 

And that’s at Georgia, among the kings of college football. 

Using Smart’s own famed motivational hunger metaphor, if the Bulldogs are suddenly dining off paper plates depth-wise, then the rest of the sport truly is eating off the floor — or not getting food at all. 

And that’s precisely why in the dawn of the new 12-team College Football Playoff, the number of schools that can actually win the title has decreased — despite a bracket 3X bigger. 

There’s more parity in the middle, but the top tier of championship contenders has actually further separated themselves.

Even a portal-heavy 2022 TCU isn’t making the championship. There’s a case that Washington probably couldn’t survive a 16-game gauntlet last season, either. 

While Smart has depth concerns with UGA, the fact is Georgia, Ohio State and Oregon are on a shortlist of teams with the right combination of depth + high-end talent to endure such a grind — and withstand game-changing injuries. 

UGA was hampered by a slew of injuries in the SEC Championship Game last year, which kept Smart’s team out of the 4-team CFP. They’d get a mulligan in such an instance this fall. 

Texas probably remains on that list, too, but the Longhorns’ depth is already being tested — and they haven’t played an SEC game yet. After already having to reload at most every skill position, Texas is down to just three scholarship tailbacks with a pair of players (including 5-star CJ Baxter) out with season-ending injuries. 

Playoff hopefuls like Notre Dame (starting left tackle Charles Jagusah), Missouri (pass rusher Darrius Smith) and Oklahoma (wideout Jayden Gibson) have all suffered significant preseason injuries, too. 

Big-time players are lost every August to terrible injuries. The summer is always a game of survival. But the impact of these injuries stands to carry much more impact than in seasons past. There’s no longer the guy your team spent the last two springs developing suddenly ready to step into an increased role — and this issue is only going to become even more heightened when roster sizes shrink to 105 in 2025. 

Ultimately, coaches from Georgia to UConn love to complain about lack of depth every autumn. Only in the portal era, they finally have a point.