Kirby Smart reveals easiest positions for freshmen to contribute

With a new season around the corner, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart shared the easiest positions for freshmen to contribute.

Smart pointed to the skills positions at running back and wide receiver, as well as defensive backs on defense, as being able to contribute early on a team. However, notably, not every position is typically able to make a large contribution on the field as a freshman.

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“Corner, running back,” Kirby Smart said. “Those are spots that I think typically guys can get out there. Receiver. We’ve had a lot of freshmen receivers play and contribute. A lot of freshmen running backs play and contribute. We’ve had some corners play and contribute. A specialty pass rusher can play and contribute.”

There are some positions, like quarterback, that do take time to adjust to the mental speed of the game at the college level. There are also, as Smart explained, positions where freshmen may not be physically strong enough to contribute yet.

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“But some of those positions inside or in the interior line, it’s not that you can’t because of the mental,” Smart said. “It’s you can’t because of the physical. They’re just stronger and have been in the weight program longer than you.”

Georgia is a program that has thrived in recruiting under Kirby Smart. Last year’s recruiting class was the top-ranked class in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking football Team Recruiting Rankings. That class included five different five-star recruits.

Kirby Smart on the deterioration of depth in college football

The way rosters are built in college football has changed thanks to the Transfer Portal. While rosters have stayed the same size, Kirby Smart does feel like he’s noticed a recent deterioration of depth.

“I feel like we have less depth than we’ve ever had. 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 said.

“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.”