Kirby Smart concerned about Georgia depth after first scrimmage

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia is almost two weeks into fall camp, and coming out of the Bulldogs’ first scrimmage on Saturday, head coach Kirby Smart has some concerns about his football team.

Yes, UGA is ranked No. 1 in the nation by both the AP and the Coaches Poll, but that’s not going to stop Smart from worrying. He saw how his team handled the heat between the hedges and is looking for more depth to develop.

“We’ve got a long way to go as a football team. We are nowhere near or even close to where we need to be. 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,” Smart said. “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.”

Georgia’s injury situation certainly hasn’t helped with the Bulldogs’ depth concerns. Contributors like Jordan Hall, Jared Wilson, Chaz Chambliss and Warren Brinson have missed some amount of practice. There are others that have been in non-contact jerseys or have nagging injuries. Being short a few guys on the long, hot days of August certainly tends to show itself.

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Smart said figuring out playing football without injuries is “the unanswerable question.” It’s not as simple as turning injuries off in EA Sports College Football 25. Add onto that the prevalence of players leaving programs in the transfer portal and developing depth gets to be harder and harder each year as teams across the country are lacking in experience and age.

“I don’t know if it’s the transfer portal or the deterioration of football. It could be less people playing,” Smart said when asked to further examine his comments on depth concerns. “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.”

Smart said he could easily identify the areas of depth concern when watching the tape from Saturday. He would not share with media members though, and he disagreed with the statement that the depth concerns make it easier for a freshman to step in and play right away. After all, they still have to compete for playing time with transfer portal pickups that enter the program with the same lack of knowledge but better experience.

“We have less guys that know and execute our system, and we’re not even really considered a portal team,” Smart said. “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.”

Smart did end up coming around to admit that while his Bulldogs might have less quality depth than they’re used to, it’s probably more than most around the country.

“The one’s can go out there and execute get calls and line up. Might not do it just as right but there’s not a lot of errors,” Smart said.

“There’s a good nucleus of guys that have played a lot of football when you count Arian (Smith), Dillon (Bell), Oscar (Delp), Dom (Lovett) and those guys. But there is not the depth around Carson (Beck) at the skill positions that there have been at the past,” he continued. “That puts more pressure on him to feel like he’s got to be perfect. To feel like he’s got to make the right decision, the right protection check, do this, do this. Can I count on that guy who hasn’t done it yet and trust that he’s going to be able to do it, even though he’s a freshman? Those are things that Carson, he’s got to get familiar with those other guys. That’s the hardest part in the depth.”

Georgia will continue to work to develop said depth as fall camp continues through this week with hopes of having some, if not all, of the banged up Bulldogs back in action before too long. A second scrimmage awaits UGA on Saturday – what Smart considers to be the end of fall camp – before attention turns quickly to the August 31st season-opener against No. 14 Clemson.