Retention rates, 'COVID baby' class key to success for Georgia

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s appearance at SEC Media Days on Tuesday saw a couple of themes emerge out of it.

The Bulldogs are taking on the mantra of the New Zealand All Blacks – “Better never rests” – for the 2023 season in an attempt to avoid complacency. They’re doing so on a daily basis, trying to get better every time they step foot on the field.

Smart’s most used word at the podium was team, and leadership was something that came along with that. But with the way he talked about retention, it sure felt equally as important as anything else to Georgia’s model for success.

Smart pointed out something he thought was unique – all 10 of Georgia’s assistant coaches for the 2023 season were on staff in 2022 too. Of course offensive coordinator Todd Monken left Athens for a job in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens, but his replacement Mike Bobo was an offensive quality control analyst. The other nine assistants? The same as they were last year.

That’s something you rarely see in a defending national champion’s coaching staff. More often than not, teams come from around the country and raid town, picking off parts of the puzzle as best as possible. That’s not to say that some didn’t try in 2023. However, with the emphasis Smart has put on retention and keeping a core group together – plus a couple of raises – Georgia was able to get the band back together.

“Making sure people enjoy their work environment. Like I want to come to work each day,” Smart said when asked what the key to the retention on the coaching staff was. “A lot of the motivation to come to work and enjoy it is that you enjoy your time with your family. I’m always trying to find an innovative way, and I’ve had people outsource this, like come in and tell me how we can use our time more efficiently, and therefore our coaches get to be with their families and enjoy their families, so that when they are here they’re more passionate about their work and they want to stay.”

“The college calendar, the coaching calendar, it’s one of the toughest things out there. Go ask an NFL coach. They’ll tell you. They’ll laugh and say, it’s crazy what you guys do,” he continued. “Well, I want to make it enjoyable for our coaches so that they feel good and they want to stay and they can bring their family to every event we have and let their kids run around and enjoy it. That’s important to me because I want my kids around, as well. The retention part is letting them do their job and making their job more enjoyable.”

That’s not the only kind of retention in Athens though. There’s been incredible retention of players. Yes, Georgia has had several Bulldogs enter the transfer portal, but for the most part, the key pieces either leave for the NFL or stay another season. Case and point, the Class of 2021.

Smart gave the group the nickname of the “COVID babies.” That’s because they were recruited in the middle of the pandemic. Visits were shut down in March for the prospects and did not return until after their Signing Day. Instead of coming to work out for the coaches, players were sending videos of themselves doing drills in their backyard and having to Facetime with coaches to get a glimpse of facilities around campus.

One would think that the virtually recruited class might have arrived on campus and realized things were a little different than they had been portrayed over the phone – or they wouldn’t be cut out for the culture. Instead though, Georgia’s No. 3 ranked Class of 2021 that included 20 prospects from the high school ranks and were freshmen on the first National Championship team has 17 players from the original group remaining. That’s what retention looks like.

“It’s only that hard if you don’t recruit the right people,” Smart said when asked how they’ve managed to keep the class together in an age where entering the transfer portal is as prevalent as ever. “I’m proud of the fact that 17 of 20 guys are still in our organization from a COVID year in which we didn’t get to host an official visit. They didn’t get to go and do unofficial visits, and we’ve retained those guys because we’ve invested in them as freshmen. We’ve invested in them as sophomores. They’ve seen kind of return on investment for older players that stuck around. They watched a Quay Walker not start sophomore year but start his junior year, and then go a first-round pick his senior year. So they’ve seen a lot of evidence of the success, but they’ve also seen the buy-in of the leadership.”

“I challenge anybody to dig up that COVID class, and that’s been a really good — and you know what we evaluated that class on? Love of the game and being selfless,” Smart added. “Like that’s not hard. It’s hard to find, but it’s not hard to evaluate.”

Georgia’s Class of 2021 includes the likes of two-time leading receiver Brock Bowers, the team’s top two tacklers last season (Smael Mondon and Jamon Dumas-Johnson) as well as Defensive MVP in both College Football Playoff contests Javon Bullard. Kamari Lassiter, who represented Georgia alongside Bowers and Sedrick Van Pran in Nashville on Tuesday, is another member of the group – one that’ll be leaned upon heavily to help the Bulldogs bring a third straight National Championship back to Athens.