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Kirby Smart cares about talent and buy-in, not stars

On3 imageby:Jake Rowe•09/27/22•

JakeMRowe

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Photo: Kirby Smart

It has been proven time and time again that recruiting rankings matter. Metrics like blue-chip ratio, which measures the portion of your roster covered by top-level recruits, matter. Kirby Smart acknowledges that his aim is to bring as much talent as he can into the Georgia program. Something he cares about just as much is how much the players he signs are willing to do what it takes to win.

That starts with recruiting the right type of individuals, those who prioritize winning. The next step is to get them into the program and help them learn about how they can pull their weight.

“What is important to me is that they buy-in, and I judge that on a recruiting class, not a rating coming in,” Smart said on Monday. “I’ve been tremendously pleased with our on-boarding process, our education process for them. That’s in terms of what is the expectation, clear and concise, what is my job, what is my role on this team, where do I fit, how can I help the team. Each one of those guys fall in different spots. Yeah, it doesn’t matter how many stars you’ve got. It matters the culture of the buy-in and the locker room. They usually take on the role of the older players. So the older players on our team have bought in for multiple years and that leads the younger players to doing the same thing.”

UGA’s recruiting classes since Kirby Smart became the head coach in December of 15 have been tremendous. He needed less than two months to secure the No. 11 class, per the On3 Consensus team rankings, in the country for the 2016 cycle.

The Bulldogs rose all the way to No. 3 in Smart’s first full recruiting cycle in 2017. The next three hauls ranked No. 1, No. 2, and No.1, respectively. Those laid the foundation for Georgia’s National Championship run in 2021 and Kirby Smart inked the nation’s No. 3 class in each of the past two cycles.

When you combined those top-three classes, six in a row, you see that Kirby Smart landed more than his fair share of five-star prospects. There have also been quite a low four and three-star prospects who have done big things for the Bulldogs during that time.

Some of those players made an impact right away. Others needed some time, time to learn the system, time to learn where they fit in, time to realize their own potential.

All, however, had to buy in to the way Georgia wants things done. Maybe that’s why Kirby Smart claims that he couldn’t tell you which players on his roster carried a five-star rating to campus and which ones didn’t.

“I don’t even know who you’re referring to because I don’t know who is four and who is five,” Smart said. “I honestly don’t have a clue. I couldn’t tell you right now on our roster who is and who isn’t because I can’t keep up with it. It’s not important to me.”

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