TAMPA, Fla. - Georgia’s roster is young, and Kirby Smart isn’t pretending otherwise. He’s also not treating it like a problem.
At SEC media days on Tuesday, Smart made it clear the Bulldogs’ age is the result of a deliberate choice, not a scramble to catch up with the rest of college football’s transfer-portal arms race.
“We’re young, but it’s not an excuse. We’re going to be young every year because we still believe in a high school model,” Smart said Tuesday at SEC media days.
That approach has shaped the way Georgia has built this team. The Bulldogs have taken transfers, and some of them could start this season, but they have largely stayed out of the biggest bidding wars. That includes players like receiver Cam Coleman, who moved from Auburn to Texas.
Instead, Georgia has poured resources into keeping the players it already signed. The Bulldogs held onto 26 of 27 players in their 2025 recruiting class, which ranked second nationally and included four five-stars. The lone departure was cornerback Dominick Kelly, a four-star who transferred to Ohio State.
The 2024 class has also stayed largely intact, with Georgia still having most of those 30 players on the roster, including all 11 who were ranked in the top 100.
That retention helps explain why Georgia’s average roster age sits at 19.81, according to data compiled by RotoWire. It also helps explain why so much of the team is coming back. Georgia returns seven defensive starters, quarterback Gunner Stockton, the two leading rushers and three offensive linemen.
Smart said that’s the point: keep developing players the program already invested in, rather than chasing older transfers who were developed somewhere else.
“I choose to retain,” Smart said. “We think that our investment in our player is better than your investment in your player that I would get from you in the portal. So we just keep thinking that if we pour it into our guys, that our development is going to be better than taking a guy that’s second, third, fourth year, that somebody else developed.”
He also took a shot at programs that lean heavily on roster turnover through the portal. Smart did not deny that Georgia sometimes nudges players toward other opportunities, but he made clear that is not how the Bulldogs prefer to operate.
“There’s coaches out there that don’t choose to retain. You hear their players choose to leave, but not always.
They’re encouraged to leave,” Smart said. “When you’re upgrading at the expense of telling someone they got to go, if that happens, maybe that’s not the culture that’s ethically or morally right, and we don’t really want to do that.”
The difference, Smart suggested, is that other programs often turn to the portal because they are dealing with coaching changes or trying to patch holes after bad seasons. Georgia, with Smart entering his 11th season, has the stability to recruit and retain the way it wants.
Even so, there are signs the Bulldogs have not been as dominant on the recruiting trail as they were at their peak. Their 2026 class currently ranks 12th nationally in the 247Sports composite, and they have missed on some five-star targets. This year’s freshman class ranked sixth, which is the lowest mark since Smart’s first year.
Smart said the issue is not money. It is how Georgia chooses to spend it.
“There’s never been something that I asked our administration to do about a number to go to, to get a player out of the portal or get a player in high school that they weren’t willing to do,” Smart said. “That’s probably more in-house for us philosophically, how we want our roster to look, how we want our money to be spread across.
High school players nowadays aren’t any cheaper than portal players. Especially good players.
But we put our money where we think it’s best, and to put the best product we can on the field.”
In Other News...
Former Georgia Star From That Title Defense Just Cashed In Big
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The timing also fits the larger conversation around the program at SEC Media Days, where Georgia was again treated like the leagues measuring stick. Brent Venables called the Bulldogs the gold standard, and even with the preseason chatter splitting between media confidence and Vegas skepticism, Georgia remains the team everyone seems to measure themselves against while its former stars keep stacking proof of that reputation. [Read more 🡒]
Gunner Stockton Just Entered Georgias Mike Bobo Debate
Gunner Stockton has only been in the spotlight as Georgias quarterback for a short time, but he is already stepping into one of the programs familiar debates. The conversation around offensive coordinator Mike Bobo has never really gone away, and Stockton made clear he sees the job from the inside, backing the coachs approach and pointing to the grind that goes into building an offense every week.
That support matters because Georgia is heading toward a season in which the passing game will need to look sharper, especially with several key receivers moving on to the NFL. The Bulldogs have the talent and the expectations to keep pushing forward, but whether Stockton and Bobo can turn that confidence into a more dangerous downfield attack is the question hanging over the offense now. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Smart Just Confirmed A Major Georgia Backfield Setback
Georgias running back room took a hit this week when Kirby Smart confirmed that transfer back Dante Dowdell is dealing with an injury that will keep him out for a significant stretch. Smart did not offer a firm timetable, leaving some uncertainty around when Dowdell might be able to return, but the news is enough to alter the early shape of the backfield as the Bulldogs move deeper into camp.
With Dowdell sidelined, Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens are the names expected to carry the load for now, giving Georgia a clearer picture of its top options but a thinner margin for error. The backfield setback comes alongside another injury note for the Bulldogs, as Auburn transfer Amaris Williams is already out for the season with a torn ACL, adding to the list of roster questions Georgia has to manage before the opener. [Read more 🡒]