Kirby Smart knows his team has holes. Pass rush and wide receiver jump to mind in terms of areas of need.

A year ago, Smart could’ve gone into the transfer portal to get more help. He did, in fact, with Georgia’s 2025 roster, adding four players via the transfer portal.

Because of changes in the college football rules and calendar, Smart no longer has the ability to tinker with the Georgia roster. The players he has are the ones he’s going to have to improve if the Bulldogs are to ease any concerns.

And Smart couldn’t be happier.

“The fact that I don’t have to run around and sign and chase my own players more or less anybody else’s players, it gives me some calm knowing that we have our players in place,” Smart said in an appearance with McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning on WJOX 94.5.

Smart did acknowledge the drawback of not being able to improve his roster any more than he already had, especially in the event of an injury.

One of Georgia’s biggest injuries this spring, ironically, came to a transfer it went out and added in hopes of improving its pass rush. Outside linebacker Amaris Williams suffered an ACL injury in one of Georgia’s final spring practices.

Georgia hoped that the addition of Williams would provide more punch to its pass rush. Now it has to wait and see if it can get anything at all from the Auburn transfer.

To replace what Williams might have brought to the field, Chase Linton, Isaiah Gibson and others will have to spend the summer bettering themselves to make up for the loss of Williams.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Smart is just fine with the new setup. Georgia brought in the fewest number of transfers in the SEC when the lone portal window was open in early January. Georgia also lost the fewest number of transfers this offseason, with only 12 members of the 2025 team departing the roster.

Smart has reiterated the importance of development, especially as more and more of the sport becomes flooded with transfers. He wants to continue to develop players from the high school ranks.

This spring, Smart was able to focus more on bettering his team, rather than worrying about who might have a wandering eye.

It’s why Smart speaks with such confidence about the direction of his football team.

“I think maybe the worry or angst or the evaluations you would normally be doing were little less because you were constantly looking to see, over your shoulder, who you were losing and who you might get,” Smart told reporters on Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama. “But now you don’t have that. You know, you just focus on your team.”

Smart knew last season that his team needed help, particularly when it came to the pass rush. It went out and added Army transfer Elo Modozie. All offseason, it seemed like Georgia had addressed one of its chief concerns.

That proved to be untrue. Georgia had just 20 sacks, the fewest of any College Football Playoff participant. Modozie finished the season with only 7 tackles and no sacks. He transferred to Purdue in January, never taking a single spring practice snap in his time in Athens.

As successful as Zachariah Branch was for the Bulldogs last season, far more transfer stories turn out as Modozie’s did. Another reason why Smart likes developing players over the course of multiple years.

“We had a good spring. Got some guys coming back,” Smart said. “Got some youthful spots that I worry about, but at the end of the day, you know, that’s what they pay you to do as a coach. All summer we’re going to work with these guys. We’re going to find things they can do and try to find an advantage we can put them in in matchups.”

While Georgia and Smart may be content with the current setup, the same can’t be said for all of college football.

“I mean, there’s the stuff there that every coach wishes they could go out and grab somebody else and improve,” Smart said.

Consider Texas Tech, which just saw its presumed starting quarterback, Brendan Sorsby, step away from the team as he is being investigated amid gambling accusations.

With Sorsby, who was set to play for his third different college this fall, potentially out of the picture, it has cast major doubt as to Texas Tech’s viability as a potential contender.

“Education. It’s all you can do. It’s there now. It’s rampant,” Smart said when it comes to talking to his team about the dangers of gambling. “It’s all over. You can’t watch the TV station without an advertisement for gambling. The opportunity is there. It’s much more prevalent in this day and age, kids are having to grow up with it. The ve got access to that. That’s one of the fallouts from it. You’ve got to educate your players. You’ve got to hope that they listen and learn.

“Sometimes it’s an expensive lesson to learn not to do it.”

Texas Tech would love to be able to go back into the transfer portal to find a replacement for Sorsby. Instead, it will have to hope that backup Will Hammond recovers in time from a knee injury he suffered last season.

Otherwise, Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire is going to have to coach up and develop one of those already on roster.

As Don Draper, and perhaps Smart as well, would say, that’s what the money is for.

“At the end of the day, you know, that’s what they pay you to do as a coach,” Smart said. “All summer we’re going to work with these guys. We’re going to find things they can do and try to find an advantage we can put them in matchups.”