ATHENS — It would seem that December would be Georgia’s busiest month.

You have the SEC Championship game, the early signing period, the College Football Playoff and the transfer portal all rolled into one chaotic stretch.

But as Kirby Smart laid out last week, the month of June has actually become more chaotic in terms of what he has to deal with.

“June is crazy,” Smart said in an ESPN interview with Paul Finebaum. “June, June has passed December in my mind.”

Georgia hosted its first round of official visitors this past weekend and will do so for the next three weekends as well. With changes to the recruiting calendar, June has become the most important month in the cycle.

Long gone are the days of commits deciding at a table in early February. Most of the hard work happens during the month of June, with the official visits often being the last chance for undecided recruits to see and hear from Georgia.

The Bulldogs had a talented group of prospects in town this past weekend, including five-star tight end Kaiden Prothero, five-star wide receiver Cedarian Morgan and four-star defensive back Justice Fitzpatrick. One of those visitors, four-star defensive lineman Carter Luckie, has already committed to the program.

Per DawgNation’s Jeff Sentell, Georgia had 18 official visitors in town this weekend. Smart estimates that for the month, that number will get close to 80.

Recruiting though doesn’t just take place on the weekends. Georgia is also hosting prospect camps throughout the week. This offers future prospects a chance to come to Athens and work out in front of the coaching staff. A lot of prospective offers will go out over the course of the month.

“It’s the craziest time of the year,” Smart said.

As if that wasn’t enough for a coach to deal with at this time of year, college football is considering tweaking the practice schedule to possibly allow for organized team activities during the month of June. The practice model would look similar to what NFL teams employ.

But those practices would make the time crunch felt by coaches even greater. Smart very much prefers to still have the traditional spring practices as they currently exist. Especially if the Georgia coach gets his way and college football has a single transfer portal window in January.

“I just think that’s asking too much to do in June,” Smart said. “And to be honest with you, our players need time to work out in strength and condition and not necessarily be with us.”

Smart has a lot on his plate this time of year. That is the job of a college football coach in this day and age.

It’s a lot to manage for a head coach, which is why Smart knows he has to delegate those responsibilities. He’s entering his 10th season running the Georgia program.

Were he less experinced, Smart recognizes he might try and take on all of the craziness on his own.

“I tried to do everything,” Smart said. “I think that a lot of people are getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Like the whole navigation of two portals, the December craziness, January has been wild now because of the portal. A lot of people complained about it, but we’ve kind of embraced it and gotten better at it. We’ve hired people within our departments to help us manage it.”

Smart can’t spend too much time worrying about what the future of June might look like.

He’s got enough on his plate at the moment to keep himself and the Georgia program plenty busy.