ATHENS — Even as the number of in-state signees have ebbed and flowed over the years, Kirby Smart has always harped on the importance of recruiting the state of Georgia.

In the current name, image and likeness era, it seems to be more important than ever. Especially when it comes to building and retaining a consistent winner at a place like Georgia.

“We’ve got to be competitive,” Smart said in a sit-down with Jeff Dantzler of Glory Glory “We don’t have to have the school with the most. We don’t have to have the school that offers the most. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to be that. I don’t want to be the one that’s known for paying. You attract kids that are money hungry if they just want to be the most. But we want to be competitive. We want to mix our development, our winnings, our culture, all the things these NFL teams say about us.

Smart was rather candid last week when talking about the use of name, image and likeness when it comes to recruiting last week.

He understands it is a necessity in this day and age. But he doesn’t want money to be the main reason a player comes to Georgia. The Bulldogs aren’t interested in trying to match the Texas Tech’s and Oregons of the world. That makes it more difficult to recruit nationally.

“When we go offer guys NIL, I got to have the competitive nature to do it,” Smart said. “Do I love it? No, I don’t. I don’t love it. I don’t love having to talk about money, but I do love winning.

“And I do love having really good football players that want to play for a university. They feel a love and a bond and a connection that I felt.”

Georgia can afford to be financially competitive. Recent recruiting classes reflect that, as the Bulldogs signed the No. 6 recruiting class this year, the No. 2 class in 2025 and the No. 1 class in 2024. The big difference with the 2026 recruiting class was with how Georgia did in terms of landing elite prospects.

The Bulldogs signed just two top 50 prospects. That’s the fewest ever in a Georgia recruiting class under Smart.

This makes the recent comments by Smart on the NIL front all the more worth paying attention to. Georgia’s 2026 recruiting class, while strong nationally, was tied for the lowest-ranked recruiting class Smart has signed since taking over prior to the 2016 season.

When you look at how Georgia recruited the state of Georgia, it mirrors how the Bulldogs put together their 2026 recruiting class. Of the 49 blue-chip recruits in the state of Georgia, the Bulldogs signed 12. The next closest school was Alabama with five.

Georgia took a strength-in-numbers approach when it comes to the 2026 recruiting class. As for the top players in the state, Georgia signed only two of the top 10 prospects. Alabama inked three, including five-star prospects Xavier Griffin and Jorden Edmonds. Texas Tech, one of the most aggressive teams when it comes to using NIL in terms of acquiring players, landed five-star defensive end Ladamian Guyton from Savannah, Georgia.

The Bulldogs leaned heavily on their in-state ties in the 2026 recruiting class. Seventeen of the 31 members of the class come from Georgia. The Bulldogs signed 20 players from Georgia in the 2025 class, yet only 10 in the 2024 cycle.

It’s no surprise that in this current era of landing players, Smart is focused more on the players who want to come to Georgia, than those he has to fight to convince to stay in Athens.

“We’ve got to be competitive,” Smart said. “We don’t have to have the school with the most. We don’t have to have the school that offers the most. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to be that. I don’t want to be the one that’s known for paying. You attract kids that are money hungry if they just want to be the most. But we want to be competitive. We want to mix our development, our winnings, our culture, all the things these NFL teams say about us.”

When you factor in that retention is more important at Georgia compared to other schools, the ability to hang on to players is more critical than ever. Of the 14 players to depart the program this offseason via the transfer portal, only four were players who played their high school football in Georgia.

Conversely, four of Georgia’s nine transfer additions came from the transfer portal. The biggest addition, wide receiver Isiah Canion, was someone Smart lamented not landing out of the high school ranks in 2024.

“We got a receiver [Isiah Canion] that we probably should have gotten out of high school. We didn’t. He went to a rival school and he got better,” Smart said. “He got developed. We think he’s really talented. We’re excited as hell about Canion, and he’s going to be a good player. Like, we know him. He’s got two players on our team that played with him in high school. 

“So we don’t go after necessarily the flashiest, biggest guy. We go after the guy that fits — the guy that is a fit for us.”

Canion was high school teammates with Rasean Dinkins and Isaiah Gibson. DawgNation’s Jeff Sentell points out that 32 players on next year’s roster have someone who was a high school teammate at one point. That connection should only give the Bulldogs a stronger team next season.

Because of the recent changes to college football thanks to the transfer portal and NIL, Smart has had to adapt how he puts his team together.

As much as he might dislike what NIL has done to the sport, he still loves winning more.

And it seems that Smart wants to tap more into the Peach State to keep Georgia near the top of college football.

“We want to mix that with being competitive when it comes to, I want to go get a right tackle out of somewhere in Georgia,” Smart said. “I want to go get the best pass rusher in Georgia. I want that kid to know that his university is going to be committed to making sure he has a chance to develop on and off the field and financially he will have an opportunity to grow and develop.

“It doesn’t mean the most. We don’t have to have the most, but we can’t do that without the support of the people in this state and the people that love Georgia.”