Kirby Smart: ‘Not worried about stars, focused on development’

ATHENS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart made his first remarks regarding the 2016 recruiting class when he sat in with Chuck Dowdle and D.J. Shockley for the livestream signing day broadcast on georgiadogs.com. With more than two-thirds of the class in, he appeared relaxed and confident as he answered questions from the broadcasters and some written in from fans.

Some highlights:

• On traveling all around via helicopters and planes and Georgia State Patrol cruisers: “Time is of the essence and time is money,” he said. “Time’s being wasted if you’re going slow. We needed to get to a lot of places in a short amount of time and we want to use every advantage we can to see as many  kids as you can. So that was the goal. It really wasn’t a media stunt.”
• On having 16 commitments at the moment and how many they may have: “That’d be speculating; I’m not sure. But I’m not as concerned about how many as I am who. That’s a whole lot more important. Worry about the ones you get and not the ones you don’t. You want the right kinds of kids. The ones that come to the University of Georgia, we’re going to develop them, we’re going to make sure they got to class, have integrity and represent the University of Georgia in the right way.”
• On sleepers to look for among the less heralded recruits: “That’s a hard question because I don’t even know who the 4- and 5-stars are. I try not to look at it so I don’t see it that way, from that perspective. I see each guy on an individual basis and see the quality of player he is. Fortunately I’ve been able to watch all these kids. I think there are a lot of kids who maybe commit early and don’t get as much hype. I’ve actually found that kids that commit early a lot of times end up helping more because their focus is on what do I have to do to get better, to grow, instead of focusing on the process of recruiting and all the media hype.”