ATHENS — Kirby Smart was more focused on his “fire, passion and energy” buzzwords than the dollar signs steering college football on Saturday.

Smart, Georgia’s 10th-year, two-time championship head coach, exited the program’s annual G-Day Game with a good vibe about his team.

Some plays were made, others weren’t, and there was a general sense of a need for improvement in most every position group, notably, quarterback.

But with the second NCAA transfer portal window set to open on Wednesday and run through April 25, Smart’s primary sentiment was on retention.

“I hope I get to keep my entire roster and play the whole year with my entire roster,” Smart said in his press conference after the G-Day Game at Sanford Stadium on Saturday.

“If we don’t, then we’ll get somebody that wants to.”

That was the stance Tennessee took on Saturday after Vols’ projected starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava was unsuccessful in an attempt to renegotiate his NIL deal and entered the transfer portal.

Iamaleava negotiating power is stronger now than it will be when the House v. NCAA settlement brings what’s expected to be a $20.5 million cap to athletic departments for their student-athletes.

RELATED: How UGA is poised to manage money, scholarships under expected $20.5 million cap

But Smart said he’s not sure that settling the landmark case will decrease player activity in the portal, or necessarily calm the waters in this new age of NIL dealings fueled by rules allowing for immediate eligibility after transfers.

“Everybody thinks, well, that’s just going to fix it - it’s going to set parameters,” Smart said. “And if - if — the clearinghouse (third-party arbitrator) Deloitte has teeth and can police deals and make deals legitimate deals, fair market value deals, then we have a chance.”

Smart explained the nature of society leads to some doubt of the ruling’s effect, which is expected to come on Monday or Tuesday.

“We live in a litigated society, so every time somebody moves, somebody else has litigation to go against it,” Smart said. “It’s unfortunate because it’s not the college football that we all grew up watching and saw, but it’s still a really good product.”

The college football product is becoming more and more like the NFL, with expanded playoffs and players have freedom of movement and financial negotiation power.

Part of the complexity for collegiate athletics, Smart pointed out, is the lack of transparency.

“You don’t have a system that says this is what the (salary) comp is for a kid,” Smart said of schools’ and programs trying to establish the value of a player they are interesting in signing.

“Sometimes their comp and what our comp is are completely different …. You don’t have that challenge in the NFL because it’s public knowledge,” Smart said. “Nobody really knows in college football what teams you’re working off of.”

And, Smart knows, there’s a lot of ways things could go even after the House v. NCAA settlement is in place.

“I don’t know the settlement is going to have any effect on the flow of players (transferring) because that’s not really what it’s meant to do,” Smart said. “It could increase (flow) if more teams have money.

“I think it’s been a spiral (of accelerated movement), and it’s continuing to spiral, so I don’t know what reins it in, I don’t know that there’s anything anybody can do.”

Smart, for his part, places emphasis on player relations and proactive negotiations, having secured Carson Beck in what amounted to a free agent deal following Georgia’s 2023 season.

The Bulldogs had Beck resigned early enough that December to pursue other key free agents, like Florida transfer Trevor Etienne, through the portal leading into what proved to be an SEC championship season in 2024.

“You have to manage your culture as good as you can,” Smart said. “You have to manage the players you take as good as you can, and you’ve got to move on and play with the players that are there.”