ATHENS — Time is running out on Georgia football this spring.

It’s a sure bet Kirby Smart doesn’t have all the answers yet, but the 10th-year championship coach knows the biggest questions.

Smart provided more than a hint the first half of spring drills that these Bulldogs, collectively, weren’t meeting the “standard” that it takes to win a national championship.

To be clear, Smart evaluates his team by championship standards — not those of 9- or 10-win seasons, which UGA is most surely talented enough to accomplish.

But the head coach has cast doubts this spring.

Here are 3 key areas of interest to question and follow closely:

Personnel moves

There was talk from Smart of the freshmen not being in proper condition to start spring football drills, players not understanding the value of importance of being coached hard and a lack of passion at times.

Those in the “Kirby always finds things to complain about” department need to take another look and have another listen.

Smart was essentially putting his team on notice, making it clear that those who do not measure up will be replaced.

The second and perhaps most pivotal transfer window (for Georgia) opens up on April 16 and runs through April 25.

Time will tell if Smart and the Bulldogs find the necessary answers or players by then.

The Bulldogs are scheduled to hold their 10th of 15 practice opportunities — counting the April 12 G-Day Game — on Tuesday.

Smart has shared some — but certainly not all — of the team’s biggest concerns and issues.

Conversely, the head coach is likely also holding back on some of the brighter young stars emerging in this era of teams pilfering talent from one another.

That said, the next Brock Bowers isn’t likely to run out of the tunnel at Sanford Stadium this season.

But Georgia could land another impact player or two (or three or four) from the portal.

Leadership

Perhaps the most important question is who the leaders will be and how they will assert themselves with teammates.

The Georgia football culture, like many others, is challenged to maintain its hunger, drive and passion with NIL stuffing tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in the pockets of players who have yet to earn their riches.

It’s the nature of the game, and for all the structure and logic Smart applies to the complexities created, there’s a battle against human nature.

That’s where player accountability — to one another — enters the picture.

The recent off-field driving incidents are as much a failure of player leadership as any oversight the coaches might have.

The best teams are those where players are accountable to one another.

The quarterback

Gunner Stockton has all the intangibles, there’s no question about that, and it’s a sure bet the fourth-year junior is checking every box to work as harder if not harder than anyone to improve.

But when it comes right down to it, does Stockton have the raw physical talents to put the team on his shoulders and win a championship in the most talented league in college football?

Stockton can run, but can he run fast enough? Stockton has arm talent and knowledge of the offense, but does he have the touch to layer passes over defenders or fit the ball into tight windows with peerless timing?

It’s not a question of if Stockton can do his job — he can, to the extent if you were to surround him with the offensive talent the 2021 and 2022 teams enjoyed he could lead a title.

But these Bulldogs don’t have the elite playmakers of yesteryear, nor does UGA have the same level of play on the offensive line.

That puts more on Stockton to be a playmaker, himself, and that’s a lot to ask of any quarterback.