ATHENS — Traditionally, Kirby Smart spends time with reporters at Georgia’s pro day. The Georgia coach will hold court, doling out words of praise for those who will be leaving the program and heading to the NFL.

That won’t be the case this year. Smart will still be on hand to support his players at Georgia’s pro day on Wednesday and pow-wow with the many NFL officials on hand.

But his time talking about the 2024 Georgia team is done. That much was made clear by what he had to say during Tuesday’s press conference.

“I’m really concerned with my guys, not concerned with the Pro Day, but the Pro Day is certainly important to a group of players who have been tremendous for Georgia,” Smart said. “We all have talked about all the accolades they have and the winningest record in the history of the school. They’ve done a lot of good things, and I know a lot of them will do well tomorrow, but I’m not going to be out there the whole time for that.”

Smart had 14 players at the 2025 NFL Combine, while players such as Dan Jackson and Chaz Chambliss will take center stage on Wednesday.

Those players moving on accomplished a lot. A handful of them won multiple national championships in their time at Georgia.

But the 2024 Georgia football season, where many of these players were key leaders, did not have that same ending.

Georgia went 11-3 last year. It won the SEC Championship, but crashed out in the College Football Playoff with a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame. While the final game was the nadir, it was a bumpy road for Georgia throughout the season.

Smart wants to focus more on what his team can do in 2025 and how it can finish better.

That starts by caring and wanting to be out on the field.

“I want to see the fire. I want to see the passion, the energy. I want to see who wants to be a good football player, who really cares about this game,” Smart said. “They care more about the game than they do about their NIL revenue stream. Like, if you really, really, really care about the game and you want to be good, it doesn’t matter about any kind of money. It matters how I play the game.”

Whether or not that is shot squarely at Carson Beck, who many thought would be participating in Georgia’s 2025 Pro Day before an uneven senior season that culminated in a season-ending elbow injury that led him to transferring to Miami, doesn’t really matter all that much at this point.

Smart’s comments clearly show that he’s looking for better leadership from this year’s team. That starts now in the spring, as the Bulldogs took the practice field for the first time on Tuesday.

“When I was 7 years old I wasn’t getting paid to play the game,” linebacker CJ Allen said. “I was playing for free. So just keeping the main thing the main thing and knowing why I do it for myself, my family, and for God. So just keeping the main thing the main thing.”

Allen was one of three players to speak to the media on Tuesday. Given his time in the program, he’s clearly someone Smart sees as a leader at Georgia.

Allen can’t do it alone, just like it’s unfair to put everything on the shoulders of Beck. One player does not make the team, especially when Georgia trumpets the idea of depth as much as it does.

Smart isn’t alone in battling against the changes in college football. He pointed out the changing nature of spring games and spring practices, noting that some coaches have always been against the idea.

Some have proposed doing away with spring games entirely and moving in favor of NFL OTA’s in the month of June. No more spring games but instead another step towards college football looking like the NFL.

Smart doesn’t want that. He wants college football to be more like college football.

So while he’ll gladly do whatever he can to help those, like Mykel Williams, Malaki Starks and the many others who will be working out on Wednesday, Smart’s focus will be far beyond the Georgia football Indoor facility.

It’ll be on his 2025 team and finding out who is willing to do the difficult things.

“We’re seeing across college football, the purists — the ones that care about the game the most — play the hardest," Smart said. “And usually the team that plays hardest wins. I know everybody thinks it’s just whoever’s more talented, but there’s a whole lot to how hard you play and how much you care about it.

“So my goal is to find out how hard do you want to play? How much do you really want to be great? Because if you do it’ll show by how you practice.”