Kirby Smart discusses balancing the transfer portal with CFP preparations

What’s one more distraction when you’re the reigning national champions and you’ve played with a target on your back the entire season? Well, for coach Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs, balancing the transfer portal and preparing properly for a semifinal matchup with No. 4 Ohio State sure is one.

Smart, though, plans to manage it the way he has so far during his Georgia tenure: Trusting the people he’s designated to scour the portal to do that while he and the rest of his staff prepares for the College Football Playoff.

“You’re always going to look and people try to reach out once they go in the portal,” Smart said. “It’s there. They have people on staff at Ohio State and we’ve got people on our staff that are going to be constantly looking through there, watching tape, evaluating it.”

Make no mistake about it, though.

Winning the Peach Bowl and moving on to a third national championship game in the last seven years is the priority for Smart and the Bulldogs.

“The focus is on our team. It wouldn’t be fair to all the guys playing if you weren’t focused on your team,” Smart said. “So you can’t put a ton of focus and attention to looking for kids in the portal and things like that. For us it’s really about, ‘Who do we know? Who do we trust? Who do we think fits our culture and finding the right people.’ But our focus will be on ourselves.”

Georgia’s culture helps in balancing transfer portal

Winning certainly cures a lot of ills, but you also have to give the culture Smart has built at Georgia a ton of credit for aiding in balancing the transfer portal demands.

The Bulldogs didn’t even take a single transfer last year, yet went 13-0 and are the unquestioned No. 1 team in the country in 2022.

Smart gave a nod to that, as well.

“I think you’re asking also about maybe evaluating kids in the portal. We went a year where we didn’t take one,” he said. “We try to build it where they want to be part of our program and if they don’t, then I certainly acknowledge that as an opportunity.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean Georgia won’t be looking to add this time around, of course.

All things in balance, with Smart organizing his staff to handle both the playoff preparations and the transfer portal optimally.

Georgia and Ohio State will square off in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.