Georgia opened spring practice on Tuesday with coach Kirby Smart delivering a blunt assessment about the makeup of his team given all the attrition that took place after winning the national championship in January.
“A lot of holes,” Smart said. “There are a lot of questions to be answered from our team for guys leaving.”
The Bulldogs had a slew of players depart via the NFL draft, including a team-high 14 players who were at the NFL combine earlier this month.
The defense, which was considered the best in college football for much of the season, was hit particularly hard by attrition, losing safety Lewis Cine, defensive lineman Jordan Davis, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt, defensive end Travon Walker and linebackers Channing Tindall, Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean.
Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning left to become the head coach at Oregon, offensive line coach Matt Luke resigned, secondary coach Jahmile Addae left for the same role at Miami and receivers coach Cortez Hankton left for the same position at LSU.
Smart, in turn, hired Bryan McClendon (receivers), Stacy Searels (offensive line), Fran Brown (secondary) and Chidera Uzo-Diribe (linebackers).
Former Georgia quarterback and longtime SEC coordinator Mike Bobo was also added to the staff as an analyst.
“As is the case in all businesses, really when you look at it, when you have success sometimes you have change and people get opportunities,” Smart said. “So we’ve got two new strength coaches, four new position coaches, several new quality control people. So a lot of new faces. One thing that you benefit from is you get a lot of different ideas and knowledge from those people.
“So the additions we made to our staff have been tremendous. They are bright. Some of them are bright young coaches; some of them very experienced coaches. But all of them fit our culture and criteria, and that probably excites me most.”
Smart said he’s been pleased with his team’s effort through offseason workouts and that any talk of last season’s national championship has been put to the side.
“You don’t defend a title,” Smart said. “You guys [the media] want it to be that way, but that’s not what we do. We start fresh just like we did when we lost to Texas in a bowl game. We start completely new.”
Smart said there are certain positions where they’re not deep enough but, “I’m not here to cry about it.”
While perhaps not a long-term concern, the tight end position will be especially thin during spring practice with Smart announcing that All-American Brock Bowers (shoulder) and Darnell Washington (lower leg) will be out as they recover from injuries.
Bowers emerged as a star during his freshman season, leading the team in catches (56), receiving yards (882) and receiving touchdowns (13).
Georgia, which returns starting quarterback Stetson Bennett IV for his sixth season, is scheduled to open the year against Lanning’s Oregon Ducks on Sept. 3 in Atlanta.
