Georgia is in a position that no other program in the country is. The Bulldogs made the College Football Playoff last season with over half of their roster consisting of first and second year players, so instead of needing to hit the Transfer Portal hard they could focus on keeping their roster in tact for next season.
This strategy is something that almost no one attempts anymore, but Georgia was brave enough to do what no one else even thinks about trying. And according to Kirby Smart they succeeded in their goal.
“We had a goal of, you know, keeping the players on our roster that we could, and we went through agents, players, parents, meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting to try to retain our roster, which I think we won that battle,” Smart said via dawgnation.com. “You know, we were able to keep a lot of players we wanted to keep here. We've got the best retention rate in the playoff of the playoff teams. We’ve got the best retention rate in the SEC, so our guys want to be here and we have to learn to want to be here.”
Georgia is preparing for next season in a way no one else is
At this point in the offseason most teams are focused on bolstering their roster through the Transfer Portal. Not Georgia though, all they want to do is keep last year's roster in tact. Some may say that is a bold strategy, but in reality it is the smartest thing they could do after winning the SEC and making the playoff with one of the youngest teams in the country.
This doesn't mean that Georgia shouldn't use the portal at all. They still had some holes they needed to fill, and they did a great job adding players where they needed to. But they didn't add players from the portal because it's the flashy thing to do, they prioritized keeping their championship roster in tact because they've already shown how great they can play.
It remains to be seen how this will play out for them, but Georgia has been the No. 1 program during the Transfer Portal era and a big reason why is because of Smart's willingness to bet on his guys he recruited out of high school.