Georgia still searching for answers — And that’s the point

ATHENS — Spring practice at the University of Georgia rarely offers clarity, and Kirby Smart isn’t pretending otherwise.

If anything, Georgia’s 10th-year head coach sounds right at home in the ambiguity.

“I’m excited about where our group is,” Smart said Tuesday, standing at the usual midpoint between optimism and demand. “I’ve been really pleased with the work we’ve had. I’m hoping we can stay away from the injury bug and just keep getting better.”

That’s about as definitive as it gets in March.

There are no depth charts yet, no starting jobs claimed. Instead, there are repetitions — a lot of them — and a deliberate effort to create competition across nearly every position group.

Start at quarterback, where the most visible question resides.

Gunner Stockton, slowed briefly by an offseason injury, is back in the mix and, according to Smart, doing what quarterbacks are expected to do this time of year: compete and learn.

“He’s out there competing, doing a good job,” Smart said.

But the bigger takeaway isn’t Stockton specifically. It’s the volume of work being poured into the entire room. Georgia has the luxury — and Smart would say necessity — of maximizing reps in ways not every program can.

“I don’t think you get better at the quarterback position without reps,” he said.

That philosophy extends everywhere, but nowhere is it more evident than along the offensive line, where “competition” might be underselling it.

Georgia is rolling through combinations at a pace that resembles a long-distance race rather than a sprint — Smart’s preferred analogy. Centers, guards, tackles — bodies are rotating constantly, with no clear separation yet.

“Nobody really sticks out,” Smart said, which, in his world, is less criticism than invitation.

It’s also a reminder. If Georgia is going to look like Georgia again, it starts up front.

Smart didn’t sugarcoat that part.

“That’s an area that we have to improve in,” he said.

On defense, the search is a little different. It’s not about replacing identity as much as maintaining it.

Sophomore defensive lineman Elijah Griffin is one of those players who flashes — quick enough to disrupt, strong enough to hold his own — but still somewhere between potential and production.

“He’s got the capabilities of being an elite player,” Smart said.

The operative word there is “capabilities.”

Georgia has had plenty of those. The next step is always the same: becoming difficult to block, difficult to scheme, difficult to ignore.

Smart has a simple way of putting it.

“Are you hard to block?” he asks his defensive linemen.

If the answer becomes yes, everything else tends to follow.

Offensively, the conversation keeps circling back to explosiveness — that buzzword that has followed Georgia through multiple seasons, even in years when it was winning national championships.

Smart doesn’t dismiss it. He just simplifies it.

“You have to throw the ball. You have to catch the ball. You have to protect the passer,” he said.

In other words, there’s no mystery to it. Execution, not scheme, determines whether big plays exist.

Still, Smart knows explosive offenses don’t happen in a vacuum. They require players capable of creating them — the Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkeys of recent memory.

“I think we need somebody to pop every year,” he said.

Who that is remains to be seen.

The running back room, led in part by Chauncey Bowens and Nate Frazier, is being challenged to expand its role beyond carrying the football. Pass protection, receiving ability, yards after contact — the checklist is long, and the expectations are clear.

“That’s essentially what a back’s measured by,” Smart said.

Elsewhere, there are smaller storylines that feel familiar this time of year. Players working back from injuries. Young contributors learning multiple positions. Veterans trying to solidify roles.

There’s even the occasional viral clip from practice — something Smart shrugs off with little concern.

“We do this every day,” he said.

That, more than anything, might define Georgia’s spring.

It’s not about moments. It’s about accumulation.

Reps stacked on reps. Competition layered across every position. Progress measured in increments too small to notice until suddenly they’re not.

By the time Georgia reaches fall, Smart expects answers.

Right now, he’s content with the questions.