Kirby Smart Reveals 'Common Theme' Hurting College Football

The Georgia Bulldogs are considered as one of college football's top recruiting machines under head coach Kirby Smart.

UGA finished with the No. 1 class in the 2024 cycle. That marked the fourth time the Bulldogs had led the country in that category since Smart took the helm in 2016, according to Rivals. Georgia's worst finish in that span was fifth in 2021.

Despite the immense amount of success on the recruiting trail, Smart sees a "common theme" that is detrimental to college football as a whole.

Depth.

"I feel like we have less depth than we've ever had, and that's kind of a common theme talking to other coaches I talk to," Smart said on Tuesday. "I call it the deterioration of football because every year we've been here I feel like we've had more players capable of going in and play winning football and every year that goes down."

Smart went on to admit that the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs "probably" have more depth than anyone else in the sport. However, he didn't share reasoning for why college coaches feel that the amount of high-caliber players are seemingly diminishing on a yearly basis.

Injuries likely play a large part of Smart's concerns with depth. Multiple Georgia starters are dealing with ailments in fall camp , which has garnered questions regarding UGA's season opener versus Clemson in Atlanta on Aug. 31.

The Bulldogs were noticeably hampered by injuries during the SEC Championship Game loss to Alabama last season, a setback that kept 13-1 Georgia out of the College Football Playoff as the back-to-back national champion.

Now, college football is headed into an unprecedented, extended season with the expanded 12-team playoff. Staying healthy will be an underlying key to success for the nation's top teams.

"Injuries are part of football, so we've been lucky so far (in fall camp)," Smart said. "We haven't had significant injuries, but we have a lot of guys that are soft-tissue beat up, banged up and we're trying to get them back."

UGA-Clemson will kick off at noon ET (ABC) on Aug. 31 in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Related: Kirby Smart, Georgia Suffer Unfortunate Setback Weeks Before Season