ATHENS — Georgia does not play Kentucky this week but head coach Kirby Smart was still answering questions about the Wildcats following some explosive comments made by Mark Stoops on Monday.
The Kentucky head coach brought up Georgia on his Monday night radio show when discussing the need for the Wildcats to be more aggressive on the NIL front.
“Fans have that right,” I give it to them. I just encourage them to donate more, because that’s what those dudes are doing. I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days. We could use some help.”
Stoops later brought up Georgia’s roster once again.
“That’s what they look like, you know what I mean, when you have 85 of them,” Stoops said. “I encourage anybody that’s disgruntled to pony up some more.”
Smart was asked about Stoops’ comment following Tuesday’s practice. The Georgia head coach was diplomatic in response to Stoops.
“No reaction. It’s much to do about nothing,” Smart said. “I think Mark is trying to garner interest for money from his fanbase for his collective and we’re all trying to do the same in terms of trying to get money for the collective. Mark and I talked about NIL pregame and we talked about it in our meeting. I’m not biting on that.”
Both Kentucky’s starting quarterback, Devin Leary, and leading rusher, Ray Davis, came from the transfer portal. It should be noted that Stoops is now 0-11 against Georgia since arriving at Kentucky. The 51-13 loss on Saturday was Kentucky’s first defeat of the season.
The Bulldogs were active in the transfer portal this offseason, bringing in Rara Thomas, Dominic Lovett, Smoke Bouie and Len’Neth Whitehead. Thomas had 5 receptions and 63 yards in the win over Kentucky. He also scored Georgia’s second touchdown of the evening.
The Bulldogs have also lost plenty of talented players to the transfer portal. Jermaine Burton, AD Mitchell and Major Burns all are examples of former Bulldogs who are now starting elsewhere, with Burton at Alabama, Mitchell at Texas and Burns at LSU.
Smart understands that is just the nature of the game when you’re at a place like Georgia.
“You know, you have to be smart and evaluate your players, talk to your players, explain where they are,” Smart said on Monday. “I think it’s really important to have communication back home. You have to do all those things. But I don’t know how different that is from everybody else because I don’t know what everybody else does.”
Georgia consistently recruits at a high level under Smart. The Bulldogs have signed a top-four recruiting class in every cycle dating back to 2017. Georgia currently has the No. 1 ranked recruiting class for the 2024 cycle. Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class ranks No. 24.
Georgia makes a trip to Vanderbilt this weekend, while Kentucky hosts Missouri. The Georgia game is set for a 12 p.m. ET start, with CBS broadcasting the game.
