re: 2026 Transfer Portal Thread (Bryson Beaver IN)

With all of these kids moving around it’s damn near impossible to build a 2 deep roster with any talent.

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Which is why...Kirby is less effective

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I still don't understand this reasoning. In what world is winning the SEC championship and 12 games, losing two games by a field goal apiece, less effective? Did people honestly start to believe at some point that it was reasonable to expect a national championship every two or three years? Is that what happened in 21 and 22; suddenly after 135 years of Georgia football, the expectations went straight to the moon? If so, those people were wrong, even without NIL and the transfer portal.

Does anybody remember UGA's last national championship before Kirby Smart; 40 years prior to 2021 and it was about as ugly as a championship season can get. Struggled all season long and the Sugar bowl was far from pretty. But now we fail to roll over somebody like a steamroller and it's a disappointment; lose one and the internet boo birds come out of the woodworks.

Here's what I think. If they can stay reasonable healthy, Georgia's defense looks locked and loaded for next year. They were showing it as the '25 season progressed, until too many injuries accumulated at the end. With some progress at the quarterback position, the offense should be able to hold up their part of deal very well. In other words, Georgia has a realistic shot to win it all next year, again.

That's not a step backwards or a decline in effectiveness, it's where they've been every season after 2016. If anything, Kirby's gotten more effective because he's winning without multi-billionaire boosters willing to buy players. But he was never going on a Saban style run of dominance, because UGA football doesn't have the latitude to operate like Alabama. Saban's continuous accumulation of talent was an outlier for just about any era of college football, with the possible exception of Bear Bryant's years, which is not a coincidence. Georgia won't be able to do that but, so far in the NIL era, Kirby still has Georgia right where they need and want to be.

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I still don't understand this reasoning

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It's not that hard to understand. What kirby and saban used to do was stack elite talent like cordwood, and both also just so happened to be elite developrs of talent to boot. Used to be that when guys left for the NFL (or were injured, whatever), we'd plug and play another stud right behind them. Now, with the portal being what it is, you cant' stack talent like that anymore. In 2021 we had jalen carter coming off the bench. YOu think that would happen now? It's just logical thinking to say that it's not possible to have the quality championship depth now that we're used to. It's not an insult or a teeth gnashing kinda thing, just pointing out reality.

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In what world is winning the SEC championship and 12 games

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I don' see anyone complaining about that or hating on it?

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Is that what happened in 21 and 22; suddenly after 135 years of Georgia football, the expectations went straight to the moon?

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we didn't win in 21/22 because of "expectations". We won because of otherworldy talent and coaching combined. The talent part of that equation has taken a huge hit from top of the roster to the bottom. That's inarguable.

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If they can stay reasonable healthy, Georgia's defense looks locked and loaded for next year. They were showing it as the '25 season progressed, until too many injuries accumulated at the end. With some progress at the quarterback position, the offense should be able to hold up their part of deal very well. In other words, Georgia has a realistic shot to win it all next year, again.

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You are correct! and again I don't think anyone would argue with you, but that isn't the point of the converstaion. Nobody is lamenting the quality of our starting 22, it's pointing out that the guys behidn them are multiple steps below what our backups were pre-portal.

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I don' see anyone complaining about that or hating on it?

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It's everywhere There's a big internet presence, message boards, twitter, etc., claiming to be Georgia fans and insinuating or saying that Kirby Smart is leading this program astray. He's lost it, never had it, has fallen behind the times. Too loyal to his friends and his favorite players, won't spend money, can't manage his roster, makes bad game decisions, mis-evaluates talent, etc., etc. They say it repeatedly and with emphasis. It's absurd and flies in the face of facts. Some of it is propaganda, IMO. If money is at stake, there's propaganda; it's ubiquitous. The internet has far surpassed television as the instrument of choice. Peer to peer influence. That's how they do it.


From another post

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which underscores the point. In 2021:
-If our top 2 RBs needed a spell we'd just turn to our 3rd/4th string in James Cook/Kendall Milton.
-Our best WR Pickens was hurt and out most of the year. You can call Ladd 1B if you like. That's a lot for him..oh wait our next guys up are AD Mitchell adn Jermaine Burton.
-Brock is the best TE of all time so let's say he's getting triple covered. Guess we'll just go to Darnell Washington instead.
-JAlen Carter came off the bench if one of our other NFL starters needed a breather
-If Nakobe Dean or CHanning Tindall needed a break, we'll just bring in NFL stud quay walker
-Adam Anderson was an All American caliber guy we lost halfway and didn't miss a beat
-If something happened to Chris Smith or Lewis Cine we had Javon Bullard or Dan Jackson off the bench
-If Ringo or Kendrick was hurt, ok just plug in Kamari Lassiter instead

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This quote above illustrates my earlier point. You're talking about one of the best seasons in UGA's 100 plus years of football, and it feels like that's become the expectation. Goal for the team, sure, but for any given year it's not a realistic fan expectation because the large majority of seasons won't end with a national championship. Lots of folks are acting like anything less is unacceptable for their enjoyment. We had one on this board start a dramatic farewell thread to that effect, after complaining/criticizing all season long. 12-2 and kicking his Alabama brothers' arse in the SECCG broke his heart, can't take it any more. Folks like that definitely should find more suitable pastimes.

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simply were not able to overcome it like we might have in a pre-portal world. That isn't some insult to the program to point out.

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It's an insult to UGA players and coaches to harp on it, IMO, because 2025 was a great season for them, unequivocally. The people who try to qualify that success, by constantly pointing out that we've (occasionally) seen better, had faulty expectations.

I agree with most of your points, I don't think we're on opposite sides here. 2025 was a massively successful season by any measure. We beat every opponent we faced and won the SEC (beating the shite out of AL was a nice cherry on top). If some fans aren't happy with that and want to pout then that's their problem.

I also don't think it's out of line to simply look around at the state of CFB and compare ourselves. Texas friggin tech made the final 4 for no reason other than simply buying their whole roster. I couldn't even name their coach. Ole Miss made the final 4 due to players they got out of the portal. Ditto for both title game participants. The champs have a team whose age mirrors a young NFL team. We do things differently here and honestly I'm glad we do! It sets us apart and ensures that every single season we're going to have a rock solid foundation of recruited, returning players. However, the writing is on the wall that to win it all you've got to spend on the portal for elite guys. not backups from Alabama A&M. We did it with Branch, I'm sure he costs a lot more than we wanted but look at the returns. We probably lose 2-3 more games than we did if not for him.

I think many things can be true. We are doing things the "right" way. We do have the best staff around. We also probably need to keep evaluating how we treat the portal.

In the Ole Miss game we were down 4 defensive starters and lost at least 1 starter in the game to targeting. Pre-portal, it is likely we have more depth at those spots than we did during that game. Post portal rosters are less likely to have depth than they did. Less likely to have a Junior who is second string and “could” start at most SEC teams. That guy is gone in a lot of cases. Smart has to do more with less, develop and keep who he can “which he does better than just about anyone”… and get lucky with injuries and catch breaks on the field.

What the National Championship game showed us is that as dominant as Indiana was, they were a slip away from a 2 loss ACC team beating them in the final minute of the game.

We can unsticky this post now. FirstCity, thank you for your service! Great thread.

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Which is why...Kirby is less effective

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I agree with the 'wdhalgren' on this. In the last 5 years, we've 2 natties and 3 SEC Championships. Who in the nation has done better than that this half-a-decade?

With the landscape of cfb changing, Smart has managed to keep the most consistent semblance of dominance of any team in the country.

And add a B1G schedule where you play 2-3 tough games. I don’t think his model is sustainable in SEC. Kiffin is closest but still has come up short.