There were some bittersweet moments this past spring when Georgia junior safety Lewis Cine watched a slew of friends get selected in the NFL draft.
Cornerback Eric Stokes went late in the first round to Green Bay. Cornerback Tyson Campbell was the first pick of the second round, going to Jacksonville. Safety Richard LeCounte was a fifth-round pick of Cleveland, while the versatile Mark Webb went late in the seventh round to the Los Angeles Chargers.
"It was amazing, because you play with those guys but also know them on a personal level," Cine said Friday as the Bulldogs began preseason camp. "To see them get drafted is something they wanted to reach their whole life, and to see them finally reach that brought joy to my heart, but we did lose a whole lot of talent from last year."
Hello, transfer portal.
Georgia has been an obvious recruiting machine during the Kirby Smart era, and that extended this year to the NCAA's new avenue that allowed the Bulldogs to obtain the needed likes of Clemson cornerback Derion Kendrick and West Virginia cornerback Tykee Smith. Those acquisitions helped counter not only Georgia's draft departures but the exit of former cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who transferred to Miami.
"They've been great additions and have handled things very well, and our players have embraced them," Smart said. "We have a history here of guys coming in and being really successful, and it started with (safety) Mo Smith. Then we had (receiver Lawrence) Cager come in. We've had guys come in and really help our program."
Smith announced in April that he was transferring from West Virginia, where he earned All-America honors as a sophomore last season from Rivals.com and Pro Football Focus. The 5-foot-10, 198-pounder from Philadelphia racked up 61 tackles and eight tackles for loss in 10 games last season, and he also snagged two interceptions.
It was June when Kendrick, a first-team All-ACC selection last season as a junior, revealed he was headed to Athens. A former five-star receiver signee for the Tigers in 2018, the 6-foot, 190-pounder from Rock Hill, South Carolina, played on offense as a freshman for the Atlantic Coast Conference and national champions before starting at corner his next two seasons.
"They are who they say they are," Cine said. "We kind of knew what we were getting based on the workouts we've been doing. They are two guys who bring a whole lot to the table."
Said junior linebacker Nakobe Dean: "They have been taught differently, and we like to see how other people look at the game, so it's been great to have them."
Without Kendrick's 39 career games of experience and Smith's 22, Smart would be looking at quite the rebuilding job in the secondary along with defensive coordinator Dan Lanning and new defensive backs coach Jahmile Addae, who came over from West Virginia as well. It would seem that an elite program like Georgia could forever avoid experience gaps with the transfer portal, but Smart doesn't want to bank on that.
"I don't think those days are over," Smart said. "That's going to happen, because what if you don't get what you need out of the portal? What if you go to the grocery store, and they are out of ketchup? You can't take the assumption that you'll always get what you need. There are probably some other positions this year that if we needed somebody, we may not have been able to get what we needed in terms of experience or talent or whatever it is.
"I think everybody thinks that the portal is the answer, but we want to get it right from the beginning. I like developing players and getting the right guy early on. Eric Stokes did not play his freshman year and redshirted, and he was a first-round pick. There are scenarios out there where you grow and get better. We do have a fall-back to gain some experience through the portal, but I don't know if it's always going to be that way."
Odds and ends
Smart said the Bulldogs are above 90% on the player vaccination front. ... Smart on what Oklahoma and Texas could mean for future Southeastern Conference scheduling: "I haven't wasted one second of thought on that. I know that they're coming, and I'm happy that they're coming. I think it's going to make our conference much stronger. They are two of the top 10 winningest programs in all of college football."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.