After nine seasons of working under Nick Saban at Alabama, new Georgia coach Kirby Smart was bound to pick up a thing or two.

And after a few months on the job, it appears as though employing a robust support staff is one of them.

The Crimson Tide has a reputation for career a large number of support staff members, and according to a report from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Chip Towers, Georgia appears to be heading in that direction under Smart.

Towers reports that there are now more than 40 individuals “directly involved with full-time support of the football program.”

And Smart’s not done hiring.

“The support staff is a continual process,” Smart said. “It’s not something that’s just, ‘all right we’re going to be done by this date.’ … We have more support staff to hire. That’s kind of next on the agenda.”

There are only 10 official members of the coaching staff, including Smart and his nine assistant coaches.

Some of the roles that have been recently hired by Smart are “senior graphics designer” and “director of player wellness”, according to Towers.

The report says that Georgia has approximately $5.6 million dedicated to annual salary of support staff.

Towers cited a recent quote from Saban about his philosophy on support staff from an interview at the College Football Playoff championship in Phoenix back in January:

“We love it that we can have some extra guys around that are young guys that aspire to be coaches,” he said. “I think one of the most difficult things about our profession is, how do you get experience so that you can grow and develop as a coach? The fact that we can have a few extra guys now to be analysts, to break down film, to do quality-control-type work, that is beneficial to some guys that can move on to maybe become graduate assistants and get on the field and get some coaching experience.”

Georgia fans can expect to see Saban’s hand prints on the Bulldogs program based on all the time that Smart and Saban spent together, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, given Saban’s track record of success.