Kirby Smart to Georgia
- Thread starter UKErik
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Will completely depend on his offensive coordinator, otherwise feels like a Will Muschamp deal to me. Although Smart seems to have better demeanor to him. I know he did well at Bama but is there really any other current D Coordinator in the SEC that wouldn't have looked good with that personnel? And that includes Elliot, he and Stoops looked pretty dang good at FSU
Mark Richt. Got Fired supposedly because of inept offensive output... if Kirby Smart has the same offensive philosophy as Mark Stoops then he will not become an awesome coach
Smart will be fired in 3 years. Programs like Georgia shouldn't have to gamble on coordinators. Gene Chizik, Will Muschamp, and now Kirby Smart. Someone will get a good defensive coordinator in a couple years.
Who should they have hired? After all there are so many "proven" head coaches out there.
But wait isn't he just an unproven coordinator with no head coaching experience? How could their AD be so dumb? 
Another DC from an ultra successful program with no HC experience. This time, Smart is stepping into a position where fans demand better than a 74% winning percentage. He hasn't put his pictures on the wall and he's already on dangerously thin ice. This will be interesting.
Only time will tell, but... Mark Stoops is the longest tenured coach in the SEC East. He's only been here for 3 years!! Fans are becoming more & more impatient & they typically have unreal expectations. 9 & 10 win seasons are no longer considered good enough for schools like Georgia.
Anyway, I don't think that it is a given that coordinators can't succeed, (although they are a bigger gamble), but I do think that you have a good chance at being correct.
KY and vandy are the only SEC schools who hire coordinators to be first time HC's!!!
UGA is surely doomed! Their AD is as dumb as Barnhart!!!
UGA is surely doomed! Their AD is as dumb as Barnhart!!!
Mark Richt was himself hired as a coordinator. Most of their coaches have been throughout their history.
One of those is comparable. And oddly enough it's Richt. Franklin and Mullen both went to bottom feeder/stepping stone jobs. These programs typically hire up and coming coordinators and have a higher likely hood of moderate success. This moderate success and experience makes them better coaches and candidates for bigger jobs. It seldom works at big programs.
And he led Auburn to a national title. The delusion of AU fans that they are like Alabama (very similar to dumb UGA fans thinking the same) led to his firing. 3-9, 0-fer in the SEC is embarrassing but 2 years after a 14-0 dream season? eh...looked like it had worked out well for them but Malzahn is trending way down himself after his NON TITLE season in year 1.
This hire is a good one on paper for UGA, but who knows if this guy is any good. He has coached Bama D's under Saban's watchful eyes...so let's see what he does on his own. To the guy who said he will be a great hire and dominate, interesting comment with no factual info to back it up. He may do well, he may not, NO ONE knows right now.
He better be. They just fired a coach who averaged 10 wins a year for 15 years so the bar to clear is pretty damn high.
Georgia could have went a number of routes. Dan Mullen, Larry Fedora, an nfl guy with head coaching experience. They could have went after some rooted guys like Dantonio or Whittingham. Maybe they did. I don't know.
You're right about Franklin and Mullen and I actually edited my post when I thought of that myself. However, there are plenty of other examples in college power programs, some of whom succeeded and others who didn't. Jimbo Fisher and the other Stoops are two other examples.
I'm just not sure I'm as enamored with Kirby Smart as lots of Georgia fans. Personally, I think he is a risky hire. He might end up being good. But the odds that he'll be able to duplicate the success Richt experienced is probably less than 50/50. The odds that he can do better than Richt are even lower still. Georgia is a good enough program that they could easily attract a proven, top notch coach. Honestly, I think they could have done better than Kirby Smart.
Chip Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, David Shaw, Dabo Sweeney, Bob Stoops and Mike Gundy all disagree. 5 of the top 10 teams in the country have guys coaches who are on their 1st head coaching jobs. It's a crapshoot either way. Sometimes coordinators work out, sometimes they don't. There is no magic formula.
Pretty underwhelming hire if I'm a UGA fan. You just got rid of a guy who avg 10 wins a year and you bring in this guy. I think it's a failed experiment and the hiring seems rushed. It's just Dec
Moral of the story- Don't hire a co-ordinator when there were big name coaches out there that would have jumped at the Georgia job. He is set-up to fail. 3 years at best.
I bet Alabama fans don't like this. Alabama has made Kirby Smart the highest paid defensive coordinator in the country. I would think for that type of money he would give the Crimson Tide his undivided attention during the week leading up to the SEC Championship game instead of interviewing for other jobs.
Disagree. I think this is a train wreck waiting to happen. And I can't wait to see it. They are gonna be like UT was a few years ago...regretting letting go of a good coach.
Here's my problem with Smart. No one ever knows how well a good coordinator is gonna do as a head coach. But I would say we dont even know if Smart is a good coordinator. Hear me out. Bama has had the #1 class for years now. Saban always gets the top defensive players in the country. They run a slow paced offense that keeps the defense off the field. So the thing I'm getting at....is Smart a good coach? Or is he a product of good recruiting and system?
He has turned down numerous jobs over the years before leaping to Georgia. That in itself makes me believe he knows he had it made where he was at. But I think he knows now that Saban is probably gonna leave or retire soon. His name is only gonna get so hot and job is only gonna stay easy with Saban there.
Maybe I'm wrong but I think this is gonna blow up in Georgia's face.
Georgia is a relic of a formerly great program struggling mightily to stay relevant in the changing landscape of college football. Is it a good hire for Georgia to bring in Smart? Sure. Is it a wise decision on Smart's part to accept a position at a school where they forced out a coach who averaged just shy of 10 wins a season (he averaged 9.66 wins vs. 3.4 losses each year)? Probably Not. I think the wise move for Smart would've been to try and get on at a smaller, yet still successful football program - i.e. UCLA, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, etc., etc. Now Smart has to basically step into the lions den and hope to achieve more success than Richt did, which is going to be hard to do because the only way to succeed beyond Richt is to win a National Championship. Richt won double-digit games in 9 out of 15 seasons, was 3-1 in BCS Bowl games, and 9-5 in bowl games overall. He never had a team worse than 3rd place in the SEC East and won the eastern division title 6 times while winning the SEC championship twice. He was twice SEC coach of the year.
If Kirby Smart thinks he's gonna step in and exceed a guy who was as successful as a college football coach not named Urban Meyer or Nick Saban can be, he's gonna be in for a rude awakening. Also, I wonder how long UGa fans are willing to give him before they turn on him? My guess is 2 to 3 seasons, MAX.
If Kirby Smart thinks he's gonna step in and exceed a guy who was as successful as a college football coach not named Urban Meyer or Nick Saban can be, he's gonna be in for a rude awakening. Also, I wonder how long UGa fans are willing to give him before they turn on him? My guess is 2 to 3 seasons, MAX.
I do think he had more responsibility at his former school than our latest hire but Georgia may have just hired their own Shannon Dawson, time will tell. I know he's been waiting for the Georgia job to come open so it's somewhat curious to me that he wouldn't ever leave Bama to coach another school and build up some experience before it opened. Perhaps he knew his luster might fade a bit if he was out on his own and not under the shadow of Saban.
This wasn't rushed. This was UGA's plan from the very beginning, weeks before they actually fired Richt. Some of the big boosters always viewed Saint Kirby as the heir apparent to UGA football and didn't want to risk losing him to another SEC school. So, the timing was there. I don't believe UGA even considered anyone else. It wasn't just about firing Richt, it was about making a move to secure Kirby Smart as their future head coach.
Muschamp was once the flavor of the month in terms of overrated coordinators being hyped into the #1 head coaching candidate in the country. Remember when Texas made him HCIW? We will see how this works out. One thing is for sure. Don't worry about Alabama. Saban is what makes that program roll and like always they will win big regardless of who is on their assistant coaching staff.
Muschamp was once the flavor of the month in terms of overrated coordinators being hyped into the #1 head coaching candidate in the country. Remember when Texas made him HCIW? We will see how this works out. One thing is for sure. Don't worry about Alabama. Saban is what makes that program roll and like always they will win big regardless of who is on their assistant coaching staff.
Kirby Smart will have a very, very good roster to start working with. If he is as good as Mac down in Florida he will build a formidable program at UGA. He comes from the same tree so I would not underestimate what he might accomplish. I am sorry to see Richt go as he was the epitome of a southern gentleman and ran a very good program that seemed to fall on bad luck multiple times. Can you imagine what college football would look like if UGA had scored that TD from the 5 yard line against Bama a few years ago?
college football sure is funny. No way a superpower basketball program like Kentucky or North Carolina would hire, nor would the fans accept, some top assistant coach who has never been a head coach at any level in their lives. but football it is fine, Georgia hiring one now, Florida did the same a couple years ago, Florida State, Southern Cal.
when you consider Muschamp at Florida, Strong at Texas, and our situation with Stoops it sure does seem to be a trend that hiring DC's as your head coach results in struggling inconsistent less than high powered offenses.
when you consider Muschamp at Florida, Strong at Texas, and our situation with Stoops it sure does seem to be a trend that hiring DC's as your head coach results in struggling inconsistent less than high powered offenses.
They wanted to hire Smart at DC 2 years ago. BAMA gave him a huge raise, in some ways, putting pressure on Georgia. Georgia would have liked to have had Smart in house, and let him take over for Richt a little more seamlessly.
If UGA didn't do this (fire Richt, hire Smart), then they let BAMA outfox them.
Note Saban's comments after UGA fired Richt. Basically saying, "What is this sport coming to . . .?"
Saban, at BAMA, is 3-1 against Georgia, including 3-0 in games played in the state of Georgia. Saban wants Richt at Georgia, and Smart as his DC.
Clearly, BAMA is the class of the SEC, and if you keep letting Saban & Co. dictate terms for the rest of the league, you are going to keep playing second (or third) fiddle to them.
In 2008, we had good defense with only 1 full class under Saban. Coming into 2012, we lost almost every starter from the 2011 defense, which was arguably the greatest defense in the last 10-15 years. In the 2012 two-deep, only 5 players were Seniors, and the overwhelming majority of the contributors had little-to-no experience. We basically had to start from scratch that year. Outside of the 1st half of the A&M game, that defense played very well.
Kirby Smart loves everything about UGA. Went there, played there, wife played basketball there, has a house there ... Sometimes there is something to be said about bringing in one of your own to be the coach (although I know it didn't work out for us and Joker).
Mark Richt won a lot of games at Georgia, but he also fared poorly in big games recently. Since 2008 his record against top 15 teams was 6-17. That's the reason he's gone. Upstart Missouri and now Florida (with a first year head coach) have won the SEC East. That won't cut it with Georgia fans who consider themselves elite.
Tubby Smith won a lot of basketball games at UK too but couldn't crack the Final Four. That didn't cut it with Kentucky fans either who consider themselves elite.
Mark Schlabach wrote this about Richt on ESPN: "Richt's the kind of man you'd want coaching your son -- unless you wanted him to beat Florida. He's the kind of man you'd want representing your alma mater -- unless you wanted to win national championships."
Georgia will find their man to get back to elite status even if it's not Smart. Kentucky found their man too.
Tubby Smith won a lot of basketball games at UK too but couldn't crack the Final Four. That didn't cut it with Kentucky fans either who consider themselves elite.
Mark Schlabach wrote this about Richt on ESPN: "Richt's the kind of man you'd want coaching your son -- unless you wanted him to beat Florida. He's the kind of man you'd want representing your alma mater -- unless you wanted to win national championships."
Georgia will find their man to get back to elite status even if it's not Smart. Kentucky found their man too.