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Kirby Smart a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award

Jeremy Johnsonby: Jeremy Johnson9 hours agoJeremyO_Johnson

Now that the regular season has been completed, Georgia football has begun to rake in the postseason awards with Kirby Smart as the latest.

The Bulldogs’ head coach was named as a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award. Smart has never won the award despite being nominated four times prior to this season.

Georgia concluded the regular season with a 12-1 record. Smart and the Bulldogs wrapped the season with a 28-7 win over Alabama in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Saturday.

It was Smart’s fourth SEC Championship as the head coach of his alma mater. The title means a lot to Smart.

“It’s one of the greatest championship games you can play in for a great conference,” Smart told reporters after the game on Saturday night. “So I have respect for that… Then all the credit goes to the players who have had a very long, tough, hard season. The kids in our program buy into hard. I appreciate their toughness and the way they do things. That pays off in the long run. To win back-to-back SEC championships, it’s every kid in this footprint’s dream and honor to be at Georgia and be able to be the head coach here and win games like this.”

A decade into the Kirby Smart era at Georgia

Saturday marked the 10-year mark of Smart being named Georgia’s head coach. It hit him prior to the game. He was coaching against Alabama, where a group of former players are now coaches. Smart was the Crimson Tide’s defensive coordinator from 2008 until 2015.

“The nerves, just overwhelmed,” Smart told reporters on a teleconference on Sunday. “I felt like I was just, you know, I was trying to prepare for a national championship, or I guess a playoff game at the time. And also taking on running a program, which I had not done. And just overwhelmed with who am I gonna hire? What am I gonna do? Just a lot of nerves. In terms of the memories, they’re just incredible. It’s just hard to believe it’s ten years. All these pictures of my kids are popping up on the timeline. And the aging of myself with the gray hair. I mean, it’s just crazy how fast it goes, yet how slow it goes. Some of it hit last night when I’m pre-game and  I get five, six Alabama players that are on their staff.”

Georgia will face the winner of Ole Miss and Tulane in the Sugar Bowl in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoffs.

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