The hunt for Mark Richt’s successor at the University of Georgia is finally over. UGA was the premier job on the table after Louisiana State University decided to keep Les Miles on staff, and even if they had fired Miles it would have been a premier job. Spots at UGA, LSU, and the other Southeastern Conference schools are rarely open. So when Kirby Smart finally got his offer to leave the University of Alabama and return home to UGA (he played at Georgia from 1995-98), he jumped on it.
There has been speculation that Smart would wait out Nick Saban’s retirement at Alabama; he was reportedly the coach in waiting. However, that option was one Smart finally bypassed the wait-it-out approach and jumped on his opportunity to become a head coach finally. After all, Saban could remain at ‘Bama for quite a few years still.
The deal isn’t official yet and could still fall through in the eleventh hour I suppose. However, it seems all but official. Smart will remain the defensive coordinator at Alabama for one final game, the SEC Championship this weekend. It’ll likely be announced Sunday or Monday that Smart is officially the new head ball coach between the hedges in Athens, Georgia.
So what does this all mean?
First, Smart inherits a great gig. Mark Richt averaged nearly 10-wins per season throughout his 15-year career with Georgia. The Dawgs are routinely a top school when it comes to recruiting and routinely produce NFL talent. However, Richt was never able to shine in the big moments. He won the SEC East five times, including back-to-back wins in 2002 and 2003, and 2011 and 2012.
In Richt’s second year, 2002, the team went 13-1 with its lone loss to Florida (another problem we will address) and beat the University of Arkansas 30-3 in the SEC Championship. Georgia missed out on the BCS title game simply because Ohio State University and the University of Miami were both undefeated.
After 2002, Georgia fans thought they were poised for several national titles under Richt’s tenure. However, that would never happen. The team remained one of the most consistent and would win another SEC title in 2005, but had too many losses for anything bigger. The next shot for Richt and the Dawgs came in 2012 when an 11-1 team met up with Alabama in Atlanta for the SEC Championship. Georgia would ultimately fall five yards short after a tipped pass was inadvertently caught and time ran out. Alabama went on to annihilate Notre Dame in the BCS Championship. That was the theme of Mark Richt’s UGA tenure. Close, but always short.
For Kirby Smart to be looked back on as a better coach than Mark Richt – who some consider the best UGA coach of all-time, I’ll put him second behind Vince Dooley – he has to do something bigger. Richt won with the Dawgs, he ended the 20-year fall from greatness, nearly won it all, but he didn’t.
Kirby Smart will likely be judged by National Championships because that’s what is expected of him. There isn’t a long lull in Georgia’s immediate past; they’ve been good. Smart is hired to make them better than what Richt did; that’s a tall task.
But Smart has a lot going for him before he even gets to Athens. The team already has the sixth best recruiting class in 2016 already. Smart will likely be able to bring in a few big name defensive recruits from what would’ve been Alabama’s class. Laying claim to a top-five class shouldn’t be entirely out of the realm of possibility for Smart in his first signing day.
On top of the class itself, he has one of the top quarterback recruits already interested in coming to UGA. Jacob Eason, who is Rivals.com’s second ranked quarterback, has been verbally committed to UGA since the summer of 2014. Eason is the best quarterback the school has brought in since Matthew Stafford. A five-star quarterback would be huge for Smart and UGA in year one. However, there are reports that Eason took an official visit to Florida this past week after the firing of Mark Richt. Eason and his family are big fans of Richt and were worried about the post-Richt era. Smart’s first task, make sure Eason is still on board. Eason was scheduled to arrive on campus in January, so it’s a short turnaround for Smart to make. That is priority one once the hire is official.
Take a quick check of Twitter and you can see what several recruits are saying. So far, so good. UGA seems to have made the right choice with Smart.
Five-star athlete Mecole Hardman Jr. offered this tweet.
UGA gets Kirby Smart 🤔👀😏🐶
— Mecole Hardman Jr. (@MecoleHardman4) December 2, 2015
Five-star linebacker Ben Davis is the number six recruit in the entire nation. He told DawgNation that Georgia is one of his top schools after the Smart signing.
The top tight end recruit in the class, five-star, Issac Nauta told DawgNation that the Smart hiring was a “huge pickup” and that he would have to wait to see who the offensive coordinator is. Nauta would be a huge addition to a loaded class and would be UGA’s second five-star tight end on the depth chart next to Jeb Blazevich.
If these top-tier recruits are any indication, Kirby Smart may be able to reel in the top recruiting class in 2016.
So with a likely top recruiting class, including one of the best quarterbacks in the country, Smart’s first year can be an impact year.
What questions remain?
Well, the biggest looming question is what does the rest of the coaching staff look like?
Strength and conditioning Coach Scott Cochran is reportedly one of the guys that Smart wants to bring with him from Alabama, and that is a move that intrigues recruits and fans alike. Cochran isn’t front lines to a lot of college football fans. But Alabama fans know what he means to the program. There were quite a few tweets from Roll Tide Nation last night that essentially said losing Cochran was a bigger deal than Smart just because they were prepared for the loss of their defensive coordinator, not the S & C coach. It’s still unclear if Cochran would assume the same role with UGA or an increased role.
Another big name that Smart has reportedly reached out to is Will Muschamp, the former Florida Gator head coach and current Auburn defensive coordinator.
The biggest question mark is who does he bring in to become the offensive coordinator?
Alabama receivers coach Billy Napier and Western Kentucky’s offensive coordinator Tyson Helton have garnered the early buzz. Napier was a former offensive coordinator with Clemson and Helton led WKU to a top-10 offense this season.
Thomas Brown, who is in his first season as the running backs coach at UGA, was a tailback for UGA in 2005 when Smart was UGA’s running backs coach. So could he get a promotion? Possibly.
There’s still a lot to be figured out. Should Smart pull in a big name like Muschamp, take a lesser-known quantity in Helton, or take a flier on Brown, it’ll have ripple effects within SEC nation and 2016 recruiting.
Finally, it’s time to set some guidelines for Kirby Smart.
How do you surpass Richt?
As I said earlier, he’s got large shoes to fill. However, they are fillable. Richt never got the ultimate job done. Many jumped on the decision to fire a coach that was money to get nine or 10 wins a season. However, UGA fans aren’t happy with 10 wins a season, if it means they’ll never reach the pinnacle of success. With Richt two things were certain, a 10-win season and a few losses to better teams.
The Gators, Tigers, and Tide all found success against Georgia. This year proved no exception. Georgia got the wheels blown off by Florida and Alabama, and that was probably Richt’s last straw.
In a showdown with Alabama, Mark Richt could’ve saved his career, but they lost big time. That was recoverable with a rebound. However, the battle in Jacksonville with the Gators proved to be the final shot for Richt. Was it fair? Maybe not, this year’s team wasn’t great. After Nick Chubb had gone down, it was all but lost. But it was still expected.
For Smart to surpass the legacy of Mark Richt, here are the guidelines.
1. Win National Championship(s)
UGA fans crave the national spotlight. The national title that eluded Mark Richt was the biggest blemish on an otherwise bright record. For Smart to become a legend at UGA, a national title is issue 1 A.
2. Beat Your Rivals
Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech are the biggest foes year-in-year-out. You know when the games will happen, you know where they’ll be, and you know what they mean. Smart has to come in and one-up his predecessor in wins over rivals.
Richt went 5-10 against Florida, the team that has always bullied the Bulldogs. That’s not acceptable. If you look back at the great years, UGA had under Richt, 2011 and 2012 were the only years Richt beat the Gators. In the other SEC East championship years, the Dawgs lost.
Richt did well against Auburn and GT, but Florida was always his nemesis. Remember the massive celebration penalty? The subsequent Tim Tebow Gator chomp? The Todd Gurley chomp? Florida and Richt have some crazy memories. For Smart to outperform Richt, he needs to stop the gimmicks and just win.
3. Win The Big Games
In an extension of the rivalry games, Richt had a bad history with big games. It seemed like every time UGA had a chance to steal the spotlight, it was lost. UGA would lose embarrassingly by getting blown out, or they would lose on something silly. A tipped pass caught for a late TD against Auburn, the ending to the 2012 SEC Championship versus Alabama, the debacle against Boise State in Atlanta, the list goes on and on.
Smart has to change that culture. When Georgia is on the precipice of something big… they need to cash in. Richt couldn’t do it. It would be wise for Smart to cash the check.
The Kirby Smart hiring was the clear choice for Georgia. They brought in a former son of Dawgs nation. He gets his first head coaching gig between the hedges; it’s like a dream. Kirby Smart had the ground work laid down by Mark Richt. He’s got a nice paved road to work with. The inaugural recruiting class looks to be trending in the right direction. He should be able to finish the job with Eason and have his quarterback for the next three or four years.
Ultimately Smart’s tenure at Georgia will come down to wins, losses, and national championships. The Smart era starts after he finishes things off with Alabama and sends them to yet another national title shot. The defensive genius that has led the number one defense in the nation since 2008 now gets to try his hand as the head coach.
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