(OT) SHOCKING NEWS: Georgia to name Kirby Smart as head coach
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14269857/georgia-bulldog…
This is of course is a shocking development. In all seriousness, we all saw it coming.
This is step one of my prediction...
- Kirby Smart to Georgia
- Mark Richt to Miami
- Jeremy Pruitt (if he doesn't get the S. Carolina head job) to Bama as DC
Obvious coaching hires if you ask me...
December 1st, 2015 at 9:48 PM ^
I've never understood the appeal of Kirby Smart. At least not at a major program.
December 1st, 2015 at 9:52 PM ^
The whole winning three national titles, gunning for a fourth, and fielding nasty defenses littered with first rounders every year would appeal to most programs.
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December 1st, 2015 at 10:08 PM ^
Not to totally discount him, but a lot of guys would look like coaching geniuses if they had the masses of oversigned defensive talent that Kirby Smart has had.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:14 PM ^
I'd be surprised if he didn't help get a significant portion of that talent tho.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:39 PM ^
I think Hoke's recruiting prowess v. performance shows that bringing in the talent isn't quite the whole battle. Big fast 18 year olds don't roll out of bed and play perfect disciplined defense.
December 2nd, 2015 at 4:01 AM ^
comparing alabama's 5* laden team with hoke's recruits is a bit of a stretch.
when you have the highest rated class 4 years in a row, you SHOULD win the title a few times.
saban is a good recruiter and an average coach.
December 2nd, 2015 at 5:14 AM ^
that's one of the dumbest things I've read on here in a minute.
December 2nd, 2015 at 9:08 AM ^
Saban and co. have turned three stars into great players, they just don't have to anymore.
December 2nd, 2015 at 11:41 AM ^
As you said, he is a great recruiter, but he was not getting those players while at State and he won the BIG at state and was able to beat FL, pre Urban of course, but FL had been a hell of a program for some time. His decision to leave state was predicated largely on his inability to compete for athletes w/UM. He knew the top players going to a Michigan school were going to AA instead of EL. He has, is and will remain much more than an average coach until the game passes him by like we saw w/Paterno, Bowden, Bear to a lesser degree and many others. Very seldom, it seems, does a coach get out when he's at the top of his game like Bo. And Carr's lack of interest in his last two seasons definitely took its toll on our roster and made possible the giant strides that Dantonio was able to make in his third year in E.L. Maintaining a program and having it good to go when the new sheriff arrives is every bit a determinent as game day skills in consistent way above average to great programs.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:42 PM ^
especially on defense. That time working with Saban should be valuable. Does anyone think Saban is not a good coach because he a lot of talent to work with? Smart's moving on to another team that's going to have a very talented roster so that's very relevant experience. So is coaching in the same conference.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:28 PM ^
Dunno. Let me poll East Lansing and Miami Dolphins fans and see what they say about good old Saban without talent...and that bought right well.
December 2nd, 2015 at 1:47 AM ^
To take BG's point even further, it's easy to be a "great" coach when your boosters buy you whoever you want. For example, Saban doesn't like to recruit DB's under six feet tall. This year, they only have two DB's listed on their roster who are less than six feet tall. For comparison, Michigan has five, and I'm guessing it was closer to ten before Hoke got his ass handed to him by Bama.
I think it's better to hire someone who is having success at a lesser school than to hire someone who is a hot assistant. Great assistants have yet to prove that they can handle the CEO aspects of being a head coach.
There are plenty of winners and losers both ways, but I think hiring coaches who have proven they can handle the HC job is the way to go for an elite program. Besides, UGA should be able to poach a coach from any program in the country except for maybe 15 or so.
Bad move AFAIC.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:17 PM ^
I like him as a DC, for sure. But he's a rookie head coach. Whether he's an upgrade over Richt is hard to say.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
This is maybe Georgia's version of going from Carr to Harbaugh without having a Rich Rod or Hoke... Remember how we used to be? Upset at 9 WIN SEASONS... Sound familiar??
December 1st, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^
Not sure how you can compare a rookie head coach to Jim Harbaugh.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^
Except Kirby Smart has not proven himself as an excellent HC at three separate stops.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:46 PM ^
His point was if Harbaugh would have been brought in prior to his Stanford and 49ers jobs. At the point Carr retired, Harbaugh just building his resume at San Diego. Still a bit of an unknown at that point. I believe that was his point at least... That's how I read it.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
But even then, Harbaugh already had a 29-6 record at USD on his resume. Smart has no head coaching experience whatsoever.
For s school that just fired a coach for winning "only" 9.7 games per season, this is a gamble.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:08 PM ^
that richt himself never had head coaching experience prior to his tenure at Georgia and he turned out okay. really, they're just looking for the next Vince Dooley
December 1st, 2015 at 11:29 PM ^
Yeah, that turned out real well...for Miami (YTM)
December 1st, 2015 at 10:39 PM ^
Just like Harbaugh...minus the going to the NFL and playing in Super Bowl and turning down NFL teams to come back to his alma mater part. Awesome comparison.
December 2nd, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^
in 2007 Harbaugh had none of that. which is what he was talking about. so quick to fire snark, but the reading comprehension has a ways to go it seems.
December 2nd, 2015 at 4:51 PM ^
This would totally be like Carr to Harbaugh in 2007. Don't know what I was thinking.
December 2nd, 2015 at 9:16 AM ^
And I'm pretty sure I would be a decent DC with the talent on that team. OL talent made Trent Richardson look like he was good at football.
It's kind of like how Belichick's coordinators all fall on their faces as head coaches, but the Patriots get along just fine every year.
But hey, I don't know anything, and great coaches obviously had to get an opportunity somewhere.
December 1st, 2015 at 9:52 PM ^
The Bama dynasty and that defense they've had for like 6 years doesn't explain it?
December 1st, 2015 at 9:54 PM ^
With the amount of talent they have had year after year, Saban is a defensive coach anyway, and at times I think their defense under performed. That's why.
December 1st, 2015 at 9:58 PM ^
The only weakness Bama's defense has is the secondary year after year... which by the way is Saban's specialty not Smart's... so... yep.
December 1st, 2015 at 9:55 PM ^
On top of that, the rumor is Muschamp is gonna be Smart's DC at Georgia since they both went to UGA undergrad.
Gonna be an interesting month.
Mizzou is looking like the loser in all these coaching sweepstakes.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:01 PM ^
No run zone. No fly zone. No anything for your offense.
edit: they'll actually be known as the most overrated combo in sports because of this...anytime someone scores a touchdown it'll be fans doubting their ability as defensive coaches.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^
It will be just like Hoke and Mattison.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:32 PM ^
Hoke has never been a coordinator in his life.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:30 PM ^
I think everyone expects Mizzou to pick an internal candidate. South Carolina is the real loser
December 1st, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^
He's the DC, not head coach. It is a huge gamble for GA. Huge.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:47 PM ^
Will Muschamp proved himself to be a fantastic defensive coordinator at Auburn and Texas and was a highly sought after candidate for a HC job IIRC. It's not a sure thing by any means.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^
- Clemson: Dabo Swinney: WR coach and recruiting coordinator at Clemson when he was hired, no HC experience. Huge gamble.
- Alabama: Saban: not a gamble
- Oklahoma: Bob Stoops: K State CB coach, co-DC, Florida DC, no HC experience. Gamble.
- Iowa: Kirk Ferentz: Iowa OL coach, HC at Maine (12-21 record), Browns OL coach, Ravens OL coach: basically an OL coach with a failure as a HC at a small school when hired. Huge gamble.
- Michigan State: Mark Dantonio: Akron DB coach, Youngstown St DC, Kansas DB coach, Michigan St DB coach, Ohio State DC, Cincinnati HC (18-17 record). Probably not a big gamble.
- Ohio State: Urban Meyer: not a gamble
Still, half of those teams had hires that were bigger gambles than Kirby Smart is (Dabo, Stoops, Ferentz).
December 1st, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^
I'd say Iowa has lost that gamble. They will have this one flash in the pan to go with the one in like 2001 or whatever, and then still be stuck with Ferentz for another 5 years of mediocrity after this.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:40 PM ^
Didn't Iowa have the option to hire Bob Stoops and instead hired Kirk Ferentz?
They were on the same staff that worked under Hayden Fry I believe. That's gotta suck knowing what Stoops has done at Oklahoma lol.
December 2nd, 2015 at 12:19 AM ^
would think that you can do at Iowa what you can do at OU. Oklahoma is one of the premium brands in college football and recruits Texas comfortably. What talent hotbed can Iowa recruit with ease?
December 1st, 2015 at 11:56 PM ^
Iowa doesn't seem like a program that has a lot of advantages, but maybe that's because they haven't been good lately (i.e., under Ferentz). I mean, Oklahoma has access to more fertile recruiting grounds than Iowa does. Iowa's all-time record is 8th in the Big Ten. They probably should be a mid-level Big Ten team.
Or, put another way, Iowa's all-time record is .530; Ferentz's is .599. Iowa's won 5 Big Ten championships in the past 50 years; Ferentz has accounted for 2 of those in 16 seasons. If he wins in Indy, then 3 in 17 seasons. Either way, that's better than the historical average of 1 Big Ten championship per decade.
But yeah, Ferentz wasn't a home run hire. But he's definitely above average, maybe even a very good hire.
December 2nd, 2015 at 8:51 AM ^
How good do you think Iowa should be? They have no recruiting base and they're not that far from Nebraska, which has much more history. It could easily get a lot worse for them than they have it under Ferentz.
December 2nd, 2015 at 10:41 AM ^
you are also forgetting their 2009 season.
December 2nd, 2015 at 8:53 AM ^
I'd say Stoops was pretty much on par with Kirby. Stoops was the DC for a national champion Florida team, and as Spurrier is an offensive guy, we know he was running the show on that side of the ball.
December 2nd, 2015 at 9:00 AM ^
Sure they are. But Georgia just fired a sure thing for a massive gamble. That's a little different than all of your examples.
I don't understand why this nuance is so hard for people to comprehend.
December 2nd, 2015 at 9:07 AM ^
When you fire a coach who was winning nearly ten games a season, you're shooting for the moon. Fans probably expected a run at Chip Kelly or someone like that. Giving a coordinator his first career head coaching job might not be what they anticipated.
December 1st, 2015 at 9:53 PM ^
He has three national championship rings and has had a top 10 defense just about every year for nearly a decade. He is also known as a tenacious recruiter and has a Broyles award as the best assistant coach in the nation.
Does that help at all?
December 1st, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^
Okay so if Michigan had hired him you would have been okay with it?
December 1st, 2015 at 10:03 PM ^
Considering Michigan's fallback options were... Dan Mullen and Greg Schiano... YES.
Unless you really believe Sean Payton wanted the gig...
December 1st, 2015 at 10:13 PM ^
I would rather have Dan Mullen and it's not even close. Coaching at Mississippi State in the SEC is almost on par with coaching at Indiana, and considering he didn't over sign, and probably didn't cheat, that is even better.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:21 PM ^
Didn't cheat yet
December 1st, 2015 at 11:21 PM ^
Do facts bother you?