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@MikeGriffith
Well Mike...we tried. Lol. I know you did your best to get Kirby the Award he deserves. You were trying to tell the likes of Paul Finebaum that if Kirby could do it again after losing so much of last year's team, "it would be miraculous".
Apparently, not enough people saw it that way. Oh well, it's the same group of football geniuses that though Ed Orgeron was a great HC. What are ya gonna do? Lol
And, took HIS team to the Natty after beating Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl.
Kirby Smart made a strong case this year that he's the best college coach in the country. Part of it is that he's such a perfect fit for our program. But as a recruiter of players and staff, a developer of players and coaches, an executive, a public communicator to Dawgnation, a builder of relationships with his players, a game preparer, and -- more recently -- as a game manager, he would put together the whole package for any program.
COY -- national or conference -- is very subjective. If your entire criteria is which coach just did the best (or fastest) turnaround job, I suppose SEC COY would be a tough call between Heupel, Beamer and Kelly.
To my mind, though, Kirby deserves SEC COY, perhaps national COY. He replaced 15 draft picks, 13 transfers and four coaches (including the best defensive coordinator in the country). He's recruited magnificently. And he outcoached Heupel, Beamer and Kelly in one-on-one matchups. Bottom line is that -- no matter how the playoffs go -- his Bulldogs replaced Alabama this year as the preeminent program in the country. (Obviously, perceptions of the UGA program will change if we do poorly in the CFP, but I don't think that's going to happen.)
Here's the ridiculous thing: Brian Kelly has a 154-66 or .700, record in 20 years of DIV-I head coaching. His best team was slaughtered in his sole national championship appearance , and all his team's wins for that year were vacated because a trainer (under his watch) gave impermissible help to eight players for two seasons. Yet he's won three Home Depot national COYs, two AP national COY, a Walter Camp national COY and an Eddie Robinson COY. That's seven national COY awards.
Kirby Smart has a 79-15, or .840, record, in seven years of DIV-I head coaching, has gone to the CFP three times, and won the natty once. Yet he has zero national COYs and two SEC COYs.
I'm not saying there's some sort of conspiracy against the Dawgs -- just that Kirby hasn't gotten the recognition that he deserves.
Part of it may be the sense that what you see is what you get with Kirby; he doesn't give off the vibe that he's playing three-dimensional chess or something. He may get underestimated. But the dude is about as smart and organized as any coach in the country, and that straightforwardness is part of what separates him from the other guys.
"(Obviously, perceptions of the UGA program will change if we do poorly in the CFP, but I don't think that's going to happen.)"
Lol...you're right about that. They can swing on a dime, in College Football. Remember what they were saying about the Dawgs after the Carolina game...then, after the Mizzou game...then, after the Tennessee game? Lol...they just can't believe their lying eyes. UGA "can't be that good".
Perception being 9/10ths of reality explains why the media is getting everything wrong, these days. Lol...what are ya gonna do? You can't fix "S-t-u-p-i-d". Lol
--But the dude is about as smart and organized as any coach in the country, and that straightforwardness is part of what separates him from the other guys.--
I think there's more to that statement than we'll know...until he and others in the organization start writing books.
I think he is a master manipulator of the press. He knows how to control their tendency to hype things up, to misread events, because they're blinded by their own narrative. Lol
He saw where the hype was headed after the Carolina game and started calling Vanilla defensive and offensive plays...relying solely on his player's ability to make plays...knowing that if they needed a late score or late stop, He, Monkin, Muschamp and Bennett could get it done In a hundred different ways.
That's why you never saw him agitated or without a smile on his face after any game...including the Mizzou game. He got...just what he wanted. Lol...and the press is none the wiser.
The crazy thing is,...despite Kirby's attempts to make his team look beatable...nobody's really buying it, including the players. Lol...I still picture Stetson playing around after a couple of TD passes against LSU. He never doubted.