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3 reasons Georgia coach Kirby Smart deserving of being highest paid college coach in the nation
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3 reasons Georgia coach Kirby Smart deserving of being highest paid college coach in the nation
ATHENS — Kirby Smart sits atop college football as the sport’s top active coach, and on Thursday the University of Georgia made sure he was paid like it.
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Kirby is definitely the best coach in college football. The sports media doesn't like him. That's why he doesn't get the recognition he deserves. He's a southerner. He coaches UGA. He beats their favorite teams (Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Oregon, Clemson, FSU, Florida).
All true Mike. Kirby is, IMHO, the best college coach in the country. He has made UGA a power like we all dreamed about. He’s a fantastic coach and handles the media as good as anyone. I’m very glad he’s our coach. But $13,000,000 to coach a football team seems a little crazy to me. Nevertheless, I’m glad we have him.
@WCH
Funny to see "he's a southerner … he beats their favorite teams" when 4 of the 7 teams listed are southern ones. In any case, the real reason that Kirby Smart doesn't get the hype that, say, the VERY SOUTHERN Steve Spurrier did is the offense vs defense thing. The national media always promotes offense, especially the passing game. If you throw the ball 40 times a game the media is going to call you a genius even while you are running programs into the ground. But if you are a defense coach, or even (perhaps even especially) an offense coach with a run-oriented emphasis the media is going to roll their eyes. The best example is your mention of Oregon. They've been hyping that program for 25 years - since they were able to get the Detroit Lions to draft Joey Harrington #3 overall despite his being a career 54.7% passer against Pac-10 defenses - and they haven't won squat. Most years they don't even win their conference … they manage to blow it against Utah, Stanford or Washington (like they did this year twice despite @MikeGriffith trying to pass off their head coach as the next John Heisman) which is why they have only been to 1 title game (against Auburn) and 1 playoff. Speaking of Auburn, it is why they and LSU were shafted in 2003 and 2004 in favor of USC and Oklahoma for national titles. In both cases you had the nation's #1 defense and offenses with future starting NFL tailbacks, great OLs and QBs good enough to provide balance … that the national media was totally uninterested in, because they cared more about the flag football USC and Oklahoma QBs were putting up against nonexistent Big 12 and Pac-12 defenses.
Yes, this applies to Nick Saban. The guy was the first head coach to win national titles at multiple colleges, yet he didn't get anywhere near the hype that Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier and Pete Carroll got until he won so many titles - as many as the previous 3 put together - that people started calling him the G.O.A.T. Before then, more people were actually talking about Urban Meyer. And after Meyer won a title at Ohio State, they started again.
So you have to look at WHY Ohio State, Texas, Oregon, Clemson, FSU and Florida are the media's favorite programs: they throw the ball a lot and produce high NFL draft picks at QB (and WR). ESPN would rather talk about Trevor Lawrence and Tim Tebow - and by extension the coaches who recruited and developed them - than Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. Simple as that. So yes, Kirby Smart winning a national title in 2025 would finally get him national media hype, but it would be as much for having a #1 draft pick at QB in Carson Beck putting up big numbers as it would be for his winning his 3rd title.
Sorry, but that's the way that it has been with the sports media for decades. And if you want to know why so many schools - especially in the southeast and midwest - gave up I-formation and veer option football in favor of being just another flag football west coast offense or spread school despite having no chance to regularly recruit the type of talent needed for the passing game (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Auburn, I am looking at you) that's the reason. The coaching hires are as driven by boosters etc. as they are by presidents and ADs, and the boosters want whoever is being hyped up by the media. So if you want to know why - again - Auburn threw away 100 years of tradition and blew up their program by chasing first Terry Bowden, then Bobby Petrino, then Gus Malzahn and now Hugh Freeze? There's your answer: their boosters want whoever the media is calling an offensive genius this week instead of a guy who runs a scheme that can actually contend at a place that is capable of recruiting exactly 1 big time QB every 10 years (and can land a big time WR for him to throw the ball to and an OT to block for him even less often).
Being "Head Coach" encompasses the wearing of a lot of different hats. CKS leads and directs an elite recruiting staff. However that "advantage" has now been somewhat reduced through schools using NIL to buy players. (see the best HS players in GA) CKS runs an elite program with elite level investment in personnel, support and facilities (a commitment by UGA that Mark Richt never received). CKS has built the UGA football program into the equivalent of a well run corporation.
Through CKS's hard work and direction (and CNS retirement) the UGA football program has been pushed to "blue blood" status at the top of the heap. CKS has positioned UGA to compete for a playoff spot every season in the expanded playoff.
However, CKS is a defensive coach first and foremost . His management of the QB position at UGA has been unconventional at best. His on field coaching decisions/adjustments, maybe the biggest part of being "the best coach", are improving but have clearly not separated him significantly from other recognized CFB coaches.
There is no disputing that the UGA staff was outcoached by the AL staff in the '23 SECCG. So there is still room for improvement. 3 years ago Dabo Swinney kept a good but overmatched Clemson team even with UGA for an entire game except for 1 play (Pick 6). It will be interesting to see how UGA and CKS have progressed and how long the formerly top paid coach in CFB can keep his overmatched team in the game on 8/31.