ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg recently released his list of the top 25 college football hires of the last 25 years and Georgia football’s hiring of head coach Kirby Smart did not make the cut.
That’s to be expected, though. 25 years is a long time. And though Kirby Smart’s already a top-five coach in college football, he has not quite accomplished enough to crack that top-25.
Before Georgia fans get all riled up about this, I should point out that the most recent hiring on this list is Penn State’s landing of Bill O’Brien in 2012, and that’s dead last at No. 25. The second most recent is Urban Meyer to Ohio State, which happened in 2011 (that’s No. 5). In addition to Kirby Smart not making it, neither did Ed Orgeron at LSU or Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma.
Just like many in the football coaching landscape, Smart started as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Georgia, before moving on to Valdosta State, Florida State and LSU. Smart then spent some more time back at UGA, until moving on to the Miami Dolphins of the NFL and more notably, spent eight years in Tuscaloosa before taking the head coaching job at Georgia in 2016.
In his top 25 hires, Rittenberg said that tenure was a major factor as well as obviously the success at the program, but also what kind of situation the coach walked into. Although Smart has taken Georgia to new heights in terms of recruiting, facilities and overall success, he didn’t exactly walk into a dumpster fire in Athens. The Bulldogs had a 75% win percentage (40-13) in Mark Richt’s last four years at Georgia.
I think it’s a popular opinion that, with more time, Smart will be considered one of the top hirings in college football history. With the way he recruits, it’s just a matter of time before Georgia brings a National Championship home to Athens. You’d be hard pressed to find a college program and fan base that are dreaming of a title more than DawgNation.
SEC hirings on the list:
- No. 1 – Nick Saban (twice, Bama / LSU)
- No. 6 – Urban Meyer (twice, Florida / Ohio St.)
- No. 19 – Gary Pinkel (Missouri)
- No. 21 – James Franklin (Vanderbilt)
- No. 23 – Steve Spurrier (South Carolina)
