Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting that Kirby Smart will be named the new head coach at Georgia.
Kirby Smart will be named Georgia's new football coach https://t.co/AxnreMDrW4— AJC UGA (@ChipTowersAJC) December 2, 2015
I know a ton of attention is being directed at Mark Richt right now, but I am really wondering where Jeremy Pruitt is going to end up. He is one hell of a recruiter.
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Very risky hire
High risk, high reward.
I'm curious to see what kind of offense he runs.
Yeah could be a Muschamp or could be a Dantonio
Bet Pruitt goes back to Bama as DC.
From what I was reading, yep...that's gonna happen
Awesome, Smart will be a star. Hope Shane ends up with him.
They're going out on a limb. Why fire a proven winner to hire a coordinator? They could have hired any number of proven coaches. He will be gone in 5 years max.
Seriously. They fired a guy who won 9 games in the regular season to take a chance on a coordinator. The margin for error is tiny.
I am underwhelmed with the hire. Georgia could be dominant. Time will tell.
Heat up those takes, champ!
You want Hot Takes? OK...... Let's see.... (Clears throat) This hire will cripple the Georgia program. Smart will prove a worse hire than Muschamp!!!!
How's that? Do I sound like an ESPN "personality"?
Hell of a risk going from a proven head coach like Richt to someone who has never been a head coach
The UGA AD handled the Richt situation with all the grace and finesse of an elephant dribbling a bowling ball through a mine field.
Thank heavens for Whit
Still better than LSU, USCe and UVA.
And Illinois.
Sorta, yes. It wasn't the prettiest situation, but they at least wrapped it up petty quickly and at least got what seems like a solid hire in place while the rest of the department gets its stuff together.
You must have missed what the AD said about the hire.
http://deadspin.com/illinois-ad-on-coach-he-just-rehired-its-not-ideal-1...
Don't get me wrong, it isn't exactly a ringing endorsement, but that's the interim AD of a cellar-dwelling B1G school. His job is to put a guy in place with a contract to essentially make sure the program isn't a complete wreck in a year when they actually have an AD who can go out and make a good hire. Compare that to Miami and SCar who have had well over a month to fill vacant spots, or UVA who should've fired London weeks ago but held onto him for some reason and now are well behind everyone else. Those programs have established administrators and deep pockets (at least compared to Illinois), and still those ADs haven't been able to do their jobs in well over a month's time. The interim AD at UI did his job. Can't expect much more than that.
This doesn't mention the interim AD who hired the interim coach.This is a completely unstable program, desparately trying to become stable. Doesn't help that it is in the middle of on of the most bankrupt and corrupt states in America. And with all of that, they still did better than UVA.
Windows 7
Monte Kiffin is avaliable for Bama! How interesting would that be to watch.
Hey Jaquan Yulee I have Bud Foster and Justin Fuente on line 1
Soooo did we really just go and outhire Georgia, in terms of hot name plus experience? Way to go Whit! While I thought VT was gonna be pretty attractive post Beamer, I am pleasantly surprised that we are primed for the best hire of this year's coaching carousel.
Yep
Umm...Kirby Smart is a UGA alum. I think the would have wanted Fuente in a a vacuum but with Smart being an alum, I think he was probably the first guy on their list.
Yeah - some are saying they only fired Richt b/c Smart was set to go to USC-e. Saw Smart as a successor to Richt but not necessarily now until it became apparent it had to be now.
As great a hire as coach Fuente is, the SEC first mentality with the donor class there basically drove this. As successful as Richt was, he never was one of them and has been on the hot seat for years while they looked for an excuse to get him out. In their world, you don't really play football outside the SEC, so what coach Fu was able to accomplish at Memphis was not really relevant.
How has no one said this yet: UGA is Bak(TM)
I'm really good with Kirby in SSB. Does that factor into this?
Kirby Smart is a perfect fit for UGA, and he will be wildly successful there. All of you fools who think this is a bad hire will be eating your words in years to come. This was the only positive step UGA could take from Richt, they made it, and they will be better for it for years to come. Bet.
There's still a fair amount of risk involved here. He could be another Muschamp. That's why most consider him to be a high risk, high reward hire. But talking with some UGA fans, most of them aren't necessarily unhappy, but wish they had gone with an offensive coach and praise our hire of Fuente over their hiring of Smart.
I'm in the 'wait and see' crowd on this one. I'm not exactly sure why so many people are so confident that Smart will be a rock star. He might be. I'm not saying he isn't or can't be. I just don't know what makes people so convinced that he definitely will be.
Not arguing, but why do you think that? Seems Smart is one of many really, really good coordinators in the nation who could go either way as a head coach.
Sure, here's why I think so:
He is an alum DB from UGA (we've seen this before). This doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be great, but I think a coach who goes back to the school he loves will bend over backward to do whatever is necessary to succeed there.
He's coached under a few of the best: Richt, Bowden, and Saban. Of the three, Saban is likely the best, and Smart has been a coordinator for him for seven years. He's seen how Saban's system is build and how it operates, and with his skill as a coordinator, I think he'll be able to revamp and/or modernize UGA's program up to Saban's standards. This is the critical reason I think he'll be successful.
Delusional. Keep running
Agreed, great recruiter, been training under the best, going home to his alma mater. Sure, it's a risk but keeping Richt was a risk too. That team had drifted away from his leadership.
We all seem to be confident that this coach or that coach will succeed. But look around, successful coaches come from all types of backgrounds.
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/november/1/kirby-smart-very-inter...
Seems like when Kirby expressed interest in the VT job, people were ready to throw Bud overboard to get a crack at him. But now that UGA hired him, we're more apprehensive about how good Kirby will be.
I'd wager that the same folks who are apprehensive now were also weary of having Kirby Smart at VT. The folks who were pro Kirby probably also think he's going to rock everyone's world at UGA. I really don't think people here are that fickle. You're probably just reading comments from two entirely different sects of fans.