Kirby Smart Left off List of Top-25 Hires over Last 25 Years

ESPN's latest article ranked the Top-25 hires in college football over the past 25 years. Though he's been at the program a mere four seasons, things are different.

Kirby Smart isn't exactly a veteran head coach by any stretch of the means at this point. After starting as a graduate assistant at Georgia following his playing days, he bounced around from Valdosta State, Florida State, LSU, back to UGA, then up to the NFL with the Dolphins and then settled into Tuscaloosa for 8 years before ultimately taking his first head coaching job at Georgia. 

ESPN plus' latest article attempts to rank the top-25 hires over the last 25 seasons of college football, and there's no Kirby Smart on the list, even though Saban made it twice (once at LSU and again at Bama) and Urban Meyer made it twice (Florida and Ohio State). 

Though the explanation for why Smart wasn't on the list is reasonable. He's only been at Georgia for four seasons, and he didn't exactly take over a rebuilding situation like some of these coaches on this list. 

In the final four years under Mark Richt, Georgia went (39-13). That's a win percentage of 75%. Kirby Smart is (44-12) in his first four seasons in Athens, for a win percentage of 78.6%. Sure, it's an increase, but it's not what one would consider drastic. 

Richt even stated in his exiting press conference that it seems it's championship or bust around the Georgia program: 

"I think that the expectations have been built to the point where if you don’t win a championship, it’s kind of miserable around here"

The only difference is, Smart has walked over the SEC East since arriving on campus. Winning three straight divisional titles is something that hasn't been done since the days of Steve Spurrier at Florida. One more division title and he's already caught Mark Richt's total at four. 

He's already won SEC Coach of the Year in 2017, he's broken and tied a Georgia record of sending seven players into the NFL draft in consecutive years, and he's recruited at an astronomical rate. 

Was it a rebuild scenario? No. But was it an excellent hire? It appears so. And it wasn't exactly easy to move on from a guy who had won 74% of his games over a 15-year span, including winning ten games nine times over that time span. Barrett Sallee, then of Bleacher Report, called it a "Risky hire" and told Georgia fans to be a bit more patient with this one. 

And I don't exactly know if that's the feeling I get from the fanbase. They are itching for a National Title and itching badly. And he's certainly got all the talent and resources in the world at his fingertips. 

Bottom line, if and when he ultimately delivers a championship back to the Classic City, Greg McGarity will look like a bonafide genius for pushing out the 15-year face of the program for the young energetic recruiting dynamo. 

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