How do Kirby Smart and Jim Harbaugh Stack Up Against Each other?

The stage is set. Georgia vs Michigan in the first round of the college football playoffs in the Orange bowl down in Miami, Florida. The two teams have not played one another since 1965.

Michigan will be making their first-ever college football playoff appearance while Georgia will be making their second trip with hopes of a better outcome this go around than the result they ended up with back in 2017.

With there being a lack of matchup history between these two prestigious programs another lens to analyze the game though is the comparison of the two head ball coaches. One has been in the head coaching business for the last 18 years while the other is still learning the ropes as a head coach at his first stop, but still producing an elite product.

So how do Kirby Smart and Jim Harbaugh stack up against one another?

As stated before, when it comes to head coaching experience Harbaugh takes the cake. With nearly two decades of head coaching experience which includes a four-year stint in the NFL in which he also made a Super Bowl appearance, Harbaugh has all the head coaching experience anyone could ask for. Although, the argument could be made that Kirby Smart has found more success in his first six seasons with Georgia than Harbaugh has in his 14 years at the collegiate level.

In six seasons, Coach Smart has managed to win his division four different times, a conference championship, been named SEC Coach of the year twice, and has two college football playoff berths under his belt which also led to an appearance in the national title game. Harbaugh, who was named AP Coach of the year this season, has one conference championship, four division titles (two of which came at the University of San Diego), and will be making his first-ever playoff appearance this season.

Michigan hired Harbaugh a year before Georgia named Kirby Smart as their head coach. Despite that, both head coaches' overall record at their current respected universities is very similar. In seven seasons, Harbaugh has muscled out a 61-23 overall record with the Wolverines and a 42-17 record within their conference. Kirby Smart in six seasons has coached his way to a 64-15 record and a 40-9 record within the SEC. In layman's terms, they both match up pretty evenly in comparison to wins and loses, especially when taking into account that one had a whole year head start over the other.

There is however one thing Harbaugh has done that Smart has yet to do as a head coach, and that's getting the monkey off his back. Just like Kirby Smart has yet to figure out how to beat Alabama, Harbaugh struggled to scrape out a victory against Michigan's biggest rival Ohio State, At least that was the truth until this season when Harbaugh and his team finally defeated the Buckeyes to clinch a spot in the Big Ten Championship game. Before this year, Coach Harbaugh was 0-5 against Ohio State. Very similar to how Kirby Smart remains winless against the Crimson Tide with four straight losses.

All in all, the two head coaches match up pretty evenly. It will be the first time the two head coaches have faced one another and what better way to kick it off than a fight for a spot in the national championship game?

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