Mr. CFB: Win Or Lose Monday Night, Georgia's Kirby Smart Has Built A Dynasty
LOS ANGELES--Kirby Smart always knew he was born to coach. His father, Sonny, was a very successful high school coach in the state of Georgia. And the unwritten code of becoming a coach is that you take a job—any job—that will help you refine your craft.
And so it was that in 2000 Smart, only a couple of years, removed from his playing days at Georgia, accepted a job as the defensive backs coach at Valdosta State. Head Coach Chris Hatcher only had $8,000 left in his budget to hire his final assistant coach. Hatcher’s defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp, believed his old Georgia teammate would accept the job and the low salary that went with it because that is simply what aspiring coaches do.
So Smart took the job and after just one season, he was promoted to defensive coordinator for the princely sum of $30,000.
Kirby Smart was off and running.
There would be a lot of long bus rides and cold meals and hotels that were less than comfortable. But Kirby Smart was a coach with a burning ambition show his skills at the highest level. And to reach that level, this is what coaches do. They start at the bottom, do good work, and move on.
The next year Smart was promoted to defensive coordinator at Valdosta State and got a raise to $30,000. He spent two years at Florida State (2002-2003) as a graduate assistant, one year at LSU with Nick Saban (2004), one year at Georgia (2005) as a running backs coach, one year with the Miami Dolphins with Saban (2006) and then on to Alabama (2007-2015), which would set the stage for his first head coaching job at Georgia in 2016.
But it all began at Valdosta State
“I learned a lot at Valdosta State,” Smart said at SEC Media Days last July. “You only learn by trial by fire. And I certainly appreciate Coach Hatcher giving me the opportunity.”
Monday night Kirby Smart will lead No. 1 Georgia into the CFP National championship game against No. 4. TCU (13-1). It will be Georgia’s third national championship game appearance in the past six seasons.
And it is safe to say that his financial situation has improved since the early days. Smart will enter Monday night’s game with an annual salary of $10.6 million per year with incentives. One of those incentives? He will receive a $1 million bonus if Georgia wins Monday night.
He hasn’t just built a program, he has built a college football machine that appears headed full speed to dynasty status. He will finish Monday night’s game with an 81-15 or 80-16 record in just six seasons.
And if he wins, Kirby Smart will make some history as only the third coach in the modern era to win back-to-back national championships in the 30 years since the start of the Bowl Coalition in 1992.
Nebraska’s Tom Osborne won the national championship in 1994 and 1995. The 1995 national championship team, which was 12-0 and beat No. 2 Florida 62-24 in the Fiesta Bowl is considered to be one of the best college football teams of all time. The 1994 team was 13-0.
The 2003 USC team went 12-1 with only a regular-season loss to Cal. The Trojans shared the national championship with LSU. The 2004 team, which had Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, went 13-0 and won the national championship outright event though Auburn and Utah were both undefeated.
If Georgia wins Monday night the Bulldogs will be 15-0 for the first time in school history. The 2021 national champions were 14-1. So that would be 29 wins, 1 loss, and two national championships in two seasons, arguably the best two-year stretch any college football team has ever had.
Smart recently sat down with Marty Smith of ESPN and said he is aware of the historical significance of Monday night’s game at SoFi Stadium as he could join Osborne and Saban on the list of those who have won back-to-back championships.
“From my line at Alabama (11 years under Nick Saban) I was part of one of those (2010-2011) so I know how hard it is to do,” said Smart. “But I also know that we had a very good team last year and in many ways it was like starting over.”
If the 2022 season was starting over, Georgia looks ready for a very nice run.