Georgia won't hire football general manager, Kirby Smart says

Georgia won't be joining the trend of hiring a general manager to run its football program, as head coach Kirby Smart says he has the personnel to handle the workload already.

Georgia won't bring on a general manager to run its football program while Kirby Smart is around to handle the workload. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

General manager is a role we’re starting to see more of in college football as the sport continues to adapt to the NIL and transfer portal era, and especially as schools anticipate a revenue-sharing model with players in the years to come.

That extra work has found programs looking to consolidate the work of recruiting and retaining players and how to properly compensate them into a single GM office.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart appears to be an exception of sorts to that rule, indicating that he doesn’t plan on hiring a general manager to handle the Bulldogs program right now.

“We’ve got a lot of people in charge of roster management, including myself, including our football ops staff, is involved, our operations-player development, player personnel staff. Everybody gets involved in that. It’s a team effort,” he said.

The general manager position is gaining serious traction around college football, including especially in the SEC.

One of Kalen DeBoer’s first personnel hires at Alabama was Courtney Morgan, who left the Michigan program to take a GM role with the Crimson Tide.

Oklahoma hired former Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy to take the general manager position, where he’ll take an authoritative role in player acquisition and retention.

Likewise, Bill Belichick’s first hire at North Carolina was former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi, who is tasked with refashioning the Tar Heels program in the image of a professional football organization.

The position, and the authority that comes with it, has arisen in anticipation of the pending House vs. NCAA settlement, which is expected to be approved some time this year.

Should it go through, schools will be allowed to share more than $20 million with their student-athletes every year, with an estimated 75 percent of that money going to football players.

Georgia has adapted to those new demands by making some changes in its football office, but the Bulldogs’ head coach doesn’t expect to bring on anyone new.

“I’m not ready to run off and go hire somebody that’s just going to make all the decisions for that goes on on the football field,” Smart said. 

“I think I’ve got to stay involved in that heavily. We’ve got the capacity and the quality of people in the areas that I think we need. So I think we’ll be fine in that world as it changes.”

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