Kirby Smart, the 39-year-old defensive coordinator from the University of Alabama, will become the new head football coach at the University of Georgia. Smart’s Crimson Tide take on the Florida Gators in the SEC championship game on Saturday. Smart, a native of Bainbridge, Georgia, has always been tied to Georgia, where he played football and graduated from in the late 1990s. The biggest question for Smart is not necessarily who will coach the Dawgs on the defense, but rather who will become Georgia’s next offensive coordinator. The Bulldogs announced their decision to part ways with Mark Richt on Sunday, after 15 seasons in which Richt has compiled a 145-51 record, including a 9-3 mark this fall.
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Smart has been Alabama’s defensive coordinator for nine seasons. Now the program heads into the wilderness, where the right coaching hire could finish the job that Richt couldn’t, but the wrong one will make fans yearn for the Richt era. Kirby Smart is reportedly leaving the cozy comforts of Nick Saban’s staff to join the tumultuous current in Athens, Ga. Smart was the top target for Georgia all along, according to SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey. He played defensive back for the Bulldogs in the mid-’90s and was an administrative assistant on the 1999 coaching staff and the running-back coach in 2005.
The AJC reports that Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart will be Georgia’s next head coach.
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The Alabama defensive coordinator would be heading back to his alma mater. So while there are reasons to believe Pruitt might stay, and that Smart might want him to, there are also reasons why it just might not work out.
