ATHENS — Just over three years ago, after watching the Georgia football team produce yet another wretched performance against Georgia Tech in a 30-24 overtime loss, in Sanford Stadium no less, I called for the Bulldogs’ higher-ups to please, please, please put an end to the Mark Richt era.
(For me that was no small step since I had always been a Richt supporter. But enough was enough.)
Alas, it took another year for them to make a change. But, in so doing they also must have been paying attention when I said Kirby Smart, the then-longtime assistant and defensive coordinator at Alabama, and a former Bulldog standout as well, would be just the man for the job to replace Richt.
I know nothing is guaranteed in life (otherwise I would already own a 1969 Mustang convertible, which I still don’t) but I knew deep down in my soul that Smart would take the Dogs to the next level. What was the next level at that time, you ask?
That was the $3.75 million (Smart’s salary) question everyone wanted to know.
Richt had led Georgia to two SEC titles (the last in 2005, however) and had averaged right at 10 wins a season from when he arrived in 2001. Georgia lost what was essentially a national title game in 2012 in one of the most riveting SEC title games, or any game for that matter, in gut-wrenching fashion, 32-28 to Alabama. (The Tide went on to steamroll Notre Dame 42-14 in the BCS championship game. The winner of the Bama-Dogs showdown was set to play the Irish and the Dogs I feel certain would have crushed Notre Dame as well.)
How might things be different now if Georgia wins that game? That's another story...
Smart was the architect of the Tide’s always-bruising defense and it appeared he was being groomed as Nick Saban’s heir-apparent if and when he ever decided to step down. And he was learning more than just Xs and Os in Tuscaloosa. He was watching, always watching, how Saban engineered ‘the process,’ and he was Saban’s "Columbo" of recruiting in that he always got his man. (Many of Alabama’s top players were recruited by Smart, who was considered one of the best, if not the best, recruiters in the country.)
So as the Bulldogs’ 2015 season began to unfurl, Georgia and Alabama were scheduled for one of their rare meetings (just the sixth since 1995) at Sanford Stadium early in October. The Dogs were a perfect 4-0; the Tide rolled in at 3-1. Pundits and fans alike felt that the Dogs were ready for that next step and a win over the Tide would solidify their reemergence on the national scene.
Instead, the bottom fell out as they were routed 38-10 in a game that for anyone sitting in Sanford Stadium that day, rain or no rain, saw the obvious talent gap between the two programs -- in less than three years since their epic SEC title game showdown.
The ‘Fire Richt’ rumblings started. Then came a loss to Tennessee the following week and another loss to a mediocre Florida team three weeks after that (great defense, yes, but absolutely no offense). Couple that with Steve Spurrier having stepped down at South Carolina the same week Georgia lost to Tennessee and a perfect storm was brewing. But Smart’s name also began to surface as a top candidate to take over in Columbia.
University of Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity began to get inquiries about whether Smart was being considered as a replacement to Richt if changes were coming in Athens. And even though Richt righted the ship and the Dogs closed out the regular season with four straight wins, the spectre of losing Smart to South Carolina prompted McGarity to dismiss Richt and bring in Smart, who seemed to be slow-playing the Gamecocks in hopes that Georgia was about to make a change.
It has turned out to be the best move of Garity’s somewhat tumultuous tenure in Athens.
I knew it then, and Smart has shown that there was no better choice to run the Dogs program, for several reasons:
- He was a former Georgia player and would have passion for the program. Not that Richt didn’t but sometimes he seemed oblivious to the expectations that the DawgNation wanted. (Evidenced by Smart's teenaged-like celebration after the Dogs' incredible 54-48 Rose Bowl win over Oklahoma last week in the College Football Playoffs semifinals.)
- He tutored under arguably the best coach in the history of the game, certainly the best of his generation, in Saban, and witnessed up-close-and-personal how to manage not just a team but a program and how to navigate it to the top of the mountain.
- His recruiting prowess was legendary and a driving force behind Alabama’s resurgence, and bringing that ability to Athens was sorely needed. The Dogs have the No. 1 class nationally after the early-signing period. Bama is fifth, by the way.
- He seemed as much a teacher as a coach, especially when listening to him talk about how he built Alabama’s defensive unit and maintained its status as the nation’s best on a continual basis.
Smart’s first season left plenty of questions: 8-5 record, including losses to Vanderbilt, to Tennessee on a Hail Mary, and to Georgia Tech after blowing a 13-point fourth-quarter lead. They did not win a mediocre-at-best SEC East and were relegated to the Liberty Bowl, though they did beat TCU for a small measure of redemption.
But in the aftermath, he did not sound like an apologetic Richt. Instead, Smart espoused of “house-cleaning” and “changing cultures” in a program that was in dire need of a defibrillator. He made no bones about jettisoning “those who do not want to be here” or those who did not want to embrace the coming change.
And Smart’s biggest win of the season happened off the field after the season was over. He persuaded rising-seniors Roquan Smith, Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, and David Bellamy to return for their final year of eligibility.
All four were sure locks in the upcoming NFL Draft. But unlike the rest of us who are on the outside looking in, they could see what was happening behind the scenes. They saw the actions of Smart in how the change was being implemented and in the expectations he was demanding of those still in the program.
They wanted to help finish what they started, while at the same time help usher in what they hope is the beginning of a new dawn on the college football landscape.
Now that Smart has the Bulldogs within 60 minutes of their first national title since 1982, there’s no doubt there isn’t anyone else I would rather have nurturing over the Georgia program.
What could be even more exciting for Bulldogs fans is that this could be Smart’s worst team over the next several years. His past two recruiting classes are chock full of high-caliber talent. And he’s not done with his already No. 1-rated class for the upcoming season (there is the February signing date yet to come).
What I see on the horizon is that once Saban retires, Smart and the Bulldogs are positioning themselves to become the “Bama of the East.” Who knows, with a win Monday night, they may go ahead and claim that title now.
