Georgia Bulldogs Football: Kirby Smart Would Be a Richt-Like Hire

Georgia has let Mark Richt go, and all of the noise coming out of Athens indicates that AD Greg McGarity will target UGA alum and current Alabama DC Kirby Smart. A common reaction on the Internet regarding such a move is this: why would Georgia fire a 15-year guy in order to hire someone who has never been a head coach before?

When put that way, it sounds kind of crazy. That said, there was a case against Richt just as much as a case for him. What is notable is that hiring Smart would be an outcome fairly similar to what happened when Richt got the job.

Georgia hired a coordinator directly from the most successful dynasty of the day when it pulled Richt from Florida State. Hiring Smart away from Nick Saban's Alabama would be doing much of the same thing: hiring a coordinator away from the most successful dynasty of this day.

It's not precisely the same, of course. Getting rid of Jim Donnan was a much different situation than getting rid of Richt is. There also is the matter of Saban having more former coordinators having been hired as head coaches than Bobby Bowden did back then. So far, Saban's former offensive coordinators are having a much better go of it than the former defensive coordinator of his that has gotten a head coaching gig.

When I made up my coaching search guide, the one area that was very thin was Power 5 coaches who aren't retreads. It consisted of just two names: Larry Fedora and Dan Mullen. This year's coaching crop is deep, but there aren't guys who have gotten the job done at the Power 5 level screaming for new jobs. Hiring a coordinator could be a school's best option, and Georgia getting Smart would be a similar event to when the guy who spent 15 years in the job came.