Kirby Smart lands after Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney on college football's list of best coaching hires of the 21st century
Kirby Smart's place among Georgia football’s greatest coaching hires is hardly up for debate. But how does he stack up across the entire landscape of college football, especially when looking at coaching hires since the turn of the century? CBS Sports' Shehan Jeyarajah recently tackled that question and ranked the top 25 coaching hires since […]
Kirby Smart's place among Georgia football’s greatest coaching hires is hardly up for debate. But how does he stack up across the entire landscape of college football, especially when looking at coaching hires since the turn of the century?
CBS Sports' Shehan Jeyarajah recently tackled that question and ranked the top 25 coaching hires since 2000. Unsurprisingly, Georgia’s decision to hire Smart landed near the top of the list.
5. Kirby Smart, Georgia
First season: 2016
Notable accomplishments: 2 national championships, 3 SEC titles, 105-19 record
We're now getting into the territory of coaches with multiple national championships, and Smart is perhaps best positioned to join Nick Saban as the only coach with more than two. Smart has created the closest thing we have to a new Alabama, rattling off eight straight AP top-seven finishes with consecutive national championships. The only thing keeping Smart slightly lower on this list than the top four is that he took over a Georgia program that was painfully close to reaching the promised land under Mark Richt. All four of the other situations were bleaker. In the next decade, though, Smart can easily elevate himself to No. 2.
Since taking over as Georgia’s head coach in 2016, Smart has built one of the most dominant programs in college football.
He has compiled a 105–19 record, led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022, and captured three SEC titles (2017, 2022, and 2024).
Under Kirby Smart, Georgia rattled off an SEC-record 29 straight conference wins and went perfect in 2022, capping it off by absolutely stomping TCU 65–7 in the national title game. Thanks to his top-tier recruiting and defensive mindset, Smart has made Georgia a regular in the playoff conversation, and in 2024, he cashed in with a 10-year, $130 million deal, making him the highest-paid coach in the sport.
Alabama’s Nick Saban, Florida’s Urban Meyer, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, and USC’s Pete Carroll are the only coaches ranked ahead of Smart, though you could easily argue that Smart belongs above all of them, maybe with the exception of Saban.
