It’ll be announced Sunday. Or perhaps Monday. Maybe it’s leaked Saturday during the SEC title game or a before it kicks off.
Either way, Kirby Smart is going to be the next head coach for the University of Georgia.
For Athletics Director Greg McGarity that means a 39-year-old career assistant will decide his fate and his legacy. No pressure, Kirby.
I’ve made it no secret that I think Tom Herman is the next great college head coach. I think he’s in the Urban Meyer mold of coaches, but without fraud oozing out of his every pore.
It seems clear Herman (nor anyone else, for that matter) was ever a real candidate. It was always Kirby, for better or for worse.
I have no idea whose idea it was to target Kirby. Was it the Leebern clan and their booze money? Was it McGarity himself? A combination of the two? It doesn’t really matter.
All that matters is Kirby is going to be the next coach and his first three seasons will determine McGarity’s fate, especially if Mark Richt does land on his feet at Miami or Maryland or wherever and has success.
Kirby will be a first-year head coach in 2016 with either Greyson Lambert, Brice Ramsey or true freshman Jacob Eason as his quarterback. Good luck with that.
That McGarity is willing to stake his career at his Alma Mater on Kirby shows more balls than I thought he had. Like the move or not, it’s not one for the faint of heart. McGarity could have kept Richt and saw him collect the best recruiting class in UGA history (on paper, any way) and see what he could do with it. Instead McGarity is going all-in on Kirby, hoping this Saban defensive protege can avoid the pitfalls Will Muschamp endured at Florida.
I don’t know why McGarity felt the need to lie at the Richt firing press conference when asked when he knew it was time for a change. He said it was Sunday morning, however all signs point to the decision being made after the Florida debacle on Halloween. Truth be told I don’t know why McGarity was even at the press conference—and judging from the media reaction to it, I suspect he regrets he was in attendance.
I don’t know why McGarity is hiring a search firm. It’s clear it won’t do any searching save maybe a background check on Kirby.
I don’t know what McGarity sees in Kirby that makes him the one and only choice to fill perhaps the best job in football.
What I do know is McGarity is tied to Kirby for the rest of his career, good or bad. And while I believe he’s an incompetent AD, should Kirby be the next Nick Saban or Bob Stoops or Urban Meyer, McGarity will go down as the best AD in UGA history to many, even if he’s led a farcical search.
The Erudite Fan 