Smart weighs return to UGA
(Updated 9:30 p.m.)
Kirby Smart, the defensive coordinator of newly crowned national champion Alabama, apparently is considering a return to Georgia, his alma mater, for the same job but considerably more money.
Smart, seen as a leading candidate for the UGA position since the Dec. 2 firing of Willie Martinez, was weighing a formal offer on Saturday but “has neither signed it nor made a decision regarding the opening,” according to the Tuscaloosa News, which cited “multiple sources.”
Smart has been publicly coy about his interest in the job but left the door open during a press conference in California two days before the national-championship game. He could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Georgia had no comment on the matter other than to say that no announcement of a hire was scheduled. Associate athletics director Claude Felton said he had not heard from coach Mark Richt all day and that no announcement was expected through Saturday night. Felton said Richt had been on the road recruiting.
Smart would be a popular hire in Bulldog Nation. Former UGA defensive great David Pollack posted on his Twitter account Saturday: “From what I am getting guys I think Georgia has made a very SMART choice on their next DC, nothing 100% but def looks good.”
Smart makes about $360,000 in base salary at Alabama. Georgia is believed willing to pay much, much more than that.
All indications are that UGA will make a hire within the next few days. Richt would like to have the new defensive coordinator named before the final recruiting contact period starts Friday. Also, junior linebacker Rennie Curran -– expected by most around the Georgia program to enter the NFL draft –- has been trying to withhold a final decision until he has a chance to talk with the new coordinator.
Smart played defensive back for Georgia from 1995-98, making All-SEC as a senior, and began his coaching career as an administrative assistant at Georgia in 1999. He also coached running backs at UGA in 2005.
For most of his coaching career, Smart has worked under Nick Saban -– at LSU (2004), the Miami Dolphins (2006) and Alabama (since 2007). He has been the Tide’s defensive coordinator the past two seasons.
Saban seemed to be sending a pointed message to Smart on Friday when he said at a news conference that assistant coaches should not make lateral career moves.
“I’m not pleased when guys make lateral moves because it’s a little bit human nature to think, like my dad used to say, the grass is always greener on top of the septic tank,” Saban said. “You always think it’s better someplace else. You kind of let your ego get involved, and you make moves that you shouldn’t make and really aren’t in your best interests for a career standpoint.”
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949 comments Add your comment
OrlandoDawg
January 9th, 2010
8:24 pm
if he takes the job gonna be interesting to see which recruits he brings over….
Porty
January 9th, 2010
8:25 pm
Lateral move? This is a step backwards. Going from the Nat’l Champs to the Nat’l Chumps. #1 in the nation to #4 in their division. This is a step backwards if anything.
PMDawg
January 9th, 2010
8:26 pm
Septic tank in Athens! I’ve been to Alabama and I (or any sane person for that matter) would much rather be in Athens than that dump.
Louie
January 9th, 2010
8:26 pm
chicken lou, mr.t All in the family .
DILLIGAF
January 9th, 2010
8:28 pm
Mister T:
“The hedges will come down when we say they come down!”
I can assure you that no one wearing any type of GT apparel will take anything from Sanford Stadium in my presence.
Kid me not
January 9th, 2010
8:29 pm
Is it true , Willie Martinez going to be the next Tech DC?? Wow!
PMDawg
January 9th, 2010
8:29 pm
Porty-get a clue, if you watched the NC game you realized who got all the credit for the D and it sure wasn’t KS. He wants to come back to a nice state and get out of NS shadow. Saban will be packing up soon to his next job anyway.
Confidently Realistic
January 9th, 2010
8:31 pm
What makes everyone so sure that Kirby will help UGA in recruiting? We heard the same thing when CMR hired John Lilly. Oh but wait we have the best in Rodney Garner but its sure is ironic that Fla and Bama kicks UGA’s a$$ every year both in recruiting and in football.
snoopy
January 9th, 2010
8:31 pm
do not count your chickens before they hatch. Not Smart yet!
Bill
January 9th, 2010
8:32 pm
In the ky bb game when ky Wall was foul on the side line Cousin shot the first free throw and Wall shot the second one is the ref blind thats not right did any one else see that
trey
January 9th, 2010
8:35 pm
People would have to be ignorant to Yellow Fuzz proportions to actually think that Kirby Smart was UGA’s 4th choice.
Yogi
January 9th, 2010
8:38 pm
It aint a done deal til its a done deal ! dont count your chickens yet muts !!!!
CLEVON LITTLE
January 9th, 2010
8:38 pm
2009 Champs: And to think I pulled for BAMA the other night…what was I thinking!!!!!!!
HUNKER DOWN
January 9th, 2010
8:42 pm
Coach Kirby,
Tell us it’s sweet home Georgia! You mabe respected @ Bama but you will be loved between the hedges.
Louie
January 9th, 2010
8:44 pm
Sweet dreams mutt world. Wake up in the morning and hope your slobbering minds get what you are praying for. But don’t be surprised if it does’nt go down. Like I said who wants to be a part of a LOSER like the doggies.
Louie Louie Louie...
January 9th, 2010
8:45 pm
Good Lord, Louie. You are murdering the English language. I take it that you did not actually go to Georgia Tech. Find someone who can type, spell or formulate a sentence and ask them to sit beside you. You are embarrassing other Tech fans….
DILLIGAF
January 9th, 2010
8:47 pm
Kirby knows that the best thing to ever come out of Alabama is I-20.
Dama O'Bama
January 9th, 2010
8:47 pm
After further review- Noticed Mr. T is nowhere to be found. What a bad A$$.
And good night little louie.
Nick Satan:
January 9th, 2010
8:47 pm
Enter your comments here
DOG Brad
January 9th, 2010
8:49 pm
30 24
Nick Satan:
January 9th, 2010
8:49 pm
I will sell my soul to become the HC at USC. Why isn’t anyone returning my calls? Call me Dam%! Don’t you know who I am??
DOG Brad
January 9th, 2010
8:49 pm
30 24, I forgot WITH Martinez!!!
DOG Brad
January 9th, 2010
8:50 pm
If u cant beat willie, u cant beat nobody!!!
Louie
January 9th, 2010
8:51 pm
Don’t worry . I’ll be back. And,yes I DO presently attend GT. Where do you or did you go to school, doggie-neck?
Louie Louie Louie...
January 9th, 2010
8:56 pm
I actually am an alumnus of both schools. I highly doubt that you go to school at Tech. And, if you do you probably started at SPSU. (not that there is anything wrong with that) I guess the English language is just not as important as football is to you. Personally, I think that is embarrassing.
Jesup
January 9th, 2010
8:59 pm
Best Florida recruiting class ever……. i coach mite football and I know what lane and urban do…..its the jimmies and the joes NOT the Xs and Os…..I hope Mark Richt is beating down doors right now.,…Problem is that he cant LIE like urban and lane does to HS kids… he has too much class…which is good, just wish the kids could see through the bull…
Louie
January 9th, 2010
8:59 pm
Who cares what you personally think, dog-ding?
icedawg
January 9th, 2010
9:00 pm
I hope that this rumor is true.
Dawg stuck in Bham
January 9th, 2010
9:01 pm
I live in Alabama…and believe me, this place is full of septic tanks and smells like it, too! Saban would know what a septic tank smells like cause what comes out of his mouth is the same stuff!
Dawg26
January 9th, 2010
9:02 pm
Louie, I go to UGA. What’s your point? I have more than a few friends at Tech that I went to school with in HS, and they even trash GT. Its an awful campus in an awful place with an awful athletics program. You got ONE thing, an engineering program, everything else SUCKS !
Paul Johnson
January 9th, 2010
9:02 pm
I am strongly considering a forthcoming, formal offer to be the head coach at USF. The offer is for considerably less than I am currently making but there are alot of perks and incentives. The weather is great except for the hurricanes, there are a few clothing optional beaches close by and tons of hot dog establishments (Sonics) around.
The toss up is, that it would mean having to live in Florida and we all know what a cesspool that is or to continue to being accosted by vagrants and have to dodge bullets every time I step out side the compound in ATL. Hmmm..I’ll have a press conference for the few people that actually care tomorrow.
HUNKER DOWN
January 9th, 2010
9:02 pm
Dear Louie,
Exactly why Coach Smart should come home. “Who wants to be a part of a loser like the doggies”. In case your forgot, Kirby Smart was all SEC for those “losers”. Only his own family of the Dawg Nation will truly love him and want him back home.
yep...
January 9th, 2010
9:04 pm
SPSU…figured…get off of your Mom’s computer and head to bed…
In another week or two in Tuscaloosa
January 9th, 2010
9:04 pm
Nick Saban will bolt to USC. and soon. It is all over the San Francsico papers, where my daughter and son in law are on business. Saban is a liar and HE IS a grass IS greener kind of guy, especially toward USC’s greenbacks, or LSU’s or Miami’s or Bama’s,etc. He is gone and so is Kirby.
Whatever happended to the three coaches or 4 that all had the Bama job in about a month of each other??? One got into some sexuall harrassment thing with a Bama secretary. One ( Francione) was simply GONE or AWOL and shafted The Tide and made them a national laughing stock for TX A&M, and the other one was in a drunken ordeal in some tacky hotel in Alabama with some stipper gal. Look it up and PLEASE correct me if I am worng. Like 4 coaches in 30 minutes one year at Bama and NOT too long ago ……..late 90s or early 2000s. LOL Stallings, then ?? Francione and then the Motel Drunk and the Sexual Harrasser and then Shula ……….all in about 45 minutes one year.
Bama is the NC and congrats but please, Tuscaloosa/B’hma vs Atlanta and Athens??? LOL
Go Dogs.
AthensDawg
January 9th, 2010
9:06 pm
3 years, 800K per. Mrs. Smart already looking at houses on Lake Oconee.
Big DAWG
January 9th, 2010
9:06 pm
It really is simple. Would you rather work for Mark Richt or Nick Satan?
buzzDawg
January 9th, 2010
9:10 pm
Jesup, you make a good point. While teaching the kids about football is important, Richt’s character and everything he brings to the table with that is more important. Notice Richt has not lied or fabricated anything in his search for a DC.
Buckhead Bulldog
January 9th, 2010
9:11 pm
Uh-oh, again. Looks like lil’ Louie is about to explode all over these pages. Poor lil’ fella. Has Mommy washed and folded all your clothes before you head back for the Winter Semester, puffin poops?
you guys crack me up
January 9th, 2010
9:11 pm
KS may indeed have an offer, and he might take it, I hope he does. It’d be nice to have him and his hottie wife back in town. But you guys that are claiming it is an ‘absolute done deal’ and he’ll be a head coach in waiting and Richt is ‘leaving in 2013′, you guys crack me up. Unless you’re a close personal friend of the people in question, and I doubt you could pick them out of a lineup with Hilary Clinton, Bozo the Clown and Andy Reid, then just be happy, enthusiastic and most of all, real.
Louie
January 9th, 2010
9:11 pm
Hunker Down- My last comments for the night just for you.
He coaches for a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP team, get it bone head.
Why on earth would a sane man STEP BACKWARDS in dog crap when he would LEAVE MUTT-CENTRAL for the job he now has. Think about it mutt-head. LATER.
Mountain Dawg
January 9th, 2010
9:12 pm
I hope it is true that Smart will be the next DC” but I am not reading nothing about it on espn or si
Southern Poly and a well known chicken firm
January 9th, 2010
9:13 pm
Do not make fun of S Tech. I know one big, big exec at a well known local Atl chicken sandwich firm that went there many years ago and he is doing well, very $$$$$ nicely. Most of the actual Ga Tech alumni friends of mine are only career Ga Power Co. guys and they have good jobs but, they uh, have government type jobs or they went straight into a family business.
Gooooooooooooo Dogs and welcome to Athens, AGAIN Kirby. We look forward to you wrapping up our recruiting and when the 5 star D players call you to beg, tell them to get in line. HAHAHAHHA
CWM??? UGA detractors ………….he is gone and IF you attended any of the schools written about on this site, you had better get ready. D is BACK in A town. Buckle up your head gear.
T.E. Lawrence
January 9th, 2010
9:15 pm
He will come back to Athens because it is his pleasure.
Sad Richards
January 9th, 2010
9:17 pm
where is that blind homer AJC coattail rider dawgstephen ?
BG
January 9th, 2010
9:17 pm
Come on home Smart!!
The ANSWER for louie
January 9th, 2010
9:17 pm
Hey boy,
Saban is bolting for USC and THAT IS ONE of many reasons that Kirby is bolting from Alabama. Have YOU ever been to Tuscaloos? The only good thing in that area is the Bennz SUV factory. Birmingham/ Tiscaloosa SUX. Tusclaoosa and B’ham are not Atl and Athens, you moron.
Goooooooooooo Dogs.
Buckhead Bulldog
January 9th, 2010
9:18 pm
Louie – You keep saying that “these are my last comments”, and I’m sure everyone on here agrees that we hope you are making a true statement. However, you seem to like pain, and you keep coming back for your spanking. What gives?
UGADawg4life
January 9th, 2010
9:18 pm
Pollack has posted a lot of stuff on his Twitter account that hasn’t been remotely true, so I don’t see that as really credible.
Sad Richards
January 9th, 2010
9:20 pm
BTW how is BOO BOO doing in the offspring dept in the off season ?
dawg snit on buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
January 9th, 2010
9:21 pm
Louie works at the Mid Town Kroger in the produce dept., goes to school and hates that the Yellow Jackets suck, plain and simple.