Georgia Bulldog Head Coach Kirby Smart

Here's my take:

This will probably be good lemonade from the bushel of lemons we've been served IF we have patience enough to let KS do his thing. I've always felt that coaches should get a minimum 5 year contract because there is always a rocky period where the incoming cleans up after the outgoing. I'm not sure that will be the case here, but I'd like to wait and see what the Dawgs look like after KS has his kids and his coaches in place.

I have asked for Richt to fired as long as anyone. and all I can say is about dang time.

I would have preferred an offensive minded guy just because stats bear out they are generally more successful.

That being said I am happy with Smart being chosen, but if he lets his friendship with Muschamp cloud his judgement and names him DC I will be extremely disappointed. Keeping Pruitt or going after another DC seems the best course. Muschamp is not as good as his reputation and his temper is out of control. As Buc says he has made many disparaging remarks towards GA why would any recruit believe his sales pitch.

GO DAWGS !

Willie was a good friend of Richts, stayed well past his welcome.


No question in my mind that muschamp is a much better mind than Martinez, but if he doesn't have the same success at UGA, will it be hard for Smart to pull the plug on him?


Jobs can ruin friendships, just something Smart may want to consider.


Still would rather keep Pruitt. Man is a proven winner and our guys love him.

bulldawg36869, Kirby has a lot of talent on the defensive side, we should be even better in 2016.

You make good sense about an offensive "somebody". Richt messed up big time with the Schottenheimer selection.

If muschamp is chosen and he accepts, would be impossible for me to get all of the things out of my mind that he had to say about Georgia. He has a "loose screw".

Gus Malzahn now has his hands full. He will be the next to go. I believe that. His little dipsy doodle play book did not take long for folks to figure out. Doing the same thing at Auburn that Richt did in Athens . . . . always had someone to release. Not a doubt in my mind that Gus Malzahn is going to release at least two assistants. Garner might be the first.

Good to see you back 36869, both you and Duck were both the hardest hitters on Dawgs.com about the way Richt was running the program.

Hi Buc & all,

This is my first post here in a while, as I lost my account and couldn't remember any of my credentials. Now that I'm back in, I plan to be a regular contributor and hope to share ya'lls company. Forgive me if my first post is a little long.

I have to say, I am pretty fired up about Smart. Count me in as one who was completely and totally disgusted with the Richt regime in Athens. I have been saying for years that Richt needed to go. This is the first year where I found myself uninterested in watching the dawgs. Of course, I forced myself to do it, but the program had become utterly stale, boring, lifeless, excuse-filled, and indifferent to success or failure. I could script Richt's press conferences to a T - that's how predictable it became.

I was like a kid on Christmas morning when CMR was sent packing. Regardless of win/loss, right out of the gate, the life and energy that Kirby will breathe into this program is so desperately needed that it's going to feel like everyone associated with this Georgia from administrators, coaches, players, and fans are going to feel like they have a new lease on life. There was no greater example of Richt's attitude towards what his job was than what he said in his press conference:


Yeah, imagine that? People having the expectation of a national championship with the players you've had over the course of 15 years. Mark, there are some people around here that actually want to win championships instead of simply paying you $60,000/week to make good young men.

McGarity must have felt completely vindicated in that one sentence. I would have loved it if McGarity interrupted and said "and that is why Mark Richt is no longer our head coach this morning, just in case anyone here was wondering." I joke, of course, but that sums it up in a sentence.

One last thing I'll give McGarity credit for doing that no one seems to mention. What a message it sends that the program is bigger than some flashy five-star QB recruit. So many athletic departments would have said "no no no, we can't let Richt go now! Look at who we have coming in!" Nope. McGarity saw it for what it was and sent a loud message that UGA would not be held hostage to an 18 year old senior in high school, regardless of how great he may be or thinks he is. It also spoke volumes to the confidence the program had lost in Richt's ability to develop his players talents to the fullest, considering the recruiting class Richt had/has lined up. McGarity was in a tough spot, and I think he sees clearly now that there was a two-headed monster at UGA. Those who felt that the program's ability to contend for a national championship really didn't matter just so long as Richt was the head coach, and those who felt that it did regardless of Richt being the head coach. The correct head was severed, and it couldn't have come at a more needed time.

And I have a message for all of those media types and fans out there saying "yeah well, good luck winning nine games a season without Richt!" Guess what folks? Nine wins isn't the bar any longer. Another reason why Mark is gone. A nine-win season doesn't cut it any longer. And most likely, neither does a ten-win season. The big boys going to the dance at the end of the season are either one loss or they are undefeated. Sorry, but that's just the world that is college football nowadays. I don't care if we were 6-6 or 9-3. 6-6 and 9-3 gets us to the same useless Lysol Toilet Bowl that means absolutely nothing every season except a little more money for the University and a grab bag of goodies for the athletes.

Anyway, I won't beat a dead horse. This was long overdue. Thank goodness we stopped the hemorrhaging now and the healing can begin. I thought that Mark handled himself, as always, in a first-class manner at his dismissal conference. Good for him. I wish him all the best at the "U". (As a guy who was born & raised in FL, I know that system well. He has his hands full.) Richt's legacy at UGA will be that he was a wonderful man, a very good coach, but never before had a coach with so much talent accomplished so little with it.

Now, onto Kirby.

I think this was a hire that has been in the wings for a long time now. Kirby is going to demand excellence and settle for nothing less. He's going to get into the players' heads and punish their bodies. He is going to instill a discipline that we haven't seen at UGA, possibly since the time of Erk. That's what you get with a first-branch Saban protege.

I shutter to think of us bringing Muschamp in, and I desperately wish we'd keep Pruitt. That being said, if Boom does come over, there's no doubt the D will be rock solid. I just have a hard time rooting for a dawg that defected to the Gaytors and then returns to Athens. I just don't know how long Muschamp will survive in a system where if Pruitt "ruffles some feathers" with the athletic department because he calls out the BS he sees in the system, he gets put on the outs with the folks at the Butts-Mehre. Imagine if Muschamp throws his usual fits on the sidelines.

That being said, I don't think Pruitt is out the door just yet. The players love him and he could fit nicely into a Smart run system. If Muschamp goes to South Carolina, I think it's a lock that Pruitt stays. I really, really hope that Pruitt does stay.

I am excited in a way I haven't been in years. I can't wait to see the energy and intensity we're going to witness on the field and on the sidelines in 2016. If the rumors are true that Kirby is bringing over Scott Cochran as S&C coach, as well as Chris Rumph from FL as D-Line coach, as well as potentially retaining Pruitt or bringing over Muschamp - wow. We're going to see a UGA team with an attitude and a brutality that we've only dreamed about.

A great time to be a dawg!

That's been my point for a long time about these 9 win seasons the Richt camp liked to hold up as a gold standard. Look at who we beat this season and I'll bet you Ray Goff could have won 9 games. 59th ranked strength of schedule and that's taking into consideration Alabama and Florida... and we know what happened there. 7 home games and 1 on a neutral field and another in Atlanta where we're a huge part of the crowd. 9 wins for us has been taking us to Belk Bowls, and Outbacks, and Taxslayers where we stand a fair chance of getting beat by Central Florida.

Sorry... not trying to bash the former coach any more, but that just doesn't cut it for the talent and investment that's in this program.

I'm glad those in power finally agreed. There was a stale air around the program, and the change was needed for UGA, AND Mark Richt. He will probably have a much needed rejuvenation of sorts just as we will.

Anyway... good comments, good to see some different names posting... proves life has been breathed back into UGA football.