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Georgia Bulldogs: Kirby Smart Extension And Raise Point To Promise

By W. M. Lawson

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Head coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs walks in to the locker room prior to the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Head coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs walks in to the locker room prior to the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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The Georgia Bulldogs Football team exceeded expectations in 2017, and look to continue winning ways this Fall. Kirby Smart got a raise, and that portends well for the program.

Conventional consensus is that the Georgia Bulldogs Football team superseded and exceeded expectations going into Year Two of the Kirby Smart era in Athens. The general jargon used is that “they were a year ahead”. That won’t be said of this year. High hopes reign in the “Classic City”, and anything short of a trip to Atlanta will be seen as a devastating disappointment. That is reflected by the new, shiny, and massive, contract Kirby Smart just received.

A couple of days ago, a friend, and radio colleague, Big Country, asked, when discussing recruiting:

"“Do you think success will make coaches leave Georgia like they have Alabama? It would be hard to turn down a HC job.”"

My response was fairly simple: Of course.

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The world of modern college football, and the money that successful, and entirely unsuccessful coaches, make these days requires that a dude take a Head Coaching job, most of the time, when offered. Unless, that job is at Tennessee. That’s a tough gig with those fans.

So, when word popped that Kirby Smart received a three year extension and a raise that puts him in the rarefied 7 MM/year club (Saban, Harbaugh, Swinney, Malzahn, Fisher, and Calipari) and keeps him at Georgia until 2024, it is a big deal.

There are many facets to the job of Head Coach that determine success. There are some that are specifically determinate of sustaining success, once that is achieved. One such catalyst is the ability of a HC to replace departing members of a successful staff with new members who can continue and drive further success.

Inherent in Big Country’s question is something taken for granted, but that is no less important: Alabama, under Nick Saban, has won 4 National Championships with 4 different OCs and two different DCs. It’s incredible, really.

Mark Richt’s downfall in Athens was his inability to replace the inaugural, and successful, staff he put together with other dudes who could win. Hello, Willie Martinez.

With Smart’s contract wrapped up, and stability trickling down from the top, it should help him position the Administration, in the future, to help keep current coaches or attract other coaches who might replace someone given an offer to move on up to the East Side.

Success breeds interest. Interest breeds conversation. Conversation breeds contracts. Contracts send coaches packing.

With the way the Georgia Bulldogs have recruited in the last few years, and look to continue for the foreseeable future, the team will be successful.

It is eminently expectable that this staff will suffer a diaspora, of sorts, in the coming years. Smart will have to replace them with quality, if his success is to continue.

What this contract shows, though, is that he will be there. He’s not going anywhere, and that means something.

In this case, trickle down economics actually does work.

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