Kirby Smart, who was thought to be the leading contender to land the Southern Miss head coaching job, interviewed with the school and then withdrew his name from consideration. Speaking of consideration, I wonder if this had something to do with his decision:
… Fedora earned $685,000 in base pay at Southern Miss in 2011, with incentives that had the potential to push his compensation above $1 million. Smart earns $850,000 as the Crimson Tide’s highest-paid assistant coach.
As for the speculation that Smart is waiting for an SEC slot to open, well, it takes two to tango.
… He was reportedly a candidate for coaching vacancies at Ole Miss and Texas A&M, but sources told ESPN.com that Smart never had contact with either school.
Then again, maybe Kirby’s just waiting for Mark Richt to take the offer from Penn State.
Get The Picture 
I think he’ll regret not going for it. While he might do better financially to stay put, he’s gonna have to get out from Saban’s shadow sooner or later and be his own man. Southern Miss is an ideal job in which to cut his teeth as the head guy. I felt like Muschamp made a mistake not going hard after that job when his name came up in association with it before it went to Fedora, and look at him now. Is there any doubt that a 3-4 year stint at a place like Southern Miss- or Arky St. if you’re Malzahn- wouldn’t have done him a world of good in preparing him for the UF job? A job like that is just high profile enough to be on the radar, but you’re set up to actually succeed and parlay it into something bigger and better, unlike a Kansas or Vanderbilt, where they may make a bowl game occasionally, but sustainable success is not in their repertoire. The alternative is that maybe you get lucky, like Muschamp, and nab a plum job w/o HC experience, but it may ultimately cost him more, long-term, by coming into a job like that unprepared.
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well said
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+1
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Didn’t Saban go 6-6 his first year at Bama?
I think it’s a tad early to write off Muschamp. Both in terms of UF decision to hire him and in Muschamp’s decision to take job.
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I don’t think anyone wondered about Saban after going 6-6 or whatever because everyone knew what he could do – he’d already proven himself at the highest level. Muschamp has proven nothing. He may still be great… But there’s no reason to expect that at this point.
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Of the 3 Saban disciples (Muschamp, Dooley & Smart), Smart s far and away the least prepared and experienced to take a major level HC job. Dooley is farther along in term of coaching organization due to his tenure at La Tech. In coaching years these 3 are still extremely young pups. I am not impressed with Muschamp to date. I am not sure he has have enough experience and exposure to put together a quality SEC caliber coaching staff. The Weis hire was thought to be a quick fix for the offense so coach Boom could focus on the defense. How Muschamp handled the adventures during the season did not tell me he has taken charge of the program. I beleive he is over his head and it will cost him his job very soon. In comparing Dooley, TN & FL have the same expectations, but the situation in Knoxville was so bad the circumstances are dictating the outcome. The Tn folks refuse to recognize the Kiffin experiment set them back 3-5 years, so Dooley may be the sacrificial lamb. If you use Muschamp as the roadmap, Smart is at least 5 years away from being ready to coach at the SEC level. I am sure he will get his shot long before that, I just hope it is not at Georgia.
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Dooley was hired to be fired by the previous AD. Nobody good would take the UT job after Kiffin. So SOD was hired to take the hit of the bad years to come, then get fired to make way for the “savior” of the program that would be hired next. It’s so obvious that is why no first rate coach would take the job.
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The folks at UA are all but promising HCIW. Hmm, maybe the Saban to Texas scuttlebutt has legs ?
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Waiting for Richt to leave for Penn State? Nah. That’s old news. Craig James reports that Richt is considering leaving Georgia to begin his campaign for Congress in the 2012 election…
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No, his campaign for President. Get the office right.
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Whatever Kirby’s ultimate destiny is, I hope he gets an SEC head-coaching job soon. The sooner that happens, the sooner the anti-Richt dead-enders in our fan base will shut up about wanting him as our head coach.
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At this point, why would the Dawgs hire a defensive minded HC with CTG on staff? AKA Kirby. Would McGarity not look for someone that is stronger on the offensive side of the ball? Do you think McGarity would look at the “hot assistance” list or would he look for a proven HC? I lean towards the proven HC list.
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Oh, I agree totally. Whenever Georgia has to start looking around for its next head coach, I would hope that we’d set our standards higher than someone who has all of four years’ experience as anything higher than a position coach at the Division I level. But that hasn’t stopped a vocal group of Dawg fans from getting worked up about Smart, as if a Georgia diploma should be our only criterion when evaluating potential coaching hires.
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I too would like him to become an SEC HC. My opinion is that he would not be any more successful than Muschump & Little Dooley. Just my opinion.
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+1.
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You’re right. If the job doesn’t have a much bigger paycheck and at least a 70% promise of success, why take it. The malzahn’s of the world look like nothing more than job-hoppers, not to mention he left tons of money on the table by passing on at least one previous offer from vandy.
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Kirby can do better than Southern Miss. Why would any UGA fan want him in the SEC, unless its Missouri or somewhere far off?
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Why is he such a hot property again?
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He may end up having $500,000 cut in pay just like Gus when he decides to go somewhere in the future. I do not know if he remains a Prime Rib for coaching positions in big and more solid programs.
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Exactly who in the SEC qualifies as a hot asst O coach that McGarity would want? Or a hot HC coach who is already qualified? I think you just pinpointed our staff.
Think I’m kidding? Name someone else and I’ll shoot’em down for you. That is, if Puffdawg, Red, AHD or someone else doesn’t get to your suggestion first.
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Who on our staff are you describing as a “hot asst O coach”?
Or have I misunderstood…?
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Sexton is taking care of the boy. Don’t you worry. (Vol$)
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If that happens, I can’t wait to hear about Kirby negatively recruiting against ‘Bama. 😉
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There are at least two better jobs out there right now: Pitt & Houston
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Pitt is a sleeping potential giant. If Houston could somehow get into the Big 12 that would really be an attractive situation. While still in C-USA…not so much.
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Kirby Smart, you’re dead to me.
Sincerely,
The Bulldog Nation
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I’m starting to wonder if the dawgraded standard also applied to former UGA players that are now coaches. They can’t be a good head coach because they played for UGA. At least it seems that way on here. I really think that Kirby would be a good head coach. He’s smart and a good recruiter. It would probably do him some good to get out of Saban’s shadow because it’s hard to know what’s Kirby and what’s Saban, but I think that he’ll be a good one once he gets the opportunity.
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And you base that belief on what exactly? No Saban disciple has exactly turned out to be a world beater yet. (See Muschump and SOD).
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I absolutely think Kirby could be a great head coach somewhere one of these days, but if I’m the AD at a high-profile Big Six school like Tennessee or Texas A&M, I’d want to see him prove it somewhere else before I hand him the keys to the kingdom.
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