Unless Kirby’s bullshitting here…
Smart knows current UGA defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt well as the two worked together at Alabama from 2007-12. But he would not get into specifics about whether Pruitt would be retained.
Smart did say he has the freedom to retain anyone he wants from the current staff at Georgia.
“They’ve been totally supportive of any decision I want to make, and that’s the way it should be,” Smart said. “… I don’t want to (speculate). That’s really unfair to those coaches and their families. There will be consideration there, obviously. But I do think it’s very important that I hire my staff and put my staff in place.”
… I would say that Greg McGarity blinked.
Get The Picture 
Well good for Coach Smart. Just keep it up.
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Tosh Lupoi will be co-DC
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Dirty Dick Slater
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A special teams coach! Glory, Glory!
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His future depends on Kirby’s success. Not hard to understand why there is a change of direction at B-M.
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This. Additionally, the Senator made a very good case for how weak McGarity made his negotiating position. Combine that with McGarity’s obvious need to have this coach succeed at a high level, and Smart could just about write his own contract.
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I love Pruitt as D Ciordinator… But if I’m him, I want to move on. I’d want autonomy so I’d probably want to work for an offensive minded coach. He’s certainly Demonstrated he can do just fine without outside input. I hate to see him go, but I’m not worried about the defense under Kirby Smart.
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I’m worried he’ll go to Auburn.
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Career wise that might not be wise.
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Michigan still needs a DC. I don’t see him as a good cultural fit, but if he’s not back here, I like the idea of him being out of the SEC and the south.
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…and Harbaugh is dying to recruit the south well. Pruitt would be a stellar hire by those guys. I don’t want him to leave–but I am ok with him at UM, so long as it means da Corch is going to lose more often.
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Read that Pruett is interviewing with Harbaugh.
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I hope he keeps Coach Lilly.
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Given the amount of time John has worked with Coach Richt at Georgia and Florida State, I anticipate he would be the assistant coach most likely bound for Miami.
But you never know.
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I agree – Lilly is likely headed to Miami and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as the OC like Callaway was early in CMR’s tenure.
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Was that a joke? Lilly coaches tight ends and offensive special teams.
He was the most expendable coach on the roster.
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No it was not. Have you ever met Coach Lilly? Or have you seen how much the players respect him and what a moral man and leader he is? Have you seen him at practice? No? I didn’t think so. That was apparent from your ignorant comment.
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Oh, I thought we were talking about COACHES. You are talking about MORAL LEADERS. My mistake. I must have stumbled upon another blog.
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Believe it or not the two are not mutually exclusive
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Was thinking the exactly opposite. Lilly has provided great service to UGA, but is the epitome of old guard richt guy. Need a clean sweep of that mindset.
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The early silence makes me think several guys from Bama are a part of the plan.
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I think that’s actually the brightest idea of them all.
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I’m buying.
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But let’s just hope that doesn’t mean Kiffin at OC, or handing the offensive keys to Billy Naiper.
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“my staff” being the key phrase
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My take: He knows Pruitt would most likely be gone after one year if he retained him and I think Smart is likely more interested in coaches that will be around a little while to establish Smart’s version of the process. He also wants to start fresh. I could see difficulty in getting Pruitt to stick around while agreeing to give up any considerable amount of control over his work product. I would certainly be pumped if it happened, but everything seems to indicate otherwise. Regardless, the fact that he hasn’t announced it yet means he’s looking elsewhere first and Pruitt is most likely just sticking around to avoid forfeiting the $1.3 million he’d be owed if not retained.
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The players seem to think Pruitt is leaving.
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Pruitt to Auburn or Alabama? My pick is Auburn.
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^^This is the problem. If Pruitt isn’t Georgia’s DC he will likely be the DC at one of our rivals. The Barn is a likely candidate since Boom is gone. Do we really want that to happen? I know I don’t.
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And how many top recruits would follow Pruitt? Not a smart move to dump him. Maybe in a couple years when his contract is up. Right now its to big a gamble.
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You are one thick individual. No wonder Cojones retired.
seem [linking verb, not in progressive]
1 to appear to exist or be true, or to have a particular quality:
Ann didn’t seem very sure.
It seems a foolish decision now.
seem to do something
The rainbow seemed to end on the hillside.
seem important/right/strange etc to somebody
Doesn’t that seem weird to you?
it seems to somebody (that)
It seems to me you don’t have much choice.
it seems (that)
It seemed that Freeman had killed the man, and dumped the body in the lake.
it seems likely/unlikely/reasonable/clear (that)
It seems likely that he will miss Ireland’s next match.
seem like
Teri seemed like a nice girl.
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
We waited for what seemed like hours.
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You’re trying way too hard.
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Lol. No I’m not… really
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Cojones and Macallanlover both took their ball and went home after Richt got canned. No surprise there.
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Both the named parties can defend themselves, but really, that’s such bullshit, Dude, the issue you mention has nothing to do with either case.
Nothing.
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They were tired of the juvenile games, this blog used to have mature insightful comments now a bunch of you want to get in passing contests grow up!
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You went full richtrollen. Never go full Richtrollen. However a passing contest to get Eason seems too legit to quit.
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My kindle changed pissing to passing I guess it wanted to control my attitude. I believed coach Richt could get us there and honestly believed he had been given until 2016 to get there. I think the record with the QB play we had showed superior coaching. When he was let go after the win I felt the legs had been cut out from under our program. I think our AD needs to go but I support our new coach. If that is Richt trolling I guess I qualify.
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That’s reasonable. Richtrollen would have more bearing had it been used in the original German
http://www.wib-bearings.com/de/bearings/special/guide/
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Debbie, FWIW I have always said the real problem was B-M not CMR. I think some on this blog may be unpleasantly surprised at the results CMR gets at Miami. When that happens there won’t be any question that the UGA administration had its foot on the football program’s neck while CMR was HC.
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I had to Google my high school German is shaky.
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Jeepers he was gone after 1 year at the barn…
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Translation: Pruitt is gone. Not exactly a shock at all, and as I said the other day, this is a good move on Smart’s part.
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I agree that Pruitt is gone given what Kirby said. I think it is a bad move on Kirby’s part, though. I reserve the right to change my mind when he announces who the new DC is going to be, however.
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How about when we see the results?
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Touche. That would be a better time to evaluate, wouldn’t it? 🙂
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The DC is not an easy decision if he wants to keep some of the current defense (and offense) position coaches on staff. Continuity in recruiting efforts will play an important role. I am happy to hear the decision is his and he is not rushing it.
Given Kirby’s depth of knowledge on defense, I am much more interested in the OC decision at this point.
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I’m much more concerned about who our OC will be as I think that will determine if we keep Eason or he goes to Florida. It’s a little disconcerting to me that we haven’t seen any news or tweets about Smart’s meeting with Eason yesterday.
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I agree. I thought we would have heard from that visit as well. I wish decisions concerning the offensive side would move quicker. Remember, we’re not talking February with Eason, he’s enrolling somewhere in January. Not to mention, Kirby goes back to ‘Bama Monday. The clock is ticking.
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I saw a couple tweets from Rivals that said the Eason/Kirby meeting was “very good.” His weekend visit with his family is still on. I think we’ll have a better idea within the next week.
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I think agree with the personal QB trainer that Eason has too much invested with UGA now unless Kirby told him he was bringing in a spread option guy or the Navy offensive coordinator. Neither of which seem likely based on his pedigree and his press conference. I hope we hear Eason has reaffirmed his commitment to enroll in January on Monday.
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If Eason and his family is indeed still coming to the banquet on Friday, I doubt we hear anything before then. I doubt Kirby is going to say anything so the quiet is no surprise to me. Maybe we will hear something on Friday. Maybe Big Ben will have to put Jacob in a bear hug to “convince” him. 😉
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Could be that Pruitt does want to be in Athens even if asked by Smart.
Think Pruitt is not trusting in the Georgia culture.
But let us wait and see how it goes.
Smart said it was a process in flux.
Only three Dawgs on SEC team. Two from defense. What does that say about Pruitt. Plus the stats. Plus the eye test.
Stays or goes. Pruitt in the mold of Russell.
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Senator,
I’m not sure GM blinked. Let’s see who becomes DC, but if GM said no Pruitt and Kirby really wanted the job more than Pruitt we may never know who said yes or no to Pruitt. Now if he stays that will say that Kirby definitely got his way.
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I think you can read the tea leaves any way you choose. It is most probable that Kirby got his way whether he keeps Pruitt or Pruitt goes to Mexico and becomes a bullfighter.
If the AD, or anyone else other than the head coach, was going to meddle in staffing, Kirby would have been dumb to take the job. He ain’t dumb.
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I agree, Scorp. I would have to assume that Pruitt is headed back to the mother ship to take his course in The Process II and to work on his mind melding skills with Coke bottles at press conferences.
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Truth is EE, I would not be at all surprised if the DC is a young up and comer who would be happy sitting at the knee of a guy with a good bit of experience as a DC in the Process.
You gotta figure Kirby is gonna have some input into the defense, would he not rather have somebody who is on the same page and teachable?
The piece about the linebackers indicates Smart and Pruitt have some philosophical differences, seems to me.
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That’s why some of the rumors popping up over the last couple of days about Sherrer as an internal promote may have some validity to it. Really good recruiter, Bama ties (so probably knows Kirby pretty well), done a good job with his position group, previous DC experience at South Alabama.
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Yep, seems smart to me. (Ok, ok, we gonna wear that one out, already.)
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Missed it by that much
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Coachspeak. What’s he gonna say? “I’m firing them all right after the bowl game”? No, he had to say that.
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Here’s why I might be okay with Pruitt going: With the previous coaching staff, Jeremy Pruitt was our Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men. We want him in that (B-M) Hall. We NEED him in that Hall. In CMR’s time in Athens, Pruitt was likely the lone voice in the wilderness asking WTF was going on, if everybody that says they want to win actually wanted to, you know, WIN.
The entire balance has shifted, now. The former NegaDawgs who decried CMR’s nice guy to a fault, “Aw shucks” routine are now the Kool-Aid-swilling Disneys. A new day has dawned, and the new regime will likely be hand-picked by Col. Jessup’s commanding officer. That tells me shit’s about to get real.
Pruitt was only indispensable so long as he was the sole badass challenging the status quo. I know the players love him, and I think their admiration of a firm hand on the rudder speaks volumes in the face of what appeared to be Richt’s Care Bear culture in Athens. I firmly believe that Kirby’s bringing the antidote to that, and he’ll have 9 hardass assistants behind him wiping the slate clean.
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I read you loud and clear, but I think you’re a little over the top with the “care bear” stuff. Maybe things did change with time but if you’ll remember when Richt took over in his first off season, the ‘finish the drill’ mantra had all the players puking after the workouts. Richt dogged them hard and really turned up the physical and mental aspects, immediately, and with devastating relentless work. It was a frequent beat writer material way back in 2000 before we had all the blogs and social media.
I’ve never been able to ask anyone close enough to the program for the last 15 years what the real deal was, meaning, did all the piss and vinegar go away over time? There has been a gradual change from 2005 to present in the way our team’s attitude and toughness felt during the games and I’ve always wondered why. You may be totally correct in your “care bear” assertion, I’d like to have it confirmed though, just out of curiosity.
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He iced his own kicker to hug him and tell him that no matter what, game-winning FG or no, he loved him. That pretty Care Bear-y to me.
Doesn’t matter how you start, but how you finish.
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When you have to constantly do battle with those who are supposed to be on your side it takes something out of you. I have no issue with Richt understanding the psyche of his player it helped Marshall. He made the kick. The way Dabo continually berated his punter can backfire hugely. Good leadership requires balance. We don’t want Woody Hayes as out Mr coach. Those kids loved and respected their coach and gave their all for him. Fear does not work.
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There is a report Pruitt is headed to Bama.
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