Kirby Smart gets asked if he’d consider the hiring of a dedicated special teams coach for his staff and tosses this out in response:
“I obviously, philosophically, believe in having that,” Smart said. “But I’m not limiting myself to not breaking it up. Until I get that position filled and feel comfortable with it with the person I hire, I’m not ready to say that yet.”
Giant nothing burger, that. Although it sounds better than “um… I don’t know.”
The reality is that Smart is up against the same numbers issue that Mark Richt faced. You can only have so many assistants on the staff; if you name a special teams coach, you’re giving up a spot for someone else. The only way that really works is if your head coach also takes on the duties of a position coach or coordinator, too.
Is Smart prepared to do that? (Ironically, Richt started out that way, but didn’t hire a special teams coach when he was calling plays.) Um… I don’t know. I would guess it depends on how much bang for the buck he can get for making that kind of hire, as well as how confident he feels stretching himself personally that way. Not to mention how much tugging he’s going to get to apply his time to non-coaching matters, as Richt did…