You got played.

As the old cliché goes, Jimmy Sexton plays eleven-dimensional chess while Greg McGarity plays checkers.

In fact, there’s always been the thought in some circles that Georgia accelerated its search to hire Smart before the Gamecocks could make an offer. Smart was announced as the Bulldogs new coach on Dec. 6, 2015. Muschamp was introduced as South Carolina’s coach on the same day.

This week at the SEC’s annual spring meeting, Gamecocks athletics director Ray Tanner addressed the idea that Georgia “stole” Smart from South Carolina.

“I don’t think that’s exactly how it played out,” he said. “I think we had zeroed in on all the best coaches we could at that time. He was a guy that everybody thought highly of, but he was one of many who was on our list at the time.”

Yeah, it all worked out, once again proving the adage about it’s better being lucky than good, but let’s not kid ourselves.  Letting Sexton drive the hiring train wasn’t the way a well-run program with the top job offering in college football should have gone about its business.

Jimmy’s probably good with McGarity getting a contract extension now, though.  So there’s that.