Here’s a story that says much about college football media and the way it goes about reshaping the focus of the game from its traditional regional scope to a national one, for better or worse.
The morning after Scott Cochran was hired by Kirby Smart, I appeared on Peter Burns and Chris Doering’s nationally syndicated radio show “SEC This Morning.” We talked about the hiring and what it meant, and if as a Georgia fan I had any concern about Kirby hiring Cochran for his first on-field position. There are plenty of people who would love to do a radio hit with Peter and Chris that do this for a living, and it was very kind of them to have me on.
Towards the end of the interview, Peter asked me a question that caught me off-guard. I don’t have the exact quote recorded, but his question was something along these lines… “Considering the fact that Kirby Smart seems to have all of the pieces in place that a college football coach needs to win, from the facilities to the star recruits and budget to hire whoever he wants for his coaching staff, are Georgia fans starting to get frustrated with the lack of a national title? Is his seat going to start warmIng if Georgia doesn’t win a national title next season?”
I only wish he’d had the presence of mind to shoot back with “Warming? Whom would you suggest as a replacement?”
This is kind of a “what have the Romans done for us lately” list, but somebody needs to explain to me what we’re supposed to be bitching about when it comes to the resume Smart has already crafted:
- Managed his roster in a way that Georgia has the highest ratio of blue-chip players of any team in college football.
- Hired the most important and tenured assistant from the team that has been his biggest hindrance to winning a national title.
- Signed the nation’s #1 recruiting class in 2018 and 2020
- Signed the nation’s #2 recruiting class in 2019
- Signed the nation’s #3 recruiting class in 2017
- Created enough momentum and faith to get upgrades approved to Georgia’s facilities. UGA put in new locker rooms in Sanford Stadium as part of an overhaul of the West End Zone and a 80 million dollar revamp of the Butts-Mehre building
- Won the 2017 SEC Championship while coming within a defensive stop of a national title
- Captured three straight SEC Eastern Division Titles
- 14-2 against Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina and Georgia Tech over the last three seasons
- Beat Tennessee 41-0 on their home field (look I know this doesn’t really matter to most but I was there and hearing chants of “U-G-A” echo around Neyland Stadium with over 20 minutes left in the game was one of the best things ever). [Emphasis added.]
If there is supposed frustration over Kirby’s failure to get over the final hump, it’s only because he’s built the framework to get the program as close as it’s already gotten and, along the way, accomplished the kind of stuff that very few of his predecessors could similarly claim.
The highlighted portions of that list should be a daily cause for celebration for Dawgnation. That we’re expected to brush those aside as insignificant because Smart enters his fifth season without a national championship ring on his hand is almost insulting. But not surprising these days.
Vince Dooley would not have made it to 1971 if the same kind of unrealistic expectations of today were present back then. Two consecutive seasons of 5-5-1 and he would have been dismissed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Kirby also literally makes a few hundred times what Dooley made. Comes with the territory I suppose.
LikeLike
LikeLike
I know UGA lost to Bama in the title game but in my kind that is a W. That game was stolen from UGA plain and simple. I know you have to overcome bad calls, missed calls, bad luck etc., but that game was stolen from UGA.. I’m not a fan of moral victories, and that is not what I’m talking about. We got hosed Davey.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, Kirby didn’t lose us that game for sure.
I put it under the, “These things happen. Glad we got there in the first place.”
LikeLike
Sure we got hosed, but our offense also went from moving the ball effectively to turtling. Once Alabama adjusted their defense, we had no answer. That’s partly on Kirby.
LikeLike
If by partly you mean 100%, I agree with you. 😉
LikeLike
It feels like national media wants that to be a story but just being in the national championship talk at the end of every year is a new thing for us. We have never had a coach so damn focused on making us the best program in the country. I can go on beating all of our East rivals and winning the East every year. Eventually we will get that natty but other than a 7-4 season. I can’t imagine Kirby’s job ever warming up in the next 15 years. The dude is what we prayed for. Loves The Dawgs, single minded in focus of winning. Recruits his ass off. He is still a young HC. He is only gonna get better.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Well said. The championships will come. This is just talking points right now because people are bored. Kirby is starting his 5th season as a head coach. He’s made changes after every one and I expect these changes to pay dividends soon.
LikeLike
Eh, I get it, but letting CMR go indicated there was one hurdle to go, and that the next coach carried those expectations. I think it’s a somewhat fair criticism and unfortunately for Kirby, he is somewhat of a victim of his own recruiting success.
Plus, when you look at LSU and see that they won it all with Coach O…it’s tough to be a UGA fan, man
LikeLiked by 1 person
The playoff has taken the “title or bust” mentality that was creeping in under the BCS and put it into overdrive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
At least under the BCS fans would actually go to bowl games. And players saw them as worth playing in. We had a half full stadium for the damn Sugar Bowl last year. The Sugar Bowl!
LikeLike
Its exactly what the non playoff people said 15 years ago. And the current answer to fix it is: add more games
LikeLike
Media (all of it) has decided the best way to get attention is to create controversy even when none exist.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Burns isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. I would have told him flat out, with all due respect, that’s a stupid question. Kirby creates hot seats for others, not vice-versa.
LikeLiked by 4 people
As long as you preface it with “with all due respect”, you can say whatever you want to someone. It’s in the Geneva Conventions, look it up!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I attended UGA from 1990-1994. I am very happy with the state of the program and the job Kirby is doing. National title or not.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This kind of response was appropriate in 2007 but not in 2020! You’re supposed to be angry we don’t have a Natty yet! And incapable of enjoying any success short of that! Get with the program! =D
LikeLike
Yeah who cares if there are at least 2-3 other great programs peaking every year. If we don’t win it all, our coaches are f’n idiots.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think winning championships requires a fair amount of “luck”, in addition to having “all the right pieces in place.”
LikeLike
90-95 here!
LikeLike
90-93 here.
LikeLike
Kirby is emulating early Dabo except with more wins and better recruits.
I also echo that the National Championship game was stolen.
Saban is getting close to 70, when he is gone, Kirby will own the SEC
LikeLiked by 1 person
Has it ever occurred to you that when Saban is gone Bama May own Kirby?
LikeLike
Kirby isn’t leaving Athens for Tuscaloosa. Mary Beth Smart has made it very clear they built that house in Five Points because they love Athens.
LikeLike
I agree.
But we all need to stock up on popcorn to watch Jimmy Sexton work B-M when the situation arises. It’ll be epic.
LikeLike
I’ll enjoy all the Bammer backtracking on the Kirby hate they’ve been spewing the past 4 years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m assuming Morehead, whoever the AD is, and the liquor barons won’t do something stupid. I would nervous as hell about it if Il Duce we’re still on North Campus.
LikeLike
One way or another, Smart will be the highest paid HC when Saban retires.
LikeLike
I’m starting to sense that Kirby keeps a safe distance from the media and Mullen embraces them. I don’t have any proof of this but something is different in how the media treats them.
LikeLike
WSLS has gotten into this before and Kirby is a dick to the media, so naturally enough they don’t warm up to him.
LikeLike
I think Kirby tries to manage the media in a professional manner. MuLLLen likes to see if he can show off for the media. Kirby is more Saban-lite in his press conferences imo. MuLLLen has a Tik-Tok that serves no purpose except that it gets him out in the social media.
LikeLike
If we ever fire a head coach because he didn’t win a national title (and, no, CMR wasn’t fired because he didn’t win a national title), we deserve exactly the same wandering in the desert the Hillbillies have experienced. Kirby has done nothing since 2016 to deserve the hot seat treatment.
As for Peter Burns, isn’t he the same SEC Network talking head that was proclaiming with Tory Gurley in 2018 that Sandstorm was going to be the end of our season? Needless to say, he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
LikeLike
Well, I mean he did lose to Vanderbilt.
LikeLike
Not sure if losing to vandy is a reason to dismiss..if he gets fired, please hire Kirbs as the new UGA Athletic Director (20 year contract is good for me)…..
LikeLike
That’s what I meant by 2016.
LikeLike
Agreed ee.. Burns picked Kentucky to win the East last season or the one before if memory serves..
LikeLike
Does Richt get fired in 2015 if he wins it all in 2012? I doubt it.
LikeLike
He probably doesn’t get fired in 2015 if he won the SEC in 2012. If we had beaten Bama and lost to ND, the pressure would have been off. The ensuing 2 years where Missouri went to Atlanta put him on shaky ground. The Faton Bauta experience and the Georgia Southern win probably sealed CMR’s fate.
LikeLike
I’ll disagree that beating Bama in 12 saves Richt in 15. Winning the conference was an achievement he’d already accomplished. But I don’t think we’d have lost to ND and as such a natty in 12 buys him more time. Who knows what happens with Eason and perhaps a new OC in 16?
All that to say Richt was ultimately fired for not winning it all.
LikeLike
That’s a fair point. I just think an appearance in the title game probably would have given him more time to right the ship.
LikeLike
Perhaps. I feel like most of the fan base (including myself) just assumes a victory of ND as a foregone conclusion, mostly based on the way Bama thrashed them, but as we all know the transitive property doesn’t really work in football. That said I still would have liked our chances.
LikeLike
Totally agree … as I sat there watching Bama put a baby seal clubbing on ND, I couldn’t but think that would have been us, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The 14-2 stat is most impressive to me.
LikeLike
17-1 vs the SEC East… damn that Carolina game.
LikeLiked by 3 people
So long as there are some Georgia fans who will get the hackles up because some jackass came back with “1980 ha ha ha”, then this is going to find a bit of traction.
When Gator Fan or Vol Fan reaches for “1980”, then they’ve retreated into territory once only the preserve of tech fan. Leave out that 1990 was 30 years ago, that 1998 was 22 years ago, and that 2008 was 12 years ago (all sort of long droughts of their own). The last three years have sent the two dominate programs in the SEC East into acting like tech fans and that, my fellow Dawg people, is what we call “winning.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
“…two dominate programs in the SEC East of the 1990’s…”
My kingdom for an edit feature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“two dominant programs…” vbg
LikeLike
Mullen is 44 / 44 in the SEC as a head coach. Recruits like a bumbling knucklehead and would die without the “Portal”
Kirby is 25 / 7 in the SEC as a head coach. Won the division 3 times played for a natty. Recruits like a madman. Hot Seat ???
Yup pretty clear Mullen is the better coach.
LikeLike
Recruiting titles. SEC East. $8 million reasons he was brought in to do more. Not a hot seat, but we need to beat the West teams.
LikeLike
Kirby beats all the West teams regularly except LSU and Bama. Lost to Auburn once during the regular season and Ole Piss in his first year. The rest of the time Georgia kills the West teams.
LikeLike
The 2020 Bama game will be a measuring stick for Kirby. If he can come out with a win that won’t be expected of him it could be a turning point for the program. We have to break the streak of taking an annual beating from the SEC West.
The biggest thing going against Kirby is we didn’t bring him in to win the SEC East or even the SECCG. Richt was fired because that wasn’t good enough. The recruiting classes are good for morale and the fans, but Athens is starved for a natty and fair or foul it’s Kirby’s burden to bear.
If there was any year Georgia needed Spring Practice it’s this year. Speaking of which can anyone tell me what makes Monken’s resume superior to Schottenheimer’s coming in? I seem to remember a similar amount of hopefulness headed into 2015 with an early season match up with Bama on the schedule…. not mention a transfer qb from the ACC.
LikeLike
Do you mean the qb who set the UGA and NCAA record for pass completions in a cfb game?
LikeLike
The very same.
LikeLike
With regard to your last paragraph, all I can say is I didn’t have other bloggers sending me tweets like these when Monken’s hire was announced.
LikeLiked by 1 person
”It’s a crap shoot, but what big hire isn’t?”
I don’t like gambling.Thank CKS for that D.
LikeLike
Why is a win “not expected” at his point? I don’t think there’s a team in the country that has a better 4-year recruiting average than UGA now, including LSU and Clemson
LikeLike
I’m talking Vegas odds going on the road to Bama with a new qb and OC without the benefit of spring practice.
I’m not saying a win would be shocking or that we shouldn’t expect win, but they almost certainly won’t be favorites.
It would do a lot for getting the Bama monkey off our back coupled with the annual shortcomings against the West.
Also if we win it will be interesting to see if we have to face them again in Atlanta.
LikeLike
Bama has similar challenges. Just not similar media.
LikeLike
https://www.secrant.com/rant/sec-football/this-saban-is-washed-up-narrative-is-gonna-be-fun-to-watch/81387393/
LikeLike
A lot of prescience in that thread albeit on the LSU side. Very entertaining.
LikeLike
Kirby hasn’t won that natty yet, but is there anyone out there working harder toward that goal?
LikeLike
Saban. O. Dabo. Riley. Day. I might even throw in Harbaugh and Herman though they haven’t proven to be nearly as effective.
That’s not knocking Kirby, but simply recognizing that for as hard as he works, he’s not alone out there building highly competitive programs. If recruiting talent was the only measure, we’d have more rings by now.
LikeLike
No problem with Smart. He has done all he can. You just can’t beat UGA bad luck. It’s real. We gave CMR 15 years, surely we can give Smart a few more.
LikeLike
Ricky Bobby lives!! The last 3 seasons were the second best 3 season stretch in UGA football history and some of our fans are disappointed! WTF?
LikeLike
Preach, Mayor. If you ain’t first you’re last! Woo!
LikeLike
Luck of which UGA has none.
LikeLike