How Kirby Smart took Georgia Football to the No.1 ranking

Clear coaching improvements:

The players are not the only ones who deserve credit this year for improving. The Georgia coaching staff deserves the same credit as well. We’ve talked about how many players have become better in 2017. How units like the offensive and defensive line are playing consistent and better football than the year before. Well, that comes from coaching and guys buying into what those coaches are teaching them.

But there are other ways that coaches make an impact. From a game management and playcalling perspective, Georgia seems to have learned some lessons. For much of last year, Jim Chaney was the most loathed man in Athens. Every week it was hard to find a Georgia fan who didn’t want him fired. It was an understandable emotion. UGA’s offense struggled to execute the scheme that Chaney ran and he made few adjustments. There were a lot of times where it felt like he had run out of ideas.

2017 looks very different. Chaney has brought in new elements to the offense and there is no doubt that it’s running better. Kirby Smarts clock management has been good and Mel Tucker has his defense well organized. The team is playing lights out in the 1st and 3rd quarters of games, clearly showing that their players understand how to execute their game plans.

Special teams has gone from a weakness to a strength. The whole team looks like it knows what it needs to do every week. Smart and his coaches have developed a clear message for their players and those players are executing. That’s not as easy as you might think and those coaches deserve a lot of credit for this year’s turnaround.