Georgia football: Kirby Smart building strong coaching staff

Georgia football lost both coordinators after the 2018 season but Kirby Smart looks set with a young and hungry staff that looks built to succeed.

With the recent Eddie Gran headlines, I’ve come to appreciate Kirby Smart’s new coaching staff even more. Three months ago, Smart lost his defensive coordinator Mel Tucker to a head coaching opportunity. Not long after that, Tennessee inexplicably decided to make Jim Chaney the highest paid offensive coordinator in the SEC. Since those moves, Georgia football quietly hired two new coaches in Todd Hartley and Charlton Warren. They also promoted James Coley to offensive coordinator and Dan Lanning to the same position on the defense.

Now things got a bit weird with Lanning who was never officially announced. He and Glen Schumann received their new titles but fans only found out when the press pushed for information on their salaries. It was a bit odd and I agree with those who think that Kirby might have missed a chance to talk up his new young coordinators. But if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Kirby Smart knows a bit more about building a football team than I do and I’ll defer to him on that.

The additions of Hartley and Warren are the ones I want to look at today. Hartley was the coach that Smart decided to go after Gran ‘spurned him’ and it’s already looking like a very good hire. It looks like it was Hartley who led the recruitment of Carson Beck, the recent QB to commit to Georgia. Hartley was recruiting him when he was at Miami and brought that relationship to Athens. Beck had a long-standing interest in the Dawgs and so Hartley was able to help seal the deal in that regards.

That’s a huge win for a young coach who has just arrived at the program. Not many people get into a job and hit a home run that quickly and Hartley isn’t exactly stopping. The 2020 class has two potential freak tight end prospects in Arik Gilbert and Darnell Washington. Gilbert is a local product and a guy UGA have wanted to land for along time. Washington is downright terrifying, standing at over 6ft7 and comes out of Las Vegas, the same place that Hartley landed last years top TE Brevin Jordan. In short, this is a guy that is going to keep recruiting his tail off already.

Warren is similar. He hasn’t landed a major prospect yet and the Dawgs missed out on Kaiir Elam, his main target before signing day. That being said, I wouldn’t be shocked to see him land several big fish in 2020, especially when you think about the talent he has to work with in Athens. What makes Warren such an exciting coach isn’t just his recruiting ability, it’s his developmental acumen. If he can make Trey Dean, a player that UGA turned down in 2018 look like a very good cornerback, think what he can do with the likes of Tyson Campbell, Eric Stokes and Mark Webb.

If Warren can develop the secondary players as expected, then he’ll put himself in a strong position to land some top prospects in this cycle. Success breeds success and that’s exactly what Kirby Smart seems to be hiring right now. Young, successful coaches with high energy levels who just never stop. I for one am happy about that. I love the staff that Kirby Smart has put together even if it doesn’t have household names and isn’t paying top guys million $ deals yet. What this team needs right now is aggressive coaches who are as hungry as they expect their players to be. That’s exactly what both Warren and Hartley seem to be and so I don’t think I’m the only person who thinks that good old Eddie Gran might have done UGA a bit of a favor.