Georgia football has one of the best coaches in the game right now, and yet he isn’t in the top-10 on 247Sports’ list of highest-paid coaches for 2022.
With so many big contracts going out during the 2021 season, Smart went from being inside the top-10 to now outside of it. However, that circumstance is likely very flexible because well they were winning a national championship and weren’t in the off-season like most of these teams, so the contract could change.
We’re not even considering the bonuses Smart will get for the playoffs and title, so he will be in the thick of that top-10 once everything gets sorted.
However, he needs to be No.1, over all of these coaches, and it’s easy to see why he should be.
Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart deserves to be the highest-paid coach.
If we look at the top-10 of the highest-paid coaches from 247Sports, the list looks like this:
10. Ryan Day, Ohio State — $7.6 million
9. Mario Cristobal, Miami — $8 million
T8. James Franklin, Penn State — $8.5 million
T8. Dabo Swinney, Clemson — $8.5 million
T6. David Shaw, Stanford — $9 million
T6. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M — $9 million
T4. Mel Tucker, Michigan State — $9.5 million
T4. Brian Kelly, LSU — $9.5 million
2. Nick Saban, Alabama — $9.9 million
1. Lincoln Riley, USC — $10 million
Smart signed a seven-year extension back in 2018 worth $7 million a year and around $49 million total, which put him in the top-5, but not anymore. He deserves so much more than the $7 million he is currently making.
Very few coaches have done what Saban, Swinney, and now Smart did since the playoffs began. Yet among the top-10, five of them haven’t even had a playoff appearance. We all know Saban’s track record. Kelly did it with Notre Dame, Day with Ohio State, Riley with Oklahoma and Swinney with Clemson, but the other five haven’t done much to deserve their respected salaries.
Riley sure hasn’t done anything to deserve a roughly $10million contract from Southern California, but yet he got it. Tucker, while he has turned Michigan State into a competitive football team — his $9.5 million salary was a shocker.
Sure Stanford has money, but is Shaw worth $9 million a year, or is Cristobal worth $8 million a year? These other college football programs aren’t afraid to give coaches big-time raises, and it’s time for Georgia to do the same.
While Smart’s salary change in 2018 was a big one, it’s time to top that and give him what he deserves — $10.5 million if possible.
Here are three reasons why Smart deserves that hefty raise and should be the top-paid college football coach.
Kirby Smart recruits harder than anyone else
The first reason Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart deserves a massive raise is his recruiting ability and how he continues to land some of the best talents out each year.
Since getting to Athens, the Dawgs haven’t finished lower than No. 6 in recruiting rankings, and that was in 2016, his first season.
Smart and his staff finished No. 3 in 2017, No. 1 in 2018, No. 2 in 2019, No. 1 in 2020, No. 4 in 2021 and are currently No. 3 in the 2022 rankings, but still have a few names left they could land and elevate them to No.2.
Now that he has a national championship ring, Smart will likely kick it into overdrive and the way Alabama was the recruiting king for so long. One of their secrets during that time was Smart, so it’s only fitting that Georgia would get those kinds of numbers when he came to Athens.
Georgia needs to continue recruiting at this level, and while they spend the most money on it, they also need to make sure they’re taking care of their coaches, especially Smart.
He deserves a raise because he continues finding the best recruits that want to buy into this program and Smart’s culture.
It isn’t easy to continue recruiting at this high level because of losing coaches, and well some kids don’t want to compete behind other four and five-stars.
Georgia continues to do it, though, and do it well. Sure there are some transfer issues, but recruiting the transfer portal is becoming relevant, and Smart is extremely good at that.
He is one of the best and is young enough to adjust tactics and stay relevant, making it easier to continue this recruiting dominance.
Kirby Smart’s value he brings to Georgia football is rare
We mentioned this in our introduction of this story, but Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart is flat out underpaid for what he accomplished through six seasons.
From the recruiting to working through coaching changes that seem to come every other year, Smart still has found a way to keep his team relevant in the SEC and has won the East four of the six years. He didn’t win it in 2016 or 2020 but did win it three straight years and just demolished the East in 2021.
Smart has one national title, an SEC Championship title, four division titles, a Peach Bowl Championship, A Rose Bowl Championship, an Orange Bowl Championship, a Sugar Bowl title and an AutoZone Liberty Bowl title. He currently has a 66-15 overall record as a head coach and continues to have senior classes break records left and right.
Georgia has one of the best head coaches that could lead the Dawgs to become the next great dynasty. Alabama did it with Nick Saban, and while that one is still going, Smart is just getting his career started.
He understands the game, its business, and what it’ll take to keep them there. Georgia needs to make sure he knows that they want him to stay as long as possible because this national championship is just the first of great things that Smart will accomplish.
We’re not saying Georgia undervalues him, but by giving him a raise, it’ll show everyone Smart is the guy Georgia wants to stick around for a long time.
Kirby Smart won the first national championship in 41 years for Georgia football
The most obvious reason head coach Kirby Smart deserves a raise is for winning the first national championship in four decades. He did what so many others couldn’t do and did it with a team of guys unwilling to succumb to any adversity that got in their way.
Smart made this happen with a former walk-on quarterback with an offense depleted with injuries. However, the star of the show is that historic defense that showed up each week ready to bully their opponent into submission.
In six seasons, Smart has made two national title appearances, and in his second, he won it all. Not many head coaches can say that, so that alone is worthy of a hefty raise.
Smart loves his job and would likely be content with his salary if his staff got raises themselves, but at this point, the university needs to find the money to pay them all because they earned it. A national championship is so hard to win, and Smart found a way to do it.
Georgia needs to make a statement with this raise and show the rest of college football that the Dawgs aren’t going anywhere and that Smart will be causing problems for a long time to come. If things continue like they have the first six years, Georgia is onto something special, and Smart is leading the charge.
No one deserves to be the highest-paid coach, outside Nick Saban, then Smart because of what he has done since getting to Georgia. Some of those names on the top-10 are excellent coaches but haven’t done what Smart has, and that should also be enough to give him a raise. He is the next star college football coach, and it’s time the Dawgs pay him like a king.