Georgia football should take a chance on young OLB coach
Georgia football lost its outside linebackers coach when Dan Lanning took the head coaching job at Oregon, and it seems like the Dawgs are closing in on a candidate. No decision has been made yet, but they are closing in one of the best up-and-coming coaches in college football.
Multiple reports suggest that Chidera Uzo-Diribe is who Georgia wants as their outside linebackers coach. He is a young coach that went straight into coaching after his college playing time at Colorado. The time he has put in was at quality programs where he got some great experience.
Head coach Kirby Smart wouldn’t choose just anyone to take over this role, and this is a strategic move on his part. Smart isn’t afraid to give a younger coach a chance, which is another example of that. Glenn Schumann was his first hire in 2016, and he is in his early 30s.
Georgia football should take a chance on a fiery young coach.
Uzo-Diribe is currently the defensive line coach at TCU as he followed Sonny Dykes from SMU after one year with the Mustangs.
He worked with Les Miles at Kansas for two seasons before moving to SMU as a quality control assistant and left Kansas as the outside linebackers coach.
Uzo-Diribe was also on the 247Sports’ 30-under-30 list in 2020, so he is one of the up-and-coming coaches. Smart loves giving these guys a shot because he was once in their shoes.
The Horned-Frogs, defensive line coach, stopped playing football in 2015 after lettering four years at Colorado. Uzo-Diribe finished with 20 sacks, 31 tackles for loss and 10 forced fumbles. He signed on with the New Orleans Saints as a free agent in 2015 but was back in Colorado in 2016 and became a grad assistant with Jim Leavitt.
Another reason he is a great fit is his ability to come into states like Texas, California and even Georgia to get recruits. He did that for Kansas and continued that for TCU.
Smart goes after young talent like this because they know more recently what it takes to be a student-athlete. His ability to connect with players help them become better ballplayers and men is a huge asset.
Uzo-Diribe is the Horned Frogs’ second-best recruiter and the No. 13 in the Big 12. If he gets hired, now he will get a chance to really prove himself on the recruiting trail because at Georgia, it’s a lot easier to recruit than Kansas and TCU.
We’re not discrediting them by any means, but the Dawgs are national champs, and kids want to go to school in Athens.
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This decision to close in on Uzo-Diribe is an excellent move by Smart because he is giving a coach an opportunity to be at one of the best programs in the country and grow. Who wouldn’t want to learn from Smart and the staff he currently has?
If Uzo-Diribe wasn’t up to Smart’s standard, we wouldn’t be discussing this. He is, though, and it’ll be exciting to see him in Athens if he does get hired.