Kirby Smart is the most accomplished active head coach in college football right now. Just because he is the most accomplished though doesn't necessarily mean he is the best, but until anyone out there wins a few more championships he is in a league of his own.
There are some people out there though that want to crown someone else ahead of him. That coach is Indiana's Curt Cignetti after he led the Hoosiers to an improbable National Championship last season.
Cignetti is a great coach, that much is obvious, but to already think he is better than Smart seems like a bit of a stretch. That however didn't stop Georgia's very own Aaron Murray from agreeing with the pundits that Cignetti is the new king of college football.
🚨New Top 10! pic.twitter.com/H0XXligpF8
— Aaron Murray (@aaronmurray11) June 2, 2026
Why Kirby Smart is still a much better coach than Curt Cignetti
There are countless reasons why Smart is a much better coach than Cignetti. For starters, Cignetti has only had one good season so far at the Power Four level. One conference championship and one national title isn’t enough to surpass Smart and what he’s accomplished.
Smart so far has won four SEC titles and two National Championships at Georgia. That shows that Smart’s championships weren’t a fluke while Cignetti is yet to prove he can do it again, and until he does then he has no business being ranked above Smart.
Smart is also one of the best recruiters in the country while Cignetti is yet to turn Indiana into a true recruiting power.
It’d be one thing if Smart and Georgia have been struggling in recent years as they would explain moving him down a list like this. Sure they haven’t won a playoff game in three years, but the last three seasons include two SEC titles and a 13-1 record in 2023. So even if Georgia hasn’t reached the mountaintop again, they have still been one of the best and most consistent programs in the country year in and year out.
Curt Cignetti does have one accomplishment he can hold over Kirby Smart
Even though there are countless reasons why Smart is still a better head coach than Cignetti, he does have one thing on Smart.
Smart has earned all of his accomplishments at one of the most powerful programs in the country. Cignetti on the other hand did it at Indiana which is one of the losingest programs of all time.
Winning at Indiana is much more difficult than winning at Georgia. Last season not only was the first National Championship they have ever won, but it was only the Hoosiers third Big Ten Championship in their history. The last time they won the big Ten was all the way back in 1967.
Indiana also has a .427 all time win percentage and only has six bowl wins in their history, three of which occurred during their playoff run last season.
Even if it is much more difficult to win at Indiana than it is to win at Georgia, Smart has done far more than Cignetti has to make up that difference. If Cignetti can win at a high level for a few more years then there will be a conversation, but anyone suggesting he is already better than Smart is jumping the gun a bit.
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