Kirby Smart is one of the best coaches in all of college football. There is a great argument for him to be the No. 1 coach in the sport, but at the very least he is up there with the best of the best every season.
So far this season Smart has proven once again why he is one of the top coaches in college football as he has helped lead Georgia to a 5-1 start and No. 9 ranking in the AP Poll. And because of this great start to the season, Georgia football announced that Smart has been named to the Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year Watch List.
Coach Smart has been named to the Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year Watch List#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/j3twmtjbaB
— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) October 15, 2025
Kirby Smart named to Coach of the Year Watch List
The Paul "Bear" Bryant Award goes to the best college football head coach every season. As one would assume, Smart has been in the running for this award almost every season he has been the head coach at Georgia, but he has somehow not won the award yet.
His second season in 2017 that resulted in an SEC Championship and National Championship game appearance was one of his best chances to win this award along with Georgia's two National Championship winning seasons. But he somehow did not win this award in any of these seasons.
Smart will look to change that this season, but he is going to have to be perfect to accomplish it. For better or worse, the high expectations at Georgia make it really difficult for Smart to win this award because anything short of winning the SEC is a failure. So in order for Smart to win this award, he has to win the SEC and make a run at another National Championship if not win the whole thing.
Smart's next step in his journey to win this award comes against undefeated Ole Miss this weekend. A win in this matchup would go a long way not just for Georgia's season outlook, but it would be yet another marquee victory added to Smart's resume to help him win this award for the first time.