Some big news hit the college football world today as North Carolina announced that they have fired head football coach Mack Brown. This news may impact Georgia football a little bit if they wish to target some of the Tar Heels’ recruits, but this does put Kirby Smart in some elite company.
Brown was one of just a handful of active head coaches in college football who have won a national championship. In fact, he was one of only three with Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney. With this news however, Smart is now just one of two active head coaches with a national championship to their name.
Mack Brown's dismissal leaves Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney as the only two active head coaches with national championships
— Barrett Sallee 🇺🇸 (@BarrettSallee) November 26, 2024
Times are changing in college athletics
Never in a million years would anyone have guessed that there would only be two active head coaches with a national championship on their resume. It’s even more remarkable that Smart and Swinney both only have two titles to their name.
So it isn’t like these two have been winning every single title in recent years. This stat however does show just how much college football, and college athletics as a whole, has been changing in recent years.
The addition of the transfer portal and NIL has brought a lot of good to college football. However, one major downfall that has occurred is veteran head coaches being pushed out and not wanting to coach anymore.
The most recent example of this is former Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Saban has obviously won most of the national titles in recent history, but ever since the college football landscape changed he never seemed as bought in. Now we all see him on College GameDay every morning, and he appears to be loving his new job so far.
It’s just a matter of time until more head coaches get added to this list. There’s a chance that Smart could lead Georgia to another title this year to keep this list reserved to just him and Swinney but even if Georgia does win it all, eventually someone else will.
Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Ohio State’s Ryan Day are the most likely candidates to join this list this season, but if Smart has anything to say about it then it will be at least one more year until that happens.