Kirby Smart is making moves to make Georgia football the power in CFB
By Max Tolbert
Georgia Football and Kirby Smart are seizing the moment of Nick Saban's retirement. Travaris Robinson was the Tide’s defensive back coach from 2022 to 2023. Robinson, an Auburn alum, is known for his coaching and as a great recruiter.
The Dawgs hired their own defensive backs coach last month with the addition of Donte Williams, but Robinson will be coaching safeties and the co-defensive coordinator with Glenn Schumann. This means Will Muschamp will return to being a defensive analyst for the Dawgs. Kirby Smart has this to say about the new hire of Robinson and Muschamp moving to an analyst role:
Fun fact: Robinson was the defensive coordinator for South Carolina under Will Muschamp. So, Muschamp probably said a good word to Kirby at some point.
I could write about Robinson, his career, and what type of coach and recruiter he is. However, every other website covering Georgia Football does the same thing. I want to write about the power vacuum that Saban created and how Kirby Smart is seizing the moment.
I often think about college football dynasties as empires. For example, Alabama during the Nick Saban era would be comparable to the Roman Empire. Anyway, that is how my brain works, and I see the rise and fall of these dynasties as the rise of another empire. Right now, the Georgia empire is rising, and the emperor Kirby Smart is taking the remnants of the Alabama empire and making Georgia even stronger.
Sure, Michigan won the national championship. That is wonderful for them and their fans. But Michigan is not the best college football program in the country; that was Alabama and Georgia. With Saban gone, Georgia is now the sole best program in CFB.
Georgia is built similarly as Nick Saban’s Alabama. But Kirby built the Georgia program, not 100% like Alabama (to the chagrin of many Bama fans on Twitter). Kirby Smart took Nick Saban’s blueprint, made it better, and fit Georgia. That is why Georgia has two SEC titles and two National Titles—something no other program in the SEC can say in the time of Saban.
Smart and his staff know that this Georgia program is at the top and are trying to solidify their position. Did you see what Kirby Smart and the coaching staff did on Friday? They visited something close to over 100 high schools in the state. Sure, it did not mean much to everyone else outside of the state of Georgia, but it means everything when other programs have to recruit the talent-rich state.
Georgia has always had to fend off opposing teams that take talented players from Georgia. Since Kirby Smart has taken over at Georgia, the Dawgs have shut down the state, but Alabama was still getting players to go over the Chattahoochee and play for the tide. With Saban gone, Kirby should have his choice of players in-state.
This is a massive moment for the Georgia Football program. We will see if the Dawgs can stay on top and be the standard of college football.