Ten years ago Kirby Smart returned to Athens with one goal in mind, to awaken the sleeping giant that is Georgia football. Georgia had been a solid program over the last few decades, but everyone knew that they could be much better.
Smart was tasked with bringing Georgia back to national relevance, but for a first time head coach no one knew what they should expect. But Smart has proven all of his doubters wrong and has turned Georgia into what has arguably been the best program during his ten year tenure.
College football fans may try to debate that, but there are four obvious reasons why Smart is the best coach in the country and why Georgia is the best program in all of college football.
Georgia's complete destruction of their three rivals
One thing Smart needed to accomplish was asserting Georgia's dominance over their three main rivals. Georgia has always fared pretty well against Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech, but they've never truly dominated them for long periods of time.
Now that Smart is 10 years into his tenure at Georgia, it's safe to say that they are dominating all three of their rivals.
Georgia is a combined 26-4 against their three rivals during Smart's tenure. Two of those losses came in 2016 during Smart's first year as head coach, so since then he has only lost twice to his rivals.
Georgia also currently has a nine-game win streak over Auburn, five-game win streak over Florida and an eight-game win streak over Georgia Tech. So it's safe to say that Smart has dominated his rivals throughout his tenure, and that is an important step for any coach who is looking to bring a program back to national relevance.
Georgia football's rise to SEC supremacy
The next thing Smart needed to do was win the SEC. When he took over the program it had been a decade since Georgia won the conference, so another important goal for him was to finally win the SEC again.
It didn't take him long to do that as he won the conference in just his second year as head coach in 2017. Rival schools at the time could argue that this was just a fluke, so he had to do it again to truly prove his dominance in the SEC.
It took him a few years to win the SEC again, but in 2022 he did just that. Then after losing the 2023 SEC Championship game Smart led Georgia to back-to-back SEC Championships in 2024 and 2025.
So in Smart's 10 years as Georgia's head coach he has won the SEC four times which is better than anyone could have realistically expected when he was hired.
Kirby Smart's lethal College Football Playoff record
Up next for Smart was success in the College Football Playoff. Recently this has been a point of contention in Smart's tenure because Georgia is 0-2 in their last two appearances in the playoff and haven't won a playoff game in the previous three seasons, but looking at Smart's tenure as a whole shows how great he has actually been in the playoff.
Georgia is one of just five schools to make the playoff at least five times. The Bulldogs have made it a total of five times and hold an impressive 5-3 record in those appearances. Their .625 win percentage is tied with Alabama for the best winning percentage among these five teams. Ohio State's 7-5 record (.583) and Clemson's 6-5 record (.545) aren't far behind, but Oklahoma's 0-5 record puts into perspective how difficult it is to win a playoff game.
Smart does need to get back to his winning ways in the playoff again, but his overall playoff record is the best in the country.
Breaking Georgia's 41-year National Championship drought
Winning a National Championship was just a pipe dream for Georgia. Even after hiring Smart no one knew if he was capable of bringing a National Championship to Georgia. But then Smart led UGA to the National Championship game in just his second season as head coach, and fans started to believe.
Georgia failed to make the playoff the following three years, but they finally got back in 2021. This time they weren't going to fall short as they ended Georgia's National Championship drought with a heroic victory over Alabama.
Smart wasn't done though as he went back-to-back the following year with a perfect 15-0 record. This gave Georgia the second-most championships in the playoff era as they only trail Alabama who has three titles.
Georgia fans have been a little upset with the results on the field the past three years. After winning two national titles that has become the expectation, and that should never change. But Georgia doesn't have to win a national title to have a good season because the last three years have still been pretty good.
Every single Georgia fan needs to be thankful for the program Smart has built. Without Smart we would not have National Championship expectations like we do, so instead of berating the coaching staff any chance you get fans should be thankful that Smart turned Georgia into the No. 1 program in the country.
Add us as a preferred source on Google