ESPN attempted to rank the top 10 head coaches in college football ahead of the upcoming 2024 college football season. Georgia’s Kirby Smart came in at No. 1 ahead of Ohio State’s Ryan Day and received 11 of 12 votes as the top coach in college football. One writer, Kyle Bonagura, voted first-year North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick as the No. 1 coach, based upon his criteria that winning six Super Bowls supercedes the success of anyone in college football.
Kirby Smart heads into his 10th season at Georgia with a 105-19 coaching record, with a 62-11 record in conference play.
The outlet writes of Smart:
Numbers to know: Smart needs only five wins to move to second all time in wins through the first 10 seasons of a coach’s career. Entering this season, he trails only Chris Peterson (107 wins from 2006-15 at Boise State and Washington), Bob Stoops (109 wins from 1999-2008 at Oklahoma) and George Woodruff (124 wins from 1892-1901 at Penn).
This is the second straight year Smart was the runaway pick as the No. 1 coach. Will he be No. 1 again next year?
With more first-round NFL draft picks (20) than losses (19) in his nine seasons as coach of his alma mater and back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022, it’s hard to argue it could be anyone other than Smart with Nick Saban retired. I guess if Ryan Day guided Ohio State to a second straight national title or Dabo Swinney captured his third at Clemson this season, you could make the case they’re better. I don’t think Georgia’s program is going to slip anytime soon. — Mark Schlabach
Smart’s Bulldogs are coming off a 2024 season in which they went 10-2 in the regular season, won the SEC championship game for the third time under Smart’s watch, and played in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff. The Bulldogs’ season ended with a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl as part of the CFP quarterfinals.
In 2023, Georgia went 13-1, going 12-0 in the regular season for the third season in a row and taking down Florida State 63-3 in the Orange Bowl to break its own FBS record for margin of victory in a bowl game. At the end of the 2023 regular season, Georgia set a program and Southeastern Conference record with 29 consecutive wins, tying the Dawgs with Michigan (1901-1903), Miami (1990-1992), Florida State (2012-2014), and Clemson (2018-2019) for the ninth-longest win streak in FBS history.
The Dawgs went 14-1 in 2021, making the College Football Playoff and becoming the first No. 3 seed to win the national championship. Then Georgia went 15-0 in 2022, winning its second SEC Championship under Smart and its fourth-straight New Year’s Six bowl game, with Smart earning his 13th, 14th, and 15th wins over a top 10 opponent in the march to back-to-back titles.
After an 8-5 record in his first season, Smart led the Bulldogs to three consecutive 11-1 regular seasons and SEC Championship game appearances. The Bulldogs won the first of those SEC Championship games, made it to the College Football Playoff, where they beat Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl and lost to Alabama in that National Championship. Smart and company lost the next two league title games to Alabama and LSU, landing them in the Sugar Bowl both times, where they lost to Texas at the end of the 2018 season and beat Baylor at the end of 2019. Georgia finished the 2020 season at 8-2 and won its fourth bowl game under Smart.
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