ESPN Tabs Kirby Smart as the Top Coach in College Football

Christian Goeckel | Apr 5, 2024

Jan 10, 2022; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart celebrates. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

A recent poll from ESPN ranked Georgia's Kirby Smart the top head coach in college football.

Time flies. In the blink of an eye, Kirby Smart is entering his ninth season a Georgia's head football coach. It's been a meteoric rise to the top of the sport, but in many ways, one that seemed inevitable.

Smart cut his teeth on an incredible Valdosta State staff that included Hal Mumme, Chris Hatcher, Will Muschamp, and the late Mike Leach. He then learned at the right hand of Nick Saban during stops at LSU, Miami [NFL], and Alabama. He then took over as the head coach of a program in one of the most talent rich states in the country and turned it into two SEC Championships and two National Championships.

Now, with Nick Saban enjoying retirement, Smart's ascension from a young head coach to the top coach in the sport seems almost as inevitable. In fact, a recent panel of ESPN writers tabbed Kirby Smart as just that.

In an ESPN poll that ranked the top head coaches in college football, Kirby Smart received all ten first-place votes, beating out Alabama's Kalen DeBoer and Utah's Kyle Whittingham.

ESPN's Top-10 Coaches in CFB

1. Kirby Smart
2. Kalen DeBoer
3. Kyle Whittingham
4. Dabo Swinney
5. Mike Norvell
6. Dan Lanning
7. Steve Sarkisian
8. Lane Kiffin
9. Lance Leipold
10. Ryan Day

Smart has a 94-16 record through 110 games as Georgia's head coach and is one of only three active head coaches with a national championship [Dabo Swinney - Clemson & Mack Brown - North Carolina]. His Georgia program is once again a heavy favorite to enter the year No. 1 overall and anything short of a College Football Playoff appearance would be a major disappointment.

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