Kirby Smart Slander Should be Tabled

Georgia Football fans need to take a breather and table the Kirby Smart slander.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has been taking a lot of heat lately after losing to SEC East rival Florida and having an apparent disastrous quarterback situation. UGA fans are anxious for their first national championship in 40 years, and that's evident based on fans letting loose on social media.

A quick Twitter search of "Kirby Smart" displays everything mentioned. Most of the tweets include criticism of Smart's history with his quarterback situation, with some fans still not accepting that Smart allowed Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields to slip out of his hands. Other tweets criticize his "stubbornness" and performance in big games.

Still, there is one tweet that should be seen more than any other:

Record after 62 games:

Mark Richt: 50-12

Kirby Smart: 48-14

Former Georgia head coach Mark Richt deserves all the respect in the world, but it's too early in Smart's career for UGA fans to be concerned.

To put this into perspective, prior to the Alabama game, we investigated to see how Smart compares to Alabama Hall of Fame head coach Nick Saban early in their careers. Here are the numbers through 59 games:

It's also too early in Smart's career to be comparing him to a Hall of Fame coach like Saban. But, before fans jump off the Smart bandwagon, remember those statistics. 

At least Saban had previous head coaching experience. This is Smart's first head coaching job of his career. And he's not exactly struggling.

Or better yet, look at another historically great coach, Dabo Swinney. Swinney was 41-21 through his first 62 games as the head coach of the Clemson Tigers. Had the Clemson fan base run him out of town at that time, they would have missed out on two national championships and a 96-11 record after those 62 games.

Sometimes, patience pays off. 

Smart is 19-2 against the SEC East over the last three seasons and he's placed Georgia in positions they haven't been in for over 40 years. Most important is if Georgia were to fire Smart like so many irrational fans call for every time he loses a big game, he'd be the head coach at another prominent program in a heartbeat.