Kirby Smart’s Text Message to Dan Lanning After Georgia’s Title Goes Viral

The former Georgia defensive coordinator is now headed to Oregon as its new head coach.

It is all fun and games until the final whistle blows, and college football staffs begin to splinter off to new opportunities—which means getting kicked out of the group messages. 

That’s right; just after Georgia beat Alabama for the national title, Kirby Smart sent a text to his now former defensive coordinator—he's out of the text chain. 

Dan Lanning said during an Oregon press conference Thursday that after the game, Smart texted him, “Hey, love you Dan, got to remove you from the staff thread, appreciate you, coach.”

The 35-year-old is onto his first head coaching gig at Oregon after Mario Cristobal left for Miami. Smart had released a statement after the announcement, saying Lanning would coach Georgia in the College Football Playoff, and afterwards, Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp will serve as co-defensive coordinators.

There may be a little extra motivation for Smart to kick Lanning out of the chat so quickly. The two programs will kick off the 2022 season against each other on Sept. 3.