Legge's Thoughts: Kirby Has Earned New Contract

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ATHENS - Kirby Smart was correct... he's not going anywhere. 

UGA coach Kirby Smart and Georgia announced a contract extension Thursday afternoon pushing his agreement to stay in Athens through 2024 - for $7 million a year. That’s a little less than double what he made before.

Folks will compare numbers to other coaches, and I will soon as well, but this was a much-needed and appropriate move for a coach who has injected passion and a conference championship into a program that had been missing both for too long. 

Good for Kirby.

He’s not perfect, but he deserves this 100%. More than that he’s earned it. We are only slightly more than two years into his time at UGA (this iteration at least), and it is hard for me to think the coming years of football at Georgia will be so very different from last year. 

Yes, Alabama should be nervous. And the more they roll their eyes about being nervous the more you know they really are. 

We don’t see this a lot. In the pantheon of college sports it is rare the the head coach is a true fit for the institution they are at. Mark Richt was for long time at UGA, but that slowly went away. Mark Fox never was (remember how many contract extensions Fox was given?). We will see about Tom Crean. Nick Saban certainly is at Alabama, and Dabo Swinney plays the underdog role perfectly at Clemson. Roy Williams is the right fit at Carolina. Steve Spurrier was the right fit at Florida and the other Carolina. 

Sometimes the coach can make it work anywhere they are at (Spurrier, Williams). Sometimes you need the right fit. We might not ever find out if Kirby is the right fit anywhere else. 

One should always be cautious pronouncing something to be certain about the future. Frankly, and I have said this to a few people, my biggest worry about Kirby at UGA is his health. And I don’t say that lightly. He’s got three small children and a wife. They are more important than any job he will ever have. That’s why it what I am saying should be put into perspective. 

I don’t worry about if Kirby can do the job. I don’t worry if he will be successful. I don’t think him leaving for another position is something that feels like is going to happen any time soon (if ever). 

But we can’t know the future of our health. And if there is something to fret over at any time its that we can’t know what the future will hold with things as fragile as life. That’s why fans should celebrate what should be coming here soon. 

Again, like the rest of us, Kirby Smart is not without faults. But he’s taken something so many people care about, a sports team that none of them can control in any way, and has sprinkled magic dust over it so that it can do magical things (for the record “magic dust” is outworking your competitors, and “magical things” is winning UGA’s 13th SEC title and second Rose Bowl Game in school history). 

Its easy on days like today to overthink or over celebrate what could be, or what should be. After last season and what appears to be another run at things this fall, Kirby deserves more than the benefit of the doubt. He’s earned this by doing the work (Valdosta State, Tallahassee, Baton Rouge, Athens, Miami, Tuscaloosa and then Athens again) to get ready for the moment that he was presented with three Decembers ago.

But there is much work still to be done. Many trophies still to be hoisted. 

Georgia is still without a national title since 1980. And for a program with five recognized national titles that’s a long time to go without winning one. 

To be frank, if Kirby doesn’t guide UGA to multiple national titles over the next decade or so I will be surprised. Forget the competition for a moment, and it is always significant in the SEC. Kirby has elevated Georgia to within a footstep of the grand prize. He did that with a program in its infancy. 

That Kirby could or should win it all a few times isn’t out of the realm of possibility at all. He's the head coach at the University of Georgia - this should happen. 

And it will.