New Georgia coach Kirby Smart has put the finishing touches on a staff that is deep in SEC and NFL coaching experience.

With Monday’s official announcement that Mel Tucker would be his team’s defensive coordinator, Smart has completed the most pressing of his immediate challenges by completing his staff. Doing so quickly was imperative for recruiting.

The addition of Tucker gives Smart two veteran coordinators who are well-respected nationally within the coaching ranks for their many accomplishments. Both Tucker and offensive coordinator Jim Chaney have solid NFL experience, although that hasn’t exactly meant a whole lot at Georgia lately. Previous offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer was also an NFL coordinator before joining previous coach Mark Richt’s staff and failing to get the Bulldogs offense on track.

Tucker, who joins Smart in Athens after spending one year as the assistant coach/defensive backs for Nick Saban at Alabama, boasts more professional experience than college. His resume includes seven years as an NFL defensive coordinator during stints with the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns.

Tucker is no stranger to college football but has just two years of experience in the SEC, including a previous year with Saban at LSU in 2000. He will also coach Georgia’s defensive backs.

Chaney, the newly-hired offensive coordinator, boasts 30 years of coaching experience with stops in the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and the NFL. Before joining Smart’s staff, he spent this past season at the offensive helm at Pittsburgh as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Pitt finished finished 11th in the 14-team ACC in total offense. Prior to that, Chaney had served two years at Arkansas and as the offensive coordinator at Tennessee from 2009-2012 during the ill-fated Derek Dooley years.

Chaney spent three years with the St. Louis Rams (2006-2008) working with the offensive line and tight ends. He has additional coordinator experience at Cal-State Fullerton (1988-92) and Purdue (1997-2005), where he coached quarterback Drew Brees.

Offensive line coach Sam Pittman is a well-known commodity throughout the SEC, having coached at Arkansas and Tennessee among other places. Pittman had just completed his third season as the Razorbacks’ associate head coach, recruiting coordinator and offensive line coach when Smart persuaded him to join his staff at Georgia.

A Pittman-coached offensive line has led the SEC in the fewest sacks allowed in the past four seasons — the last three years at Arkansas and at UT the year before that.

James Coley, who will coach Georgia’s receivers, is a former Miami offensive coordinator and a former tight ends coach at Florida State. He spent two years with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins as an offensive assistant in 2005-06.

Shane Beamer, the son of former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, will coach tight ends and special teams for the Dawgs after previous coaching stops at South Carolina, Mississippi State and Tennessee (graduate assistant).

Running backs coach Dell McGee comes to Georgia from Georgia Southern, where he coached running back for the previous two seasons. McGee was the Eagles’ interim head coach when they beat Bowling Green in the recent GoDaddy Bowl.

This will mark the first on-field coaching position for inside linebackers coach Glen Schumann.

Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker and outside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer are the only two holdovers from the Richt regime and also boast much experience. Rocker, a former Auburn All-American defensive lineman and winner of the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award, is an 18-year college coaching veteran whose resume also includes a three-year stint as the defensive line coach for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.

Rocker has previous SEC coaching stops at Auburn and Ole Miss.

Sherrer had been coaching Georgia’s outside linebackers and nickel backs (known as Stars) the past two seasons before serving as interim defensive coordinator for the Dawgs’ 24-17 TaxSlayer Bowl win over Penn State on Jan. 2.