In order to keep James Coley from bolting this offseason for College Station — he was offered the offensive coordinator role by Jimbo Fisher, Kirby Smart made the decision to promote James Coley. The move was officially announced Tuesday during Georgia’s media availability heading into the start of spring football in Athens.

During his introductory spring press conference, the first question Smart was asked regarded the decision to promote Coley and assign him to a new position. It has been known for some time that Georgia raided Vanderbilt for receivers coach Cortez Hankton for some time, which likely followed Smart’s decision to move Coley to quarterbacks coach.

Here’s what Smart had to say when asked Coley’s new role with Georgia in 2018:

“I think Coley’s done a tremendous job for us. As a coach, he did a tremendous job of the receivers, very knowledgeable. He’s a guy that’s been a coordinator before. He’s worked with quarterbacks and had success working with quarterbacks in his history, and that’s something I thought that’s was a good move for our program. So he’ll be co-offensive coordinator. He’ll work with the quarterbacks.

“Cortez Hankton, who we hired, will be working with our receivers. Coach (Jim) Chaney will continue to call the plays and he’ll be working with the tight end position. So none of that has really changed. For us, the ability to add the 10th coach and have Scott Fountain working with our special teams excites me. I thought Scott did a tremendous job last year working with our coaches and helping us in that regard and brought us some kind of momentum plays in special teams.”