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Georgia Bulldogs

Lane Kiffin jokingly floats Kirby Smart as next Atlanta Falcons head coach

Sydney Hunte

By Sydney Hunte

Published:

Lane Kiffin has a recommendation for who should be the next head coach of the Atlanta Falcons: Kirby Smart.

Despite Georgia being unable to win a 3rd straight national championship, Smart has turned the Bulldogs into one of the elite programs in college football. And Kiffin — jokingly — suggested that Smart get the call from Falcons owner Arthur Blank to make the move to the pros.

For what it’s worth, Smart has NFL coaching experience: he was the Miami Dolphins’ safeties coach in 2006 under — who else? — Nick Saban. Saban, of course, took the Alabama job after 2 seasons at Miami (his wife, Miss Terry, notably “was not particularly happy” in South Florida), hired Smart to his staff, and the duo built a dynasty in Tuscaloosa — 2015’s title team also included Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator — before Smart took the reins in Athens.

In all seriousness, Smart isn’t making the move to the NFL. The Falcons, for their part, went 21-30 in 3 seasons under Arthur Smith before his firing early Monday morning, just hours after a season-ending blowout loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Sydney Hunte

Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.

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