O'Gara: Kirby Smart got a raise to be the highest-paid coach in the sport, yet he's still underpaid
I’m old enough to remember when Nick Saban became the first $4 million man in college football. It was back in 2007, well before network TV contracts were the end-all, be-all that they are today. It was also well before any notion of revenue-sharing seemed possible, much less imminent.
I’d love to go back and tell the 2007 version of myself that 17 years later, that once-absurd figure would more than triple. Even better, it would be because a position coach on Saban’s staff would be running the sport.
On Thursday, Georgia announced that Kirby Smart received a new 10-year, $130 million deal that would make him the first $13 million man. Why? Because $10.75 million annually just wasn’t enough for Smart.
I know that might’ve come off a bit sarcastic, but I believe it. He’s worth it, and then some. If Georgia announced that Smart was set to make $20 million annually, I’d nod in approval.
At a time when the narrative surrounding college coaches is that the job is more impossible than ever, taking care of Smart by any means necessary should continue to be Georgia’s primary focus. Nobody knows how long he’ll want to do this, especially if there aren’t significant changes to the structure of the sport with NIL/transfer portal/year-round recruiting calendar issues. Without that happening, Smart coaching as long as Saban feels unlikely after the immortal Alabama coach finally reached his limit at age 72.
The worst scenario for Georgia would be Smart walking away from the sport in his early 50s, a la Urban Meyer. Granted, Meyer won 3 rings and was still never going to catch Saban. Maybe Smart will indeed make a run at 7 rings. Only he can determine how much that motivates him. Only Georgia can determine how much it compensates him.
And let’s be clear, SEC Championship loss or not, Smart is still running the sport.
The man has as many losses in the last 3 seasons (2) as he has titles (2). Both of those were at the hands of the greatest coach of all time in a place that he hasn’t lost in since Meyer’s Florida squad took care of Alabama in the 2008 SEC Championship.
Smart is trying to become the third coach in the last 70 years to win a third title in 4 years. Saban and Tom Osborne are the only 2 who can claim that feat. Smart will likely lead the preseason No. 1 team in America and the national championship favorite after 3 consecutive 12-0 starts.
That $13 million/year salary is money well spent even if UGA doesn’t do what Saban did in the 2010s. And well, I suppose I should include what Saban did in the 2020s because the Tide took home 3 of the 4 SEC titles in the decade so far.
Smart’s increased compensation acknowledges that maintaining this pace is not for the faint of heart. There’s significantly more work that goes into this now as opposed to when Bear Bryant could take 6-8 weeks to travel to California to golf with USC coach John McKay. Smart’s wife wanted to go to the Amalfi Coast, but he opted to be a travel baseball dad in Southaven, Mississippi for a weekend.
But let’s say that we do get some regulation on the hot-button issues in the sport and Smart can, hypothetically, leave the country without feeling like he’s failing at his job. It’s still never been more lucrative to be an elite coach. Playoff money and exposure to standalone games will take on new life. Hosting a Playoff game is now on the table, which only adds to the incentive of being a relevant team.
Georgia, as long as Smart is there, is more than just relevant. Smart would’ve led UGA to the 12-team Playoff in each of the last 7 seasons. He’s the only coach with 7 consecutive top-7 finishes in the AP Poll. So in theory, UGA could’ve gone into mid-December with national championship hopes in each season for the better part of a decade.
There wouldn’t be a more feared team in that setting. At least there shouldn’t be. It’s not just that ever since the Texas dud in the Sugar Bowl, Smart is 7-0 in the postseason. It’s that the only person with any sort of leg up on him is gone. Here’s the list of active coaches who beat Smart since the start of the 2017 season:
- Gus Malzahn
- Tom Herman
Also of note, both of those coaches were fired from the places where they beat Smart. The same is true of Dan Mullen and Will Muschamp, both of whom are currently out of coaching.
You get this. If that came up in Smart’s contract “negotiations,” nobody would be surprised. I’m not sure how super-agent Jimmy Sexton makes his pitches, but his client in Athens — and the people on the other end of the table — made that a relatively painless process.
Georgia has made sure that money will never be the reason that Smart stops coaching. Good. It shouldn’t be. There’s no world in which he should ever hit the open market and go to the highest bidder. Smart earned his generational wealth. Georgia is now what it was desperate to become in the late days of Mark Richt. Smart isn’t at this place without the efforts of Richt, but the side-by-side breakdowns we all saw at the beginning of the decade are in the rearview mirror.
Nobody compares to Smart in college football. Period. Georgia’s ability to recognize that could be an all-important reason why Smart leads the team of the 2020s.
I say he’s overpaid as long as his players continue to terrorize the good citizens of Athens with their high speed drunken foolishness.
That is the most articulate, well thought out statement in the history of statement and by no means shows any ignorance or negative bias.
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Say what you will about Billy and his inability to get 11 guys lined up on special teams in different jersey numbers, his players are beacons of moral light and ethical correctness in the Gainesville community. Graham Mertz, for example, is well known for helping his landlady carry out her garbage.
I did not realize Kirby’s wife was that ugly. Probably true love.
Lost all respect for you Luvie, didn’t realize you could be so low…let me know when you catch fire, I gotta piss
Not cool.
Luvaride= No Class
Does he even have a wife?
Hate to see the skank who married luvaride.
Luv…What a lack of class you’ve repeatedly shown. Pls. show yourself to the EXIT and be gone. This site is no place for comments like that.
I guess I hurt everybody’s feelings. My apologies.
I will take my lumps for that comment and apologize. I will say I think I have read much worse on here. So I will work to better. After all we are only responsible for ourselves. So pile on. I asked for it.
Thank goodness I’ve never said anything stoopid…lol
Fair enuff luvie. For the record, that was not a very good pic of Mary Beth, she’s a lot better looking than that picture perceived. And that girl was one heck of a basketball player…
Way to be a standup guy. Good work.
Lord knows I am not perfect. No let’s get to the back and forth!!
Poor Gator fans have to resort to this when insulting their new Daddy. They certainly can’t crow about their dumpster fire football team. Pathetic. And Awesome.
What would like to bet that the Georgia Football players have a lower rate of traffic violations than the student population as a whole. These are young men and some will make foolish decisions no matter who the coach is.
Berwin Kell, are you related to Bristen Kell?
He’s a football coach…no more, no less. The writer’s priorities are severely misplaced. IMO
He’s the best college football coach in the country. No one is close. You make whatever the market dictates. The entertainment field pays quite well for those at the top. Good for him.
Yes, I heard Kelsey Grammer made $38 million per season on Fraser at its peak, and Tom Cruise makes $20 million per movie. I still think all coaches at the Power Whatevertheycallitnow are underpaid.
Meanwhile at Florida Napier with his losing record and his continued belief that Mertz is a great quarterback will continue his losing legacy for a few more games. You want to hope Florida can get out of this funk but that won’t be the case until Florida hires an athletic director who realizes football drives Florida athletics and we hire a coach who understands that a football program must focus on every aspect of the game which includes special teams and strength and conditioning. Understands that completed passes behind the line of scrimmage normally doesn’t make much difference in yardage gained and more importantly that running the ball towards the sideline doesn’t score any points. In fact in all the years I’ve watched football I’ve never seen points awarded for running out of bounds. Mertz might just have another high percentage rate passing again but it sure didn’t do anything for the team last season and our opponents knew it. Lagway is yet to be determined but my money is on the fact that he’ll be in the portal next season after Napier is canned for another abysmal season. Florida fans will find ourselves hoping that administration finds a real athletic director who places an emphasis on football rather than gymnastics, after all the football program is the driving force behind the money coming into the athletic department.
I did not know until today that Jeff Fisch was a Fla grad. He could be a good replacement for Napier. Or Kiffin. I predict one of those 2 will be the Fla coach this time next year.
Most D1 coaches are overpaid. Most professional athletes are waaaay overpaid. Most CEO’s are overpaid. The list of folks who are getting paid stupid money for playing a game, coaching a game , running a company (including running it into the ground)is long. But as long as it is possible to make that stupid money then they would be stupid not to go after it. Congrats to Kirby for getting it. He has “earned it” moreso than many in his position.
It’s still crazy to pay people millions to throw, shoot, kick and run. We do love our sports don’t we.
No more so than getting paid millions to cry a little and say “you had me at hello”. The entertainment industry, whether in movies, TV, or sports, make a ton of money which has to go somewhere.
He still makes less than every established starting pitcher or QB in the majors and yet, if he wishes to remain at the top of his trade, he can’t take the offseason off to go play golf and fish…
It’s like paying the machine operator more than the CEO because the operator has more value related to production…
He’s also making less than a lot of other pro athletes in lots of sports. He can no longer play and the money wasn’t there when he could. It’s all about the perception of who the people with the deep pockets feel they should pay. There are not superstar machine operators equivalent to a superstar pitcher in baseball.
That’s not an apt comparison. He’s a coach. They make less than the superstars in every sport. He is coaching amateurs, but makes more than many NFL coaches. If he doesn’t think his pay matches his efforts, he is free to go. Lots of people make significantly less while working just as many, if not more hours. I’m not understanding your beef here.
NFL coaches don’t have to recruit in the off season. NFL coaches don’t have to go suck up to families of recruits hoping to get his ink. NFL coaches don’t have to work to fill slots because their star players gotta better offer…I’d rather coach in the NFL for a million less and enjoy 3 to 4 months a year chilling and enjoying life…I hope Kirby doesn’t think like I think…
LeghumperU, I’ll send this message forward to Kirby to see if he is satisfied being a coach at the college level than being a coach at the NFL.
Once saw a ROI on what Saban meant to the University, the state, and Tuscaloosa. He was severely underpaid.
LeghumperU, I’ll send this message forward to Kirby to see if he is satisfied being a coach at the college level than being a coach at the NFL.
ÇKS is the GOAT of active coaches! More Natties to come…
It is a crazy world…. all to entertain us for a few hours on a few Saturdays.
It’s way more than that. There hasn’t been a college football game in months. There won’t be one for months to come. But, here we are, talking about the sport year round.
The top-tier SEC Head Coaches such as our former coach, Nick Saban and Kirby Smart deserve to be paid as National Championship Sinning Head Coaches. But…the next rung down the ladder, which includes Tennessee & Missouri. Their head coaches are making $9 Million per year and for what ? Drink’s had only one(1) good year in his 5 at Mizzou. Heup at Knoxville=Ditto for a good year in 2022; but what else ? Those salaries are about what is deserved for their overall records. At. S.C. Shane Beamer’s salary went from $3 Million to $6 Million after having a bad year=? Is it like other colleges are battling to try to hire these guys away ? Not hardly. Napier at Florida=$7 Million per year for very poor results. It’s beginning to look like most SEC AD’s cannot even balance their own checkbooks.
What has DeBoer won? I noticed you didn’t mention him and his salary…
LeghumperU, you got him big time!
Afan you know how dumb your argument is but u just can’t resist trolling.
humper…The Deboer hire was one that I am very luke-warm on. I’m in a wait-in-see mode on him.
Fair enough afan but your new coach is already being paid way more than any of those other coaches you mentioned while accomplishing about the same
It’s America: He’s worth whatever somebody is willing to pay him. If they could find somebody better to do it for less, they would have. That obviously wasn’t an option.
I know I’m in the minority in thinking that Kirby is not somehow pre-ordained to equal or surpass Saban’s championship total, but this does strongly feel like ‘anti-burnout money’. We’ll see how long it works …
Side note: I know the article supposed to impress us with how few non-Saban coaches have beaten Smart and how they all don’t have jobs now … but all I saw in those names was ‘you don’t have to be a great coach to beat CKS’.
True.
And I’m pretty sure UL-Monroe’s coach in 2007 was Bill Belichick.
“I’m old enough to remember when Nick Saban became the first $4 million man in college football. It was back in 2007”
You were what, 12? 13?
Ronnie Tijuana. That is because you are the king of repeating comments with quotations. People love you Ronnie
Thank, stalker.
Well, you’re welcome Ronnie Tijuana.
Much of his success at UGA has been due to the schedule he comes up with.. The strategy is as obvious as it is effective, like that of OSU,,, play no one that might beat you.
Well he did learn from Saban. BTW, good luck in your first couple weeks with those big games with Western Kentucky and South Florida!