Kirby Smart not concerned with Dan Lanning’s focus on Georgia after taking Oregon job

Kirby Smart isn’t concerned with Dan Lanning trying to juggle Georgia’s College Football Playoff prep with his new job as the head coach of Oregon, a topic he addressed during a recent media availability.

Smart pointed out that Lanning won’t be the first coordinator to call a bowl game after taking a head coaching job. He also pointed out that he, Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp also offer input with the defense.

Q. Kirby, Coach Lanning the other day alluded to him being the one calling the plays tomorrow night. Had you talked with him about going through that experience of having to balance both the job that you have right now and also the job that you have in the future?
KIRBY SMART: Yeah, we spoke. We spoke when he took the Oregon job and spoke about it at length. It was quite some time now, quite some time ago now. That’s not a major concern for me. It’s something that I did as a coach and many coaches have done. We talked about it.

There’s not a 24/7 continuum on being just the coordinator. There’s guys that have other things on their mind, and he delegates his time. I trust Dan. He’s done a tremendous job here. Number one, he’s a great recruiter. He’s loyal to Georgia, he’s loyal to these players that he recruited. He knows for his sake and Oregon’s program’s sake he wants to play well. He’s as invested in this process as everybody is.

That’s not a major concern for me having him call the defense being the head coach at Oregon. I’ve seen it done many times and very confident that he’s giving us every effort he has. He’s got a great staff with him, along with Coach Schumann and Coach Muschamp and myself all have eyes over there, so it’s not like he’s alone, and he hasn’t been alone all year.

Oregon announced the hiring of Lanning on Dec. 11. No. 3 Georgia faces No. 2 Michigan in Friday’s Orange Bowl.

SDS Staff

Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.