Kirby Smart unseated by Curt Cignetti at top of USA TODAY coaches rankings
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Kirby Smart is used to being No. 1, in a lot of areas.
He was part of a dynasty at Alabama as an assistant coach. Now, he’s won 2 national championships as the head coach at SEC rival Georgia. And he’s brought the past 2 SEC titles back to Athens, going back-to-back in 2024 and 2025 as he eyes more hardware in 2026.
But 1 place where Kirby Smart will have to play second-fiddle is in the recently released USA TODAY list of the top 25 coaches in college football. Last year, Smart was on top of the list coming off that SEC title in the 2024 season that was followed up by yet another College Football Playoff appearance.
Smart’s Bulldogs didn’t win it all, like they did in 2021 and 2022, but he was still USA TODAY’s top gun on the sidelines. But not now. Not this year. Smart has been unseated, for this year at least, by Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, who just happens to be the coach of the defending national champions from Bloomington.
While Cignetti took Smart’s spot at No. 1, after being ranked 13th by USA TODAY at this time last year, Smart merely slid back to the No. 2 spot in the rankings, so it was hardly a steep fall for Smart.
The USA TODAY coaches rankings were compiled by a team of 10 voters, and Smart was hardly the only SEC coaching great to grace the top 10. First-year LSU head coach Lane Kiffin came in at No. 6, with Steve Sarkisian of Texas at No. 8 and Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer following him at No. 9.
Naturally, the SEC coaches’ parade didn’t stop there. USA TODAY had Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko at No. 13, and then the back end of the top 25 was loaded with SEC coaches. First-year Florida head coach Jon Sumrall came in at No. 22, followed by Clark Lea of Vanderbilt at No. 23 and Josh Heupel of Tennessee at No. 24.
Smart and Cignetti will both have their programs battling once again to be in the College Football Playoff. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the teams with the best shot at getting to the Playoff and competing for a national championship:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
